Pressure Is on Price to Win British Open

Of the four players with a realistic chance to win the British Open today, three of them--Nick Faldo, Seve Ballesteros and Sandy Lyle--have done it before.

That leaves only Nick Price alone on the cold, damp fairways of Royal Lytham & St. Annes, where under a dull gray sky, he wrapped stiff fingers around the third-round lead Sunday and prepared himself for the pressure of winning the same major championship he let slip away once before.

For the 117th time, the British Open will honor its champion and for the second time, Price is in a position for it to be him, just as he was six years ago.

The 31-year-old South African who lives in Orlando, Fla., shot a two-under-par 69 Sunday to take a two-stroke lead over Faldo and Ballesteros into the final round today.

Faldo, the 1987 Open champion, caught up with Ballesteros with a round of 68 that was uncharacteristically dramatic. It featured six birdies and four bogeys, not at all the way Faldo played when he won last year at Muifield by parring 18 holes on the final day.

Ballesteros, who won in 1984, had a Faldo-type round of 70 with two birdies, a bogey and 15 pars that dropped him from one shot back of the lead to two with a 54-hole score of 208, the same as Faldo. Ballesteros was still quite pleased.

“The third day is the day you’ve got to stick in there, so I managed to do that,” he said.

Lyle, the 1985 Open winner, is another shot back at 209 after playing superbly out of bunkers three times to save par in his four-under round of 67.

At 12, Lyle hit a sand wedge from a greenside bunker to within 8 feet. He got it up and down at 17 and 18 as well, coming out of the sand to within 3 feet and 6 feet.

“That made me feel a little bit better,” Lyle said. “I think my chances are very good. My spirits are high. I’m going to go out there and enjoy it.”

The Americans, given no chance to win by European Ryder Cup captain Tony Jacklin, are living up to his prediction. Extremely faint U.S. hopes are carried by three players. Larry Nelson, Andy Bean and Don Pooley are at 212, six shots behind Price, along with Eduardo Romero of Argentina, but they must be considered extreme long shots at best.

In this race, there are only four horsemen: Price, Faldo, Ballesteros and Lyle. The winner, it seems certain, will be one of them. As Price put it: “I don’t think all four of us are going to shoot bad scores.”

The only British Open in history that has lasted to Monday, but one of many to run afoul of the weather, will be decided on Faldo’s 31st birthday.

The Open trophy, a silver claret jug, will be presented within days of the anniversaries of the triumphs of Lyle and Ballesteros as well as the momentous failure of Price.

Playing with a three-shot lead with just six holes to go in 1982 at Royal Troon, Price lost four strokes the rest of the way to give the Open to Tom Watson. It is not a pleasant memory for Price, who was nevertheless reminded of it again Sunday.

“The only thing I can say is that I hope I’ve learned from that experience,” Price said. “This game humbled me in 1982. Nobody knows for sure how I felt when I was walking down that 13th fairway. I was totally sure I was going to win the Open that year.

“It made me a tougher competitor,” he said. “But we won’t know until tomorrow.”

Lyle said he has a good idea right now.

“I think he’s going to feel the tension quite a bit,” Lyle said. “I know Nick Price has nothing to lose and everything to gain, but he still has to go out and win the tournament. He will have to play good golf. He needs to shoot a 68 or 69 tomorrow.”

Price shot a 69 Sunday, his third consecutive sub-par round, which was both steady and unspectacular. Price missed six fairways and on each of his three bogey holes drove into bunkers.

But if his tee-to-green game failed him, his putter did not. On the par-3 first hole, he sank an 8-footer for birdie. Price also birdied the sixth with a 10-footer and No. 9, another par 3, with a 12-footer after a 9-iron off the tee.

At one point, Price’s lead was three strokes over Faldo and Ballesteros, but it was cut to two when Faldo rolled in a 20-foot birdie putt on the 357-yard par-4 16th.

Faldo drove into a fairway bunker at 17 for the third time and wound up bogeying the hole, but Price came along in the next group and found a pot bunker with his drive and he, too, bogeyed the hole.

Ballesteros’ only major mistake came at the 490-yard par 5-sixth hole. He hooked his drive beneath some bushes, and when he tried to hit it out left-handed with a sand wedge, he moved the ball only a foot.

“I didn’t hit it hard enough,” Ballesteros said.

So Ballesteros tried it again and got the ball out of trouble.

“I just hit it a little bit harder,” he said.

After play was washed out when two inches of rain fell on Royal Lytham all day Saturday, the course played easier, especially on the greens, which were slower and held the ball better.

Four fairways were flooded just after midnight, but five pumps were brought in by 5 a.m. and the course was made playable. Ballesteros said that the wind also let up and contributed to the scoring.

“The wind was a little easy on us today and that’s why the scores were a little better today, I think,” he said.

Several American players made a belated move during the third round, but they do not have a chance.

Curtis Strange scored his second 69, which would have put him in good postion except for the fact that he shot 79 on Thursday.

“My first round means I’m out of winning, but I didn’t come all this way to play badly,” Strange said.

Payne Stewart managed a 68, but he is 10 shots off the lead. Ben Crenshaw, who also had a 68, thanked the return of his putting touch, but at eight shots back, he is realistic about his chances.

“I’d need something real low,” he said.

Lanny Wadkins began with the lowest score possible on the first hole, but it didn’t help him much. Wadkins scored a hole-in-one on the 206-yard par 3 when he hit a 5-iron and the ball bounced into the hole.

Wadkins could do no better than a 71 and is nine shots back at 215. That is much better than what happened to Craig Stadler, who took himself out of contention with a horrendous 44 on the back nine. He fell all the way to an 81 with two-triple bogeys and two bogeys after he made the turn.

Jack Nicklaus shot 75 for a 54-hole score of 220, the same as Paul Azinger, who had a 73. Tom Watson had a 72, but he is 12 shots behind Price.

Nelson, the only player without a bogey Sunday, picked up three strokes with his 68, but the largest American contingent ever to play in the British Open looks destined to continue its tradition. No U.S. pro has won at Royal Lytham.

That won’t change today, although it might have if the U.S. government could speed Price’s citizenship by about five years. Price, who has lived in Orlando for six years, has filed an application for residency, but he said he must wait the five-year period before he and his wife become U.S. citizens.

Price said he has paid U.S. taxes for six years, since he moved to Florida from Zimbabwe.

“They wouldn’t let me stay if I hadn’t,” he said.

Faldo, who promised a long struggle today over the final 18 holes, admits that he wants very much to have his name again inscribed on the trophy. The odds, however, may be against him.

No one has won back-to-back Opens since Lee Trevino in 1971 and ’72. No Briton has repeated since James Braid in 1905 and ’06.

If there were any odds that Nick Price would have a chance at winning the Open today, they must have been very long. He was 40th at the U.S. Open and his best finish this year is seventh at Atlanta.

The winner may be Price, but on only one one condition, Ballesteros said.

“The winner will be the one who can really take the pressure better,” he said. “I’ve beat the pressure before. I see no reason why I couldn’t handle it again.

“I tell you: All the people want to win, but there can only be one champion.”