Jolly Good Show

Any day now, the call will come, just as certain as teatime in the afternoon.

Break up American golf. Either that, or quit stamping these guys’ passports at customs.

This golf thing is getting out of hand, all right. For the second consecutive year, a player from the U.S. has won the British Open, and that hasn’t happened in 13 years, since Tom Watson won at Royal Birkdale to conclude a four-year stretch of U.S. success over here.

But on Sunday at Royal Lytham & St. Annes Golf Club, there was another day of sunshine and another victory by a U.S. golfer.

Last year at St. Andrews, it was John Daly. This time, it was Tom Lehman, a 36-year-old Minnesotan who lives in Scottsdale, Ariz., and has learned to love the British Open.

After Lehman toured the grim landscape of Royal Lytham with a closing round of 73, he walked off with a two-shot victory and said the only word he could think of.

“Wow,” Lehman said.

Those Americans. Lehman led the way with a 13-under-par total of 271, which meant that four U.S. players finished in the top six.

Mark McCumber closed with a 66 and tied South African Ernie Els for runner-up at 273. Nick Faldo putted as if he were swinging an umbrella and managed a 70 that stuck him in fourth place at 274.

Jeff Maggert and Mark Brooks tied for fifth at 276, one shot ahead of Fred Couples, Greg Norman of Australia, Peter Hedblom of Sweden and Greg Turner of New Zealand.

Lehman’s first major championship did not come easily. Instead, it arrived after some of his drives ended up in the trees, in bunkers, in ankle-high rough and on patches of dirt.

The six-shot lead with which he began the day was down to two when Couples birdied the ninth hole, but Couples didn’t last. After a 30 on the front nine, he shot 41 on the back.

Els was the only other player who got within two shots of Lehman. That was right after he rolled in a four-footer for birdie on No. 15. But Els also dropped out of sight with bogeys on 16 and 18.

Actually, it was just as Lehman said it would be Saturday--his tournament to win or lose. For a while, it seemed as though he might lose it, especially after he kept missing putts.

Fortunately for him, so did Faldo. The three-time British Open champion, who had come from six shots behind Greg Norman to win the Masters, didn’t have it this time.

“I never took advantage of him,” Faldo said. “I had some chances, and I was unable to make them, simple as that.”

It sure seemed that way. Faldo missed an eight-footer for birdie on No. 1, a six-footer on No. 5, a three-footer on No. 6 and a six-footer on No. 7.

The one he missed on the par-five sixth was the most telling because Lehman had pulled his drive far left into some trees. Somehow he managed to punch the ball out with a nine-iron and saved par.

By then, Lehman, who had begun the fourth round as leader in three previous majors, wasn’t feeling so great, either. He already knew there was going to be something wrong with his putter when he scooted his first putt on No. 1 six feet past the hole.

“I felt like I had a lead mallet,” Lehman said.

That’s what it looked like. He missed a 10-footer for birdie on No. 7 and a seven-footer for birdie on No. 8, right after someone in the gallery called Lehman “a choker” and said “Knock it in, Greg.”

Lehman said later that the incident helped his resolve.

“This is nothing against Greg, but history is history and I didn’t want to have a repeat performance of what happened in Augusta,” he said.

It didn’t. Lehman rolled in a 12-footer for birdie on No. 12 and after bogeying the 14th, may have saved his championship with the scrambling par he made on the par-four 15th.

Lehman hit his drive left, and the ball glanced off someone in the gallery back into the short rough. His second shot found a greenside bunker, but he blasted out to six feet and made the putt.

He hooked a three-wood from the tee at 17, but he was feeling pretty secure with a three-shot lead. And by the time Lehman reached the 18th tee, he knew he had a two-shot lead.

The idea was to play it safely to the left, away from the bunkers that line the right side of the fairway. His one-iron left him in the light rough, 185 yards to the green. He hit an eight-iron to 60 feet from the hole and made the walk down the last fairway that champions get to make.

“At that point, it was pretty much history,” he said.

Faldo patted Lehman on the back and said, “You deserve it.”

Lehman was still thinking about the walk up 18 and how it felt.

“You see it on TV all those years and to have that actually happen to you, it was just tremendous,” he said. “It puts a tingle up your spine and makes you want to cry.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

FINAL 72-HOLE SCORES

At Royal Lytham & St. Annes Golf Club

271 (-13)--$310,000

Tom Lehman: 67-67-64-73

273 (-11)--$193,750

Mark McCumber: 67-69-71-66

Ernie Els: 68-67-71-67

274 (-10)--$116,250

Nick Faldo: 68-68-68-70

276 (-8)--$77,500

Jeff Maggert: 69-70-72-65

Mark Brooks: 67-70-68-71

277 (-7)--$54,250

Fred Couples: 67-70-69-71

Peter Hedblom: 70-65-75-67

Greg Norman: 71-68-71-67

Greg Turner: 72-69-68-68

278 (-6)--$41,850

Alexander Cejka: 73-67-71-67

Darren Clarke: 70-68-69-71

Vijay Singh: 69-67-69-73

279 (-5)--$31,388

Shigeki Maruyama: 68-70-69-72

Mark McNulty: 69-71-70-69

David Duval: 76-67-66-70

Paul McGinley: 69-65-74-71

280 (-4)--$24,025

Padraig Harrington: 68-68-73-71

Loren Roberts: 67-69-72-72

Rocco Mediate: 69-70-69-72

Michael Welch: 71-68-73-68

281 (-3)--$18,406

Jay Haas: 70-72-71-68

Mark James: 70-68-75-68

Carl Mason: 68-70-70-73

Steve Stricker: 71-70-66-74

281 (-3)

a-Tiger Woods: 75-66-70-70

282 (-2)--$14,764

Tom Kite: 77-66-69-70

Paul Broadhurst: 65-72-74-71

Corey Pavin: 70-66-74-72

Peter Mitchell: 71-68-71-72

Frank Nobilo: 70-72-68-72

Ben Crenshaw: 73-68-71-70

283 (-1)--$12,158

Eamonn Darcy: 73-69-71-70

Tommy Tolles: 73-70-71-69

Scott Simpson: 71-69-73-70

Eduardo Romero: 70-71-75-67

David Gilford: 71-67-71-74

Mark O’Meara: 67-69-72-75

Hidemichi Tanaka: 67-71-70-75

Brad Faxon: 67-73-68-75

284 (E)--$11,083

Mark Calcavecchia: 72-68-76-68

Phil Mickelson: 72-71-72-69

Klas Eriksson: 68-75-72-69

David Frost: 70-72-71-71

285 (+1)--$9,920

Richard Boxall: 72-70-71-72

Jack Nicklaus: 69-66-77-73

Nick Price: 68-73-71-73

Bradley Hughes: 70-69-75-71

Payne Stewart: 70-73-71-71

Craig Stadler: 71-71-75-68

Billy Mayfair: 70-72-74-69

Peter Jacobsen: 72-70-74-69

Todd Hamilton: 71-70-74-70

Jim Furyk: 68-71-72-74

Jesper Parnevik: 72-69-69-75

286 (+2)--$8,816

Jim Payne: 72-71-73-70

Sandy Lyle: 71-69-73-73

Robert Allenby: 74-68-71-73

Stephen Ames: 71-72-69-74

287 (+3)--$8,486

Jeff Sluman: 72-70-70-75

Brian Barnes: 73-70-69-75

D.A. Weibring: 71-72-72-72

Michael Jonzon: 69-73-73-72

288 (+4)--$8,215

Carl Suneson: 73-69-74-72

Gordon Law: 74-69-71-74

Costantino Rocca: 71-70-74-73

289 (+5)--$7,983

David A. Russell: 70-72-74-73

Brett Ogle: 70-73-73-73

John Daly: 70-73-69-77

290 (+6)--$7,828

Howard Clark: 72-71-76-71

291 (+7)--$7,750

Bob Charles: 71-72-71-77

292 (+8)--$7,556

Domingo Hospital: 75-68-77-72

Rick Todd: 74-69-73-76

Curtis Strange: 71-72-72-77

Roger Chapman: 72-70-70-80

293 (+9)--$7,363

Retief Goosen: 72-71-74-76

298 (+14)--$7,285

Arnaud Langenaeken: 72-71-77-78