Campbell Creates an Opening

About a month ago, Michael Campbell was not exactly considered a noteworthy component in a golf tournament. He had six missed cuts on the European Tour and was closing on non-factor status.

Then he won the U.S. Open at Pinehurst.

On Saturday at the Old Course, Campbell shot a 68. He is tied for seventh and has a shot at winning the British Open.

“I feel very, very confident,” he said. “I know that I gained a lot of experience when I won Pinehurst. I feel the experience is going to hold me through if I do get in a situation if I’m in the running to win another major championship.”

Campbell said there are some familiar names in the running once again.

“It looks like Pinehurst revisited,” he said. “[Retief] Goosen is up there and Tiger [Woods] and a bunch of other guys.”

Phil Mickelson shot himself out of the tournament with an even-par round of 72, a far cry from his 67 in the second round that gave him some hope. His problem was putting. In each of the three rounds, he has needed 33 putts.

He starts the fourth round at three-under 213, nine shots off the lead.

Mickelson reached seven under Saturday when he birdied four holes in a five-hole stretch, but he made a bogey at the 12th and then double bogeyed the 13th when he came up short of the green in the rough, left his chip 50 feet short of the pin, sent his first putt four feet past and missed it coming back.

He also bogeyed the Road Hole, No. 17, for the third day in a row.

“I played well for 11 holes and I played poorly the last seven,” he said. “I just played poorly. If I had played the last seven well, I could have had a chance tomorrow.”

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Tom Watson had a nice surprise over dinner Friday night when he found out he hadn’t missed the cut after all.

“We had our scouts out,” he said. “They were coming in with information about every 15 minutes.”

As it turned out, the 36-hole cut was at one over par and Watson made it on the number. A five-time winner playing in his 29th British Open, Watson had missed the cut in four of his last six British Open appearances. He didn’t want to do it again.

“I hate missing the cut,” he said. “I never did like missing the cut, for any reason. Did I think I had missed it? I still had some outside hope.”

He had four birdies on his last five holes, a stretch marred only by his bogey at the 17th hole.

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Soren Hansen, a 31-year-old Dane, started early -- he was in the seventh group of the day -- and finished fast with a six-under 66, issuing a reminder that he tied for eighth in the 2002 Open at Muirfield.

He wasn’t even fazed by his double bogey at the 14th when he drove out of bounds.

“I hit one bad shot in a fantastic round,” he said. “It’s the way it goes.”

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At three under par through 54 holes, Nick Faldo is pretty clear that his chances of winning again are basically out the window.

“I think those days are gone,” he said. “It was 15 years ago [his last win at St. Andrews] and I was just in the flow then. I was just here to play golf and nothing else. There wasn’t a problem. Now, I’ve got to think about it. It’s physical.... ‘These aches,’ ‘Can I turn enough?,’ ‘How is my swing?,’ ‘Yeah, that’s OK.’

“Mentally, I’m shot.”