Open Is No Breeze

By THOMAS BONK

July 18, 1998 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

SOUTHPORT, England —

On Friday at the British Open, the sky above Royal Birkdale Golf Club was filled with golf balls in full flight, headed for destinations largely unknown, their owners standing there slack-jawed and leaning into the wind and hoping for something not too terrible.

There were a lot of bad trips. Balls landed in the gorse that has needles sharper than knives. They landed in knee-deep grass and on the sides of tall hills and in soulless bunkers, blown there by winds that turned the 127th British Open into, well, probably the finest major tournament ever played in the jet stream.

After 36 holes, the leader is Brian Watts, a 32-year-old from Oklahoma who plays on the Japan PGA Tour, where winds like the ones seen around here are called typhoons.

Watts produced a one-under-par 69 in a stiff breeze and was lucky enough to finish early in the afternoon before the really ugly stuff showed up. It got so bad that play was suspended for 33 minutes because of dangerous weather conditions. No one can remember that happening at the British Open, where absolutely lousy weather isn’t merely a way of life, it’s one of the rules of golf.

At three-under 137, Watts is one shot ahead of Tiger Woods, Nick Price and amateur Justin Rose.

Woods’ 73 included an incident on the 11th hole when the wind blew his ball.

Said Woods: “The ball was oscillating on the green.”

You have to hate it when that happens. Meanwhile, there is Rose, a 17-year-old English qualifier who is so green he probably didn’t realize he wasn’t supposed to play so well but finished eagle-birdie for a 66 that matched the best score ever for an amateur in the championship.

“I guess, you know, I guess I wasn’t worried,” Rose said.

Fair enough, there were plenty of others who managed to handle the worrying quite nicely. Even Watts, as well as he played, couldn’t quite push himself to the point where he could admit he liked the conditions.

“I can’t lie to you,” Watts said. “I don’t. . . . It’s really tough out there.”

How tough was it? There were 27 players who finished the first round under par. After the second round, there were five.

Thomas Bjorn of Denmark is two shots back at 139 after his 71. Everyone else is at even par or more, and if you’re looking for culprits, you can stop at the wind.

“It wasn’t easy, that’s for sure,” said Woods, who birdied the last two holes.

The fact that Woods is under par is a credit to his resilience. He began with bogeys on the first two holes and was four over through nine. By the time he drove into the left bunker at the par-five 15th, then hit a five-iron into the right bunker and wound up bogeying the hole, Woods had dropped back to even par for the tournament.

“It was just one of those days when you have to be patient and hang in there,” he said. “If you can hang in there with your mind and grind it out and not get discouraged, you’re going to be all right.”

Price, who finished with a 72, had every right to be discouraged, basically because he was birdieless through 16 holes. But at the 17th, his six-iron put him 10 feet from the hole in two and he made the putt for an eagle.

Afterward, Price acted as though he had just gotten away with something.

“This course was brutal today,” he said. “I don’t want to listen to any of these guys complaining about how bad they had it this morning. It was even all the way around. It was very difficult.”

Mark O’Meara’s 68 moved him into a six-way tie at 140 with Fred Couples, Jim Furyk, Davis Love III, Jesper Parnevik of Sweden and Stephen Ames of Trinidad and Tobago.

O’Meara had an early tee time, which meant he could enjoy the wind and rain that blasted everybody during the afternoon. He said it was quite an experience.

“You could see the rain coming sideways,” said O’Meara, who eagled the 17th when he reached the green with a seven-iron and made a 16-foot putt.

For Watts, it was day in the sun, even if there wasn’t a lot of that available. The former Oklahoma State All-American played the PGA Tour in 1991, but he has been a mainstay on the Japan PGA Tour.

He has won 11 times there, but probably got more attention this year when he deliberately knocked two balls into the ocean so he would miss the cut at the Fuji Sankei Classic. Watts was suspended by the tour for that incident, which he acknowledged, although he doesn’t like to talk about it.

“I’m going to leave it at this: I made a mistake and it’s 2 1/2 months behind us and that’s about it,” he said.

For some notable players, Saturday was about it as far as their length of stay. The cut was at six-over 146, which meant farewell to such names as Colin Montgomerie, Tom Lehman, John Daly, Tom Watson, Bernhard Langer and amateur Matt Kuchar.

Justin Leonard, the defending champion, made it with his 146, but he wasn’t too impressed with himself when he thought he would be leaving for Dallas this morning.

“This is the toughest pill I’ve had to swallow in my career,” Leonard said.

After he earned he would be around for the weekend, Leonard still was down.

“I don’t even know if I feel like it,” he said.

Now why would he say something like that? Blame it on the wind. It got blamed for everything else.

For updates during the final two rounds of the British Open, go to The Times’ Web site: https://www.latimes.com/britishopen

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Gone With the Wind

Weather had a big impact on second-round scoring at British Open. A comparison of first two rounds:

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Thu. Fri. Eagles 12 19 Birdies 368 254 Pars 1,794 1,604 Bogeys 565 787 Other 69 108 Scoring Average 72.08 74.73

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