Friday, July 17, 2015

British Open -- Day One Wrap-Up

OK, I'm finally caught up with these golf wrap-ups.  The big story of this tournament, of course, is whether Jordan Spieth will add the British Open title to the Masters and U.S. Open trophies that he has already won this year.  It would have been great to see Rory McIlroy defend the honour of the U.K. against the charging Spieth -- especially since McIlroy is the defending champ.  But McIlroy suffered an injury playing soccer with friends, and is unable to play.

The British Open is being played at the Old Course in St. Andrews, and conditions at the Old Course tend to vary wildly, depending on weather conditions.  Yesterday morning, the course played very easy, and then became much more difficult as the day wore on and the winds started to blow.  Fortunately for Spieth, he was playing in the morning, and he took advantage with a 5-under par 67.  This was not good enough for the lead, however, as Dustin Johnson put up a 7-under par 65.  Spieth and Johnson -- who battled for the U.S. Open just a few weeks ago -- are thus well-placed to contend.  Jason Day and Louis Oosthuizen -- who also played significant roles at the recent U.S. Open -- are also on the leaderboard.  Based on the results from yesterday, this could be quite a tournament:

1.  D. Johnson:  -7 (65)

T2.  J. Day (AUS):  -6 (66)
T2.  R. Goosen (RSA):  -6 (66)
T2.  Z Johnson:  -6 (66)
T2.  P. Lawrie (SCO):  -6 (66)
T2.  R. Streb:  -6 (66)
T2.  D. Willett:  -6 (66)

T8.  K. Na:  -5 (67)
T8.  Mr. J. Niebrugge (am):  -5 (67)
T8.  L. Oosthuizen (RSA):  -5 (67)
T8.  C. Schwartzel (RSA):  -5 (67)
T8.  J. Spieth:  -5 (67)

5 comments:

  1. The early guys in today's third round are doing some scoring. American David Duval (!) has seven birdies in 14 holes; England's Ashley Chesters is 4-under for the round through five holes.

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    1. Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell ... seven birdies in 12 holes (but also a bogey and a double).

      Anyway, seems like the interesting top of leaderboard could get a lot more interesting in a few more hours.

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  2. For example, maybe Jordan Spieth is going to come out and fire seven birdies in his first 15 holes and take over a share of the third-round lead in his bid to win a third-straight major championship.

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