12:57 p.m. PDT (8:57 p.m. GMT)
The factoid seemed too rich to be real ... it had to be concocted for TV. But there it was: the 20-year-old Englishman, paired with a certified golf legend and icon of this tournament ... and word comes that Young Tom Lewis is named after Old Tom Watson. Nah ... isn't it enough that Lewis shot 65, the lowest score for an amateur in a major tournament since 1976, to tie for the lead after one round?
Young Tom confirmed, in a post-round interview, that he is in fact the namesake of Old Tom.
"He's a wonderful guy, and a great player," Lewis said of Watson, and a beaming Watson (who shot 72) seemed delighted to direct the spotlight at Lewis.
Unmanufactured, and great TV. ESPN's lead announcer Mike Tirico intoned, as Lewis stood over a short birdie putt at No. 18, "Can the 20-year-old Lewis make the putt, share the lead after 18 holes, and take over the back page of every newspaper in the UK?"
Yes, yes, and soon, yes indeed.
Lewis said, as he met the world press, that his father, a former European Tour player, named him after his own hero, Watson. Another son is named Jack, Tom Lewis said.
On a day that mostly belonged to Europeans, the low Americans were Webb Simpson and Lucas Glover, whose 66s tied them with Spaniard Miguel Angel Jimenez a stroke behind Lewis and early leader Thomas Bjorn.
Darren Clarke of Northern Ireland, playing in his 20th Open, was in a large group at 68 that included countryman Graeme McDowell, the 2010 U.S. Open champion.
Earlier, a Northern Irelander by the name of McIlroy – U.S. Open champion Rory, the pre-tournament favorite – ground out a 71 in the tougher weather conditions that faced the morning starters.
7:26 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time (3:26 p.m. Greenwich Mean Time)
He played so well in his white Callaway hat that I never noticed he was balding.
Thomas Bjorn, a 40-year-old Dane with a history at Royal St George's, doffed his cap at the end of a crisp first round at the Open Championship today. He signed for a 65, the leader in the clubhouse at 5 under par, but with a raft of players yet to come at him.
The coolest 47-year-old Spaniard on the planet, Miguel Angel Jimenez, made a scrambling par on 18 to get in at 66, a shot behind Bjorn. He had fun out there, and he'll have fun tonight, and he'll have fun again tomorrow.
Likable players, with big games, and they shined the early light on a morning of changeable wind, off-and-on rain, and not much thunder from the game's current darling, Rory McIlroy. Phil Mickelson has struggled early, doing nothing to answer the eternal mystery of just where his head and game might be.
Bjorn, at least for a day, expunged the memory of a disastrous No. 16 in 2003 at this same golf course, where it took him three to get out of a wicked greenside bunker – and cost him the Open Championship.
Today, he knocked it to six feet on the 159-yard par-3, and his birdie moved him temporarily to 6-under. He would bogey No. 18, but he called his round "solid" after several weeks in a funk after the death of his father in May.
"He would have been proud of the way I played today," said Bjorn, who was not even assured of a spot in the field until Monday, when several players pulling out moved him up the alternate list.
On that same No. 16, Dustin Johnson punctuated a ragged round by ramming in a hole-in-one.
The best American early was Ryan Moore, in with a 1-under 69. He credited his pre-Open work on a stateside links course, Chambers Bay in his native Washington state, for his improved preparation for Royal St George's.
"Links golf is not pretty golf," Moore said. "You gotta get it around. You hit the shots you need to hit at the time."
Amid all the talking and over-thinking among the experts and pundits, today and the rest of the tournament, it's hard to imagine our favorite Euro, Jimenez, doing much analysis at all. It's easier to imagine him relaxing with a cigar, perhaps with an amber beverage, and then doing it all over again tomorrow. He'll have fun, and so, then, will we.
No comments:
Post a Comment