British Open Spoiler - Zach Johnson in the lead - See, you read to far already

Dudes,

Zach Johnson cannot win this thing.  He should be relegated to winning only Texas events.  

On a positive note, some players I dislike are already out of it:

Louis Ostenhazen has withdrawn

YE Yang is +7

Paul Lawrie is +8

Now here is a funny one.   Rory Mcilroy and Nick Faldo are tied at +8.   It's amazing how fast Rory has fallen.  This is the ultimate coup d'etat by Tiger, getting Rory over to Nike with some bad equipment and pretending to be friends.   Now Tiger is back on top.  psychological warfare at its best.  

Naturally, Angel Cabrera is near the top.  What is it with this guy and majors?

Due to a happy confluence of events resulting from a necessary early AM absence from the office to insect several real estate properties, I was able to fit in several hour's worth of viewing of what may turn out to be one of the best Brit Opens in ages. For me, its mostly about the weather and course conditions and this one seems to be likely to have it all. Hot. Dry. Sporadic winds. Today, one-time Major winner Johnson is in the lead with some crafty veterans right behind. And some mega-stars actually broke 80 but not by much. Predictably, Rory and Luke are slipping towards the back rail of the caboose. Silly Philly managed minus two or thereabouts but I don't think that will continue for the next 54 holes. Old Faldo broke 80 and I bet he comes back tomorrow just a couple over so that he M/C's but is available in the Booth where he belongs. Just a fleeting flight of recent memory but Mark O'Meara looks like the Low Old Guy. He's a long time buddy of TW's (not the Old Guy TW) and TW looks pretty good from the few glimpses I got before I had to return to the Coal Mine for the rest of the Business Day.


Several thoughts to date:

Not a great day for the Irish, here. Nor the South Africans.

I think a Yank might end up with the moniker "Champion Golfer of The Year". Or a Spaniard (I'm a big fan of Mike Angel who I nicknamed "Bunny" some years ago after one of my fav characters in one of those Vietnam war movies ("Full Metal Jacket" maybe?). Or maybe a South American. And that would be another angel named after the leather or the Porsche (Rich Cabrera Leather.....Porsche 911 Cabrera?).

...some other cool things that happened today, although I only read about them:

I guess Charles Schwarzel tomahawked his iron after hitting a bad shot. I'm not just talking a casual throw but a full-on kill throw. So cool.

Fred Couples was heard commenting after he climbed out of a bunker "I know where my ball is...I've played here before". I guess that was a snippy comment at a marshall or someone else. I don't think Fred is as cool as we are lead to believe.

Luke Donald, former #1 in the world is +8. That dude is never going to win a major.

Phil Mickelson is going to fly home to celebrate his gardner's graduations from high school. Well, GED passing. Whatever. He'll fly back with 5 minutes to spare for his tee time.

Boy can I top all those. I read on some website that Thomas Bjorn, the erstwhile bald Dane, hit a shot out of thick rough and his ball hit the lens of some photographer. The lens cost $80,000. I'd call that a Money Shot.

FamousDavis wrote:Dudes,

Zach Johnson cannot win this thing.  He should be relegated to winning only Texas events.  ... YE Yang is +7

ZJ wins Iowa events. For Texas events, I prefer Justin Leonard.
I think you should explain what the heck happened to Y.E. Yang. I thought he was going to be consistently good.

Steve Sailer (www.isteve.blogspot.com) has a surreal photo today of Mickelson surrounded by ten greenkeepers with trowels at Muirfield. He also has a link to the guy who blogs about playing the world's top 100 courses. The Muirfield entry is amusing in its detail of the stuffy snobbery involved.

I think that there may be something to Zach Johnson's pre-Open routine. Next year all the top players will be clamoring to enter the Tractor-Pull Invitational in northwest Buttscratch, Illinois. Just to reiterate, folks, in case you missed last Sunday's final round coverage wherein one of the on[air talent-morons told us all thirty eight times in 90 minutes that the venue of the event lay just ninety miles from the Iowa home of the Defending Champion. No matter that he lost the playoff because he appears to be destined to take his grade-school-punk sunglasses to receive the engraved chalice late this coming Sunday.

On the other hand, winning the U.S. Open a month or so ago is bad ju-ju and gets you just four over in one day.

FamousDavis wrote:Dudes,

Zach Johnson cannot win this thing.  He should be relegated to winning only Texas events.  

On a positive note, some players I dislike are already out of it:

Louis Ostenhazen has withdrawn

YE Yang is +7

Paul Lawrie is +8

Now here is a funny one.   Rory Mcilroy and Nick Faldo are tied at +8.   It's amazing how fast Rory has fallen.  This is the ultimate coup d'etat by Tiger, getting Rory over to Nike with some bad equipment and pretending to be friends.   Now Tiger is back on top.  psychological warfare at its best.  

Naturally, Angel Cabrera is near the top.  What is it with this guy and majors?

I wonder if Roy would fall fast like David Duval.... That would be a blow to Nike's ad money... Think Duval is still a good player, his brain may not be in a fighting mode

Zach Johnson is 163d in driving distance on the PGA tour at 276 yards, 2-1/2 clubs or so behind the top grouping.  With the roll you get on tour courses, that's really, really short by today's standards.  

However, think about how good he has to be at the other things to be leading a tournament like this.  There's obviously a lot golfers could learn from him.

Rory, at his young age and being Irish, is probably just Johnny Manzieling.  Although the Irish typically drink like an Indian off the reservation.  Not referring to raghead Indians, don't know how they handle their alcohol.  At least they're not French or German or Asian or African.

Not sure what kind of name Manziel is.  Probably something not good.

Indians that are curry and not Cochise are not ragheads. Those are the Sikh's and most of them carry the surname "Singh". They constitute an elite military clan whose historic duties included protection of the Indian royalty. A number of them have acquitted themselves proudly in the service to the Crown. Ragheads refers to Arabic and other ethic muslims who wear the rags on their heads. The Indians who are mostly Hindu and the muslims are like oil and water. That's what Kashmir's all about. Plus it was one of Led Zepellin's good songs.

I've really enjoyed watching this year's British Open. It's a fantastic course that is playing extremely difficult all on its own without help from the R&A. The dry weather is obviously the culprit in this case but it's clearly a test of who is playing the best and has the best all around game. Look at the leaderboard. It's been a good year for majors.

In before edgey.  

Lee Westwood leading by 2 going into the final round. An Englishman with a realistic shot of winning the Open Championship. Not since Faldo in '92 on the very same course.

What a story that could be.

Damn shame Cabrera's going to deny him that honor.

I think it will be Tiger's to lose after 9 holes on Sunday. I think Cabrera charges, Westwood will press but falter near the end, Scott and Mickelson will probably hold the lead intermittently before the final swerve.

Knowing my record on predicting these things, Mahan will run away with it.

I'm picking Cabrera anyways.

I just turned on the TV and tuned to the golf channel and there was Zach playing with (I wish) Holly Sanders. Wifey couldn't believe a girl with her sized boobs could swing so fluidly. I told her it was all about the fluids......

Anyway, the open is on ESPN. Who are these two idiots doing the commentary? Never hear or seen these guys. They must be in a studio in the states with the open on a LCD screen behind them so viewers think they really are in Scotland.

Ha! Tiger and Stevie today! I'm hoping for a Tiger win, but I gotta go with my 2nd hometown favorite, Lee Westwood. Afterall, we are sorta neighbors.