Rocco Mediate (69) shares lead at windy British Open

SOUTHPORT, England – Early theme at the 137th British Open: misery.

“It was miserable, miserable, miserable weather,” said Vijay Singh, who shot 80.

“It’s not a fun topic of conversation,” said Phil Mickelson, who shot 79.

“Bloody miserable,” said Craig Parry, who christened the event with a 6:30 a.m. tee time and shot 77.

Wind blew viciously. Rain came sideways. The coldest winter anybody ever spent seemed like this summer on the Irish Sea. Royal Birkdale filled up with brollies and seemed to howl. Sandy Lyle, 50, quit and walked off on the 11th fairway, believing “I could do myself more harm than good.” Rich Beem, 37, quit and walked off after the front nine. Ernie Els shot 80.

Defending champion Padraig Harrington said, “That round of golf today, it’s like two or three rounds.” The 29-year-old Englishman Simon Dyson said, “You put a four-handicapper on that first tee and they’d probably shoot 100.” Ian Poulter shot a yeoman 72 and said he’d need “a cup of tea and a piece of cake.”

The rising Northern Irishman Graeme McDowell said, “I sat at home this morning with my breakfast cereal and my cup of coffee in my hand going, ‘God, do I really have to go out there this afternoon?’ ”

The popular Boo Weekley from the Florida Panhandle said he thought about “what I’d be doing if it was like this back home.”

Pause.

“I’d be huntin’.”

Then, once rain stopped in mid-afternoon and Royal Birkdale went from Hades upon Earth to merely brutal, a second theme emerged: good stories.

Compelling names climbed the leaderboard or otherwise thrived: Mediate. Van de Velde. Duval. Norman.

Norman?

Norman.

By evening, the first major tournament sans Tiger Woods since August 1996 had three leaders – U.S. Open runner-up Rocco Mediate, just-crowned Scottish Open champion McDowell, plus Robert Allenby of Australia – and multitudes who came close enough to that trio’s score of 69 to sustain daydreams.

Those multitudes included betting favorite Sergio Garcia at 72, first-time links player and Angeleno Anthony Kim at 72 and major winners Retief Goosen, Mike Weir and Jim Furyk at 71.

They also included the business magnate and occasional golfer Greg Norman, 53, a two-time champion who said, “I probably practice more tennis than golf,” but whose even-par 70 tied him with Adam Scott and Bart Bryant, one behind the leaders. “He just had no expectations today,” said his new bride, 18-time tennis Grand Slam champion Chris Evert. “Just relaxed. He’s not on the tour anymore.”

And they included the 2001 champion, David Duval, who fell so far off the face of the Earth’s fairways that he’s ranked No. 1,087, but who shot 73 and said, “Well, I’ve been expecting some glimpses of greatness for a while. I just feel like I’m playing well. I’m hitting the ball solid.”

And they included Jean Van de Velde, whose name might ring a bell for past Open theatrics, and who had to qualify, but who shot 73 and said, “I play golf for what it brings me but also to bring joy and happiness to people who watch it… . If you don’t give pleasure to people then you’re missing the point.”

And they included Mediate, the Pennsylvanian barber’s son freshly minted as a star at 45 1/2 after his epic tete-a-tete with Woods at the U.S. Open last month in San Diego. Late in the afternoon, Mediate shot a sterling 33 on the back nine, chipped in for birdie on No. 17, also birdied No. 18 and said, “I have no explanation for that whatsoever. No idea why that happened.”

Reborn as a golfer just 18 months after his game seemed lost and he’d picked up a broadcast microphone, Mediate continued his heady summer and credited swing therapist Jimmy Ballard and his physical therapist, Cindy Hilfman, who again Thursday treated Mediate’s back as he lay briefly in the rough on No. 11.

“I don’t feel like I’m on my way out,” Mediate said. “I feel like … it’s just starting again. I feel that way. Whether it happens or not, it’s almost like I don’t really care. I just want to get in the situation to see what I have. That’s what you want to test. I was tested a month or so ago. The only thing I didn’t like of the results was I lost. I liked the rest of the results because I did about as good as I could do.”

Gazing back at the 2006 Masters with its septuple-bogey-10 at No. 12 on Sunday, Mediate said, “And from there to now has been, it’s ridiculous what’s happened, ridiculous. I’m shocked at a lot of things in myself, really.”

So curious as to what’s left in him, he grinned even at a weather forecast that calls for wind and then some more wind and then some humongous wind on Saturday, perhaps akin to the Saturday in 1998, when Birkdale’s notorious crosswinds rampaged through the course and left 23 players with scores of 80 or worse.

Goosen, the South African who won the impossible 2004 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills, said, “I don’t mind tough conditions. In a way you sort of feel that maybe half the field is sort of not trying anymore because they’re tough conditions.”

Norman, who won the British Open at Turnberry in 1986, said, “When somebody says what’s the toughest conditions you’ve ever played in, and I say Turnberry ‘86, I know some of these kids might not have been born in ‘86. That’s an exaggeration, but when you relate back to that you’ve got a lot of experience under your belt, while they’re learning new aspects of the game of golf by playing under these conditions.”

And five-time titlist Tom Watson, all of 58, faced a tee time of 7:36 a.m., but knew how to navigate the stormy seas. He shot 74, the same as his 27-year-old playing partner Justin Rose, who during the round asked Watson, ” ‘What is the worst weather you had?”

Watson said, “The first round in 1980 in Muirfield.”

Rose said, “What did you shoot?”

Watson said, “Sixty-eight.”