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    I love a good Sandwich

    The Open Championship thread can officially begin with the news today that Tiger Woods has withdrawn from the championship.

    Using Ben Curtis's victory in 2003 around this course as an omen, I shall endeavour to discover who's been invited in as the eleventh-hour alternate to replace him, as I'll probably put money on them to win.

    It would be gloriously ironic if that were Thomas Bjorn.

    Seriously, though, the winner next week will be whoever can keep the ball in play off the tee, especially if the wind picks up. Royal St. George's is that sort of course. If the conditions are benign some guys are going to shoot 63s or better next weekend (like Nick Faldo and Payne Stewart did in 1993) but it's almost unplayable in gusting winds. In 1981, Jack Nicklaus shot an 83 - 83! - on the windy first day then the following day in better conditions shot 66. That same year, similarly, Gary Player opened 81-68, Lee Trevino 77-67 and Nick Faldo 77-68.

    Players who go out early on Thursday and finish late on Friday (ie the non-crowd-pulling), or vice-versa, could all well be worth an each-way punt if the weather forecast does look like producing more benign conditions early or late in the day (as it often does around the coast).

    #2
    I love a good Sandwich

    I was thinking of heading down early on the Thurs. Anyone fancy it? My sleep pattern is fucked anyway.

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      #3
      I love a good Sandwich

      I can lend you a flag to cheer on the Holywood Blockbuster. Sorry about the er, F*n**n bloodstains.

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        #4
        I love a good Sandwich

        Jason Dufner in for Woods, according to the BBC. 200-1 on Bet365...

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          #5
          I love a good Sandwich

          I laughed out loud at the Today Programme this morning when Jonathan Legard reported that Tiger had sent a text to some Open official confirming he wouldn't be playing. "Always nice to receive a text from Tiger, isn't it," he deadpanned.

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            #6
            I love a good Sandwich

            Thomas Levet breaks his leg jumping into a lake to celebrate winning the French Open, so is also out

            Silly boy, as Peter Alliss would say.

            His place gets taken by Robert Garrigus, who just came out of nowhere to finish third at the US Open and then caused a huge storm by admitting in an interview that he used to smoke dope during rounds on the Challenger Tour (although sadly in the 'I'm so glad and thank Jesus that I then turned my life around' kind of way, not the 'and it was fucking great, and I wish they'd still let me do it on the PGA Tour' kind of way).

            For all that, though, and the fact that he hits the ball further than anyone else in the history of the game, Garrigus has to be a very, very good each-way bet. Thomas Bjorn needs three more withdrawals to get his shot at redemption.

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              #7
              I love a good Sandwich

              Tee times are out, and as you'd expect there will be good matches out on the course pretty much continuously.

              Thomas Bjorn, Simon Khan, Francesco Molinari and Nick Watney are among the breakfast time starters on Thursday, then McIlroy goes out with Ernie Els and Rickie Fowler just before Donald, Garcia and Ishikawa. They should finish their rounds around 1 o'clock.

              The marquee groups of the afternoon, going out just after 2, are Westwood, Stricker and Schwartzel, followed by Kaymer, Oosthuizen and Mickelson. They'll be the ones finishing at around 6 on Thursday.

              Late finishers on Thursday will include Nicolas Colsaerts and my man Robert Garrigus.

              Getting the potential advantage of the early start on Friday will be Pablo Larrazabal, Edoardo Molinari, YE Yang and Jason Day, before the Westwood and Kaymer groups go out after 9; the McIlroy and Donald groups will start at 2 on the Friday, and among the last to finish their second rounds will be Peter Hanson, Paul Lawrie and Kevin Streelman.

              As I said in a post above, it's worth watching who starts early and finishes late, as often by the coast the sea breezes begin to blow up at about 10 am and are calming down by 6pm. If an outsider is going to get a springboard for a weekend challenge, they may well come from those groups.

              Latest Willy Hill odds are 8/1 McIlroy, 12/1 Donald and Westwood and 25/1 bar. Very open field.

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                #8
                I love a good Sandwich

                I've gone a bit giddy with my bets, taking advantage of Willy Hill's offer that if anyone you bet on today misses the cut on Friday night, you get your money back. I've backed almost everyone I mentioned in my post above, at my usual bank-breaking tariff of £1 each-way. It's cost me around £20, but seeing as most of them are 50-1 or up, I'll get it back if any of them win. It'll keep me interested, anyway.

                Rory McIlroy's housewives choice type bets are seriously skewing the market, he was in as far as 7/1 favourite at one point today. That's just silly, despite the kid's obvious talents, let's not forget that since WW2, only Hogan, Trevino, Watson and Woods have achieved the US Open-Open double. Palmer never managed it, and neither did Nicklaus. It would be truly extraordinary if Rory did so.

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                  #9
                  I love a good Sandwich

                  Here's a factoid for you, Rogin.

                  Three of the last four Open champions at Royal St. George were over par after the first four holes.

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                    #10
                    I love a good Sandwich

                    Usually I predict an American journeyman. The world's changed, so I'm predicting a South African journeyman. There must be a few out there...

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                      #11
                      I love a good Sandwich

                      They really don't look like they've got the best of the weather in Kent. It's a flag-cracking sunny day up here in Lancashire, I've just seen someone not even wearing a coat.

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                        #12
                        I love a good Sandwich

                        As I've said many times before, this is my favourite tournament in the world by several orders of magnitude, and the only one that I still pay attention to (unless a US major is played on a course that I've played, which happens every 10 years or so).

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                          #13
                          I love a good Sandwich

                          Rogin en la butaca wrote:
                          Thomas Bjorn needs three more withdrawals to get his shot at redemption.
                          He's the clubhouse leader at the moment.

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                            #14
                            I love a good Sandwich

                            Marvellous, isn't it? Almost the story that demanded to be written, on the eve of the championship. And yes, Bjorn's one of those I put a quid on each way at 200-1. His caddy this week is "Wobbly", too, who lives in our village (and until recently was Ross Fisher's caddy), so he's by default our own local hero this week.

                            I don't expect for one moment that Thomas will still be up at the top come Sunday (or maybe even tonight, I predict a couple of late starters will match or even better his 65). But good for him anyway, no-one in 2003 shot better than 67 in the whole championship, the last time they played it here.

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                              #15
                              I love a good Sandwich

                              Wayne Grady retold earlier that lovely old chestnut, when it started raining, about the Open, which was a quote/joke from one of the first Japanese golfers to visit the championship; "why don't you play it in the summer?".

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                                #16
                                I love a good Sandwich

                                With no Tiger Woods, watching this on the BBC is rather strange.

                                "There he is, taking his first swing on the practice tee. He looks relaxed, doesn't he Mark?"

                                "Yeah, he looks relaxed ... such a tremendous talent ... you can never rule him out, can you, Wayne?"

                                "No, that's for sure, he knows what winning the Open is all about. You think of winning Open championships, and inevitably you think of Tiger Woods."

                                "And there he is, putting his three-wood back into the bag. He does that so effortlessly, doesn't he, Hazel?"

                                "Oh, I'd say he does that more effortlessly than anyone in the history of the game. I think it's worth the price of a license fee just to be able to watch Tiger Woods put a club back into his bag. What a lucky bag, that's all I can say."

                                "And we see him now removing specks of dirt from his shoes. He fills those shoes fantastically well, doesn't he, Andrew?"

                                "No, that's right. No one fills Tiger's shoes quite like Tiger Woods ... I think in the history of modern golf, Tiger Woods fills shoes better than anyone I've seen."

                                "And now he's moved into the gents ..."

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                                  #17
                                  I love a good Sandwich

                                  Are the BBC journalists behind the scenes having a laugh with Hazel Irvine today, is this to do with the strike tomorrow? At various points today she's now claimed that Bill Rogers won the US Open and British Open double in 1981 (he didn't) and now she's just now suggested Johnny Miller did so (in the same year, who didn't win either that year) and Mark James didn't even raise an eyebrow.

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                                    #18
                                    I love a good Sandwich

                                    You simply can't beat an Open Championship where out of the 156 best players in the world the joint first-round leaders are a faded old player in his forties whose one greatest previous chance of glory was lost at this very venue in almost heartbreakingly circumstances 8 years ago, and then a 20-year-old amateur kid who no-one's ever heard of.

                                    Does Hollywood do golf movies? It bloody well ought to. I mean you really, really, couldn't have scripted this and got anyone to accept it as a likely scenario ...

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                                      #19
                                      I love a good Sandwich

                                      Duncan Gardner wrote:
                                      I can lend you a flag to cheer on the Holywood Blockbuster. Sorry about the er, F*n**n bloodstains.
                                      Yet another oblique reference. Why?

                                      Comment


                                        #20
                                        I love a good Sandwich

                                        Tom Watson with a hole in one.

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                                          #21
                                          I love a good Sandwich

                                          Darren Clarke's obviously been inspired himself by the exploits of his younger countrymen. With the wind picking up, he could be leader tonight with that round.

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                                            #22
                                            I love a good Sandwich

                                            Henrik Stenson's tee shot on 5 earlier on was the most outrageous thing I've seen on a golf course since John Daly's trousers a couple of years ago.

                                            The 5th at St.George's is (like most holes here) a tricky driving hole, peppered with sunken bunkers about 300 yards out, just before the fairway trails off into fifty yards of rough-covered high dunes, with the green on the other side of them. This presents a 'blind' second shot to players who find the fairway.

                                            Stenson pulled out a driver, and after Peter Alliss had exhorted him to be careful and not drive too far (off the end of the fairway and up into the dunes) cleared the bloody things, his drive coming to rest on the front edge of the green. That means he's carried it at least 350 yards, before it's bounced on to about 400 yards away from where he hit it. Which is just fucking ridiculous.

                                            Edit: and, McIlroy and Fowler have just done exactly the same. This is simply not golf I can comprehend.

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                                              #23
                                              I love a good Sandwich

                                              God bless Peter Alliss. Nowhere else in broadcasting in 2011, probably not even in a purposely made documentary about male chauvanism in the 1960s, will you hear someone remark on air "Ah, those were the days, when men were men ... and women were glad of it".

                                              This was about the charisma of Arnold Palmer, not (mercifully) about the male-only membership policy of Royal St. George's where the championship is being played this week.

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                                                #24
                                                I love a good Sandwich

                                                ... what are men now, then?

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                                                  #25
                                                  I love a good Sandwich

                                                  Picking the winner of this is now nigh-on impossible. If the weather eases up this afternoon, one of those overnight leaders could get a decisive lead by this evening, or on the other hand, it could stay pretty much as it is now, with fifty or so players all within a handful of shots of the lead.

                                                  I've used my Willy Hill's bonus bets (for players who missed the cut) on Glover, Kaymer and Schwarzel.

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