Open Diary

British Open news in brief

Villegas finds perfect finish

CAMILO VILLEGAS – with Irish Timescolumnist Colin Byrne on the bag – produced the hottest finish of all in yesterday's first round, birdieing four of the last five holes on the way to a 66.

Playing in only his second British Open (he finished tied-39th at Birkdale last year), the 27-year-old Colombian professed to a new love for links.

“You’ve got to play smart, man,” he said. “The second you start getting greedy and prepared to take on the bunkers, the shots seem to fall into the bunkers. First things first, don’t hit it into the bunkers off the tee.”

Sounds like Byrne, a member of Royal Dublin, has taught his man well.

Sterling efforts not rewarded

EVEN THE British Open, it seems, isn’t immune from the effects of the global recession . . . and if Pádraig Harrington should overcome the vagaries of his swing and retain the Claret Jug come Sunday, he’ll discover that the cheque he puts into his back pocket will have shrunk in size from those he collected at Carnoustie and Birkdale.

Two years ago at Carnoustie, Harrington’s financial prize was the equivalent of €1,106,618; while last year’s win at Birkdale amounted to €938,565. Whoever wins this championship will collect €866,557 on Sunday evening, after the RA’s decision to keep the prize fund at last year’s level. The reduction is due to the euro exchange rate with sterling!

Same old story for Clarke

TIME WAS when Darren Clarke was one of the first names down on any list as a potential winner of the Claret Jug.

However, since his tied-third place finish at Lytham in 2001, Clarke’s favourite championship of all has proved to be a frustrating experience.

In fact, the northerner missed the cut on the last two occasions he played – at Hoylake (2006) and Carnoustie (2007) – and, having missed out on Birkdale last year, he’d hoped to rediscover his old form here after a number of good workouts in practice.

After an opening round 71, Clarke was left musing over what he needs to do. “I just can’t get it going. It’s been the same story all year. Not just this week, it’s every week and I can’t quite put my finger on why. I didn’t feel particularly nervous or anything. I felt fine. I just can’t quite reproduce the shots that I am hitting in practice.”

A year is a long time for Norman

TWELVE MONTHS after stunning the golfing world at Royal Birkdale, Greg Norman toiled to a seven-over-par 77 in the first round here yesterday.

The former world number one failed to take advantage of surprisingly calm conditions on the Ayrshire coastline, dropping nine shots in the first 16 holes before finishing birdie-birdie.

“Conditions are the easiest I’ve seen it here but the pin positions are really tough to get at,” Norman, 54, said afterwards. “It’s going to be the most congested leaderboard ever at an Open championship, in my opinion.

“The way I drove the ball today was probably the worst I’ve driven it in my career,” the double British Open winner (1986 and 1994) added.

“If you’re not hitting fairways here then youre going to struggle. I got what I deserved today.”

Norman delivered one of the finest displays of his career at Turnberry in 1986, defying difficult conditions to triumph by five strokes.

A year ago Norman took a two-shot lead into the final round at Birkdale only to be overtaken by Pádraig Harrington.