It’s that time of year again. On Thursday, the oldest major, The Open Championship (aka The British Open) kicks off.
This year, the Open Championship returns to Royal St. George’s Golf Club in Sandwich, England for the 13th time since 1894. The last time the Open was held here in 2003, it produced one of the most unlikely champions in its history, Ben Curtis.
Is Curtis one of my picks this week? Read on to find out.
Luke Donald defeated Lee Westwood on the first hole of a playoff at the BMW PGA Championship yesterday in Wentworth, England. With his victory, Donald claimed the #1 world ranking from Westwood. No, Donald hasn’t won a major (so I guess now he’s the best player in the world to have never won a major – AKA TBPITWTHNWAM), but he’s been playing incredible golf this year.
I also have to give him credit for the fact that earlier this week he told everybody he was the best player in the world and then went out and straight up beat the current #1 to prove it.
This week the world’s best (well except for Lee Westwood and Rory McIlroy) are gathered at the TPC Sawgrass for the so called “fifth major”, the Players Championship. Like many others, I think the “fifth major” label is stretching it a bit, but if you just went by the coverage on the Golf Channel, you’d think the US Open was being held this week.
That said, the Players Championship is always a fun tournament to watch and the notoriously difficult island green on the par-3 17th is one of the most exciting holes in golf. So who do I think will emerge victorious on Sunday?
Lee Westwood regained the world #1 ranking on Sunday by defeating a power-packed field at the Indonesian Masters after Luke Donald lost to Brandt Snedeker in a playoff at the Heritage. OK… OK… I’m sorry for the sarcasm. I just couldn’t help myself.
Westwood beat the second place finisher, Thongchai Jaidee (ranked 75th in the world), by 3 strokes. The rest of the leaderboard included such international heavyweights as Hyun-bin Park and Thitiphun Chuayprakong (both ranked outside the top 300), Siddikur (just one name like Madonna – ranked 120th), and Marcus Both (ranked 233rd) and a bunch of other guys who’s names even hard-core golf fans have never heard of (and couldn’t pronounce).
With Martin Kaymer missing the cut 78-72, the #1 world ranking is officially up for grabs this weekend at the Masters. Lee Westwood (#2), Phil Mickelson (#3), Luke Donald (#4), and Tiger (#7) could all take over the number 1 spot depending on how the other contenders finish. Graeme McDowell (#5) missed the cut and because of the math, Paul Casey (#6) can’t move to #1 even if he wins.
You’d have to be a statistician to figure out all of the possible scenarios, but thankfully the Golf Channel’s Randal Mell has laid out the possibilities for the rest of us:
Photo by Torey Wiley
Colin Montgomerie is certainly experiencing a little bit of indigestion today. He made some controversial picks for the Ryder Cup team leaving Justin Rose and Paul Casey off of the team. Rose has won twice on the PGA Tour this year and Casey is currently ranked 9th in the world. Obviously both players were upset but handled it like professionals. The scuttlebutt is that Casey was snubbed left off because Faldo selected him instead of Montgomerie for the 08 Ryder Cup team.
So today Paul Casey went out and almost won the BMW with 4 straight 69′s, while Luke Donald, one of Montie’s picks, folded like a lawn chair closed out the week with a 77. And while he didn’t play his best golf of the year, Justin Rose finished 3 strokes ahead of Donald in a tie for 21st. Unconfirmed reports (ie I made it up) placed Montgomerie at the local pharmacy buying Pepto Bismol to deal with a huge case of heartburn. If the Europeans win, it will be in spite of Montgomerie, and if they lose, well, the Americans should probably name him MVP.
