Lehman Blows 2-Shot Whistle on Himself

Tom Lehman is 38 years old, he turned pro in 1982 and he has played in 22 major championships, but Friday at the British Open, he did something for the first time--he called a two-shot penalty on himself for playing the ball from the wrong place.

“A disaster,” Lehman said.

Sort of. A penalty like that is not what you expect from the defending champion, who made a triple-bogey seven, finished his round with a 72 and is four over par for 36 holes at 146.

“Losing those two shots is a ‘I am so far back now I can’t even see who is leading,’ ” Lehman said.

The problem came after Lehman’s second shot to the par-four second hole. The ball was in Vijay Singh’s line, so Lehman marked the ball and moved the mark a club length. But he forgot to return the ball to its original position when he replaced it and played from where he had marked it.

Lehman didn’t realize anything was wrong until he was walking down the third fairway and saw an official reading a rules book.

“I’m thinking to myself, ‘Why would he be looking at the rules book? Shoot, I didn’t put my mark back!’ ”

Lehman thought he might even be disqualified.

“Regardless, it wasn’t really a nice way to start the day.”

“I am ticked off at my caddie and myself. Ultimately the burden is on me to make sure that things are right. For two of us to miss that is nearly, I think, inexcusable.”

As it turns out, it was just coincidence that the official happened to be looking through the rules book.

*

Jim Furyk followed his opening 67 with a 72 and fell six shots behind Darren Clarke, but he isn’t all that unhappy.

“I’m still in good position,” Furyk said. “At least I didn’t shoot myself in the foot. I’m still in contention.”

Furyk bogeyed the par-five fourth hole when he drove into a bunker and then three-putted from 30 feet to bogey No. 7, but he birdied the “Postage Stamp” with a 10-foot putt.

On the 12th, Furyk drove into the rough and two-putted for bogey, but he straightened himself out on the par-five 16th with a birdie putt of 15 feet.

“I’ve got to play a lot better on the weekend,” he said.

*

The weekend began early for Scott McCarron, the former UCLA standout in his first British Open.

McCarron’s 77 put him at eight-over 150 and he missed the cut by three shots. Last year, McCarron tried to qualify at Royal Lytham but failed.

He said he isn’t going to quit trying.

“I want to play in majors,” McCarron said. “I like the British Open style of courses, and I’m going to keep coming over here every year until they throw me out.”

McCarron said it isn’t easy getting accustomed to the links courses.

“Here, you’re getting bad bounces all the time,” he said. “The problem is, I didn’t get any good bounces either.”

*

The 36-hole cut was at five-over 147 and claimed such notables as Steve Elkington, Seve Ballesteros, Craig Stadler, Mark Brooks, John Cook, Paul Azinger, Sam Torrance, Paul Stankowski, David Frost and Gary Player.

*

Dressed in his familiar black shirt accompanied by a black, sleeveless sweater, 61-year-old Player was a formidable figure on the front nine Friday.

He played the first nine holes in 32 and finished with a 71. His first-round 78 cost Player a chance to make the British Open cut for the third time in the last 10 years.

But Player said his 32 on the front matched his best score.

“I must say, for me to come out here for a man just short of 62, make a 32 on the front and shoot a score of 71, it’s a thrill,” he said. “It’s impossible to do it, isn’t it?”

Player, a three-time champion, has played in every British Open since 1955. He intends to continue until 2000 when the tournament is at St. Andrews, where he began. It would be Player’s 46th consecutive British Open.

“It might be a record that could stand for a long time,” he said.