BRITISH OPEN DAILY REPORT : Love Embarrassed by U.S. Showing

There were only 15 Americans who tried to qualify for the British Open, with four of them making it. And there were four others who were exempt and didn’t show up, which doesn’t sit very well with Davis Love III.

Love said exempt players from the United States who don’t come ought to be penalized in some way, maybe by making them ineligible for the Ryder Cup.

“Scott Hoch won a tournament last week and he’s not here,” Love said. “You can’t tell me a good reason why.”

Hoch, Jim Gallagher Jr., John Cook and Kenny Perry are exempt, but they are absent this week. Gallagher’s wife is nine months’ pregnant and Cook had promised his children a trip to the Olympics in Atlanta.

Hoch and Gallagher are playing the Deposit Guaranty in Madison, Miss., this week.

Of the 15 U.S. players who tried to qualify, only Justin Leonard, Sean Murphy, Tim Herron and Jay Townsend made it.

Love called the number of Americans who tried to qualify “embarrassing.”

As a member of the PGA Tour Policy Board, Love said changes have been made to make the British Open more attractive, such as counting the event purse as official money and including it as one of the 15 events needed to keep a playing card.

“There’s not much more we can do except put them on the plane,” Love said.

*

How not to get here: the way Jay Haas, Curtis Strange and Mark McCumber did it.

They played Sunday at the Michelob Championship in Williamsburg, Va., then boarded a flight to New York.

Bad weather forced them back to Virginia. They left Monday for New York, but were diverted to Long Island because of fog, so they missed their flight to Manchester, England.

The next flight they could get was for London and they barely made it, but they missed their connection to Manchester, so they spent the night in London.

On Tuesday, they flew from London to Manchester, then drove 1 1/2 hours. Total travel time: 36 hours.

*

Seve Ballesteros, whose victory at Royal Lytham in the 1988 British Open was his last major title, has been watching videotapes of his 1979 Open victory at Royal Lytham when he was 22.

“I am not doing it to inspire myself,” Ballesteros said. “I am sad that I can’t be youthful forever, but nobody can do that.”

*

Tiger Woods, one of four amateurs in the field, is playing with Darren Clarke of Northern Ireland and Retief Goosen of South Africa in the first round.

The other amateurs are Steve Allen of Australia, British Amateur champion Warren Bladon of England and 16-year-old European Amateur champion Sergio Garcia of Spain.

Garcia is the youngest to play the British Open since Ronan Rafferty in 1980.

*

West Coast note: Nick Faldo’s tee time is 7:33 a.m., which was 11:33 p.m. Wednesday night in Los Angeles. If he finishes in four hours, Faldo will be done at 3:33 a.m. PDT today.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

WINNERS’ CIRCLE

The British Open has been held only eight times at Royal Lytham and St. Annes. The winners:

Year WinnerScore

1926 Bobby Jones: 291

1952 Bobby Locke: 287

1958 Peter Thomson: 278

1963 Bob Charles: 277

1969 Tony Jacklin: 280

1974 Gary Player: 282

1979 Seve Ballesteros: 283

1988 Seve Ballesteros: 273