No New Story on Old Course

The British Open begins next week, and any list of potential winners begins and ends with Tiger Woods . . . or so many would have us believe.

Of course, it’s not that simple. Woods rightly assumes the role of favorite, which anyone who wins the U.S. Open by 15 shots clearly deserves. But he isn’t going it alone at St. Andrews.

Here is a brief scouting report on the players who have the best chance. And, for the record, none of this is guaranteed.

* Woods: St. Andrews is short enough and also wide open enough to be right up Tiger’s alley. Plus, he enjoys the challenge of playing links golf and thinking his way around the golf course . . . as he carves it up.

* Ernie Els: Second at the Masters and the U.S. Open, he is confident he needs only to putt better to complete his game. He has been hanging out at Skibo Castle near Dornoch, built in 1235 and once owned by the legendary Lord Earl Grey . . . which leads to this obvious question for Els: Is St. Andrews his cup of tea?

* Colin Montgomerie: This may be the British Open in which he proves that he doesn’t have some sort of oddball complex about playing well in his home country. Few hit irons any better and few suffer more when putts don’t fall, and that is usually the case for Monty in the Open Championship.

* Lee Westwood: He won the Smurfit European Open last week in Ireland--his third European Tour title this year--and showed up in the interview room drinking a pint of stout. He said: “If I’d wanted to be an athlete, then I’d have taken up 400-meter running.”

* Nick Price: He narrowly missed his first PGA Tour victory in two years when he lost to Robert Allenby in a playoff last week at the Western Open in Lemont, Ill., but the 1994 British Open champion is a tough customer when he has confidence in his putting.

* Justin Leonard: When he’s on his game, who putts better? No one did in the last round at Royal Troon in 1997, when he won his only major. He can get the ball to do what he wants in the wind, and that just might come in handy at the Old Course.

* Jesper Parnevik: His left hip is bothering him, so you never know. He was treated for the problem in Sweden by Christian Steiner, an osteopath who travels with Sting. So there is hope for him. Maybe now when he tees it up, he will have a brand new day.

* Darren Clarke: He is strong, he can putt and he can beat Woods, which he proved at the Andersen Consulting Match Play Championship at La Costa in February. But can he do it in July?

RYDER CUPDATE

You almost have to laugh at the Ryder Cup controversy involving former captain Mark James, if only because it’s so, well, artistically messy.

For those who haven’t been keeping score at home, the issue has risen to epic proportions. This new status comes after a Tuesday night players’ meeting in Scotland that gave unanimous support to new captain Sam Torrance and his selection of James as vice captain for the 2001 Ryder Cup.

A brief update: James upset nearly everyone with his book, “Into the Bear Pit,” his account of Europe’s futile bid to retain the Ryder Cup last year at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass. More upset than anyone is Nick Faldo, who had written a good-luck note that he thought would be posted on the bulletin board but instead was tossed in a trash can by James.

James also went on to question whether Faldo would ever be fit to be a Ryder Cup captain.

Needless to say, when he heard the results of the vote, Faldo was frosted.

“I am stunned,” Faldo said.

“Some of the things he had a go at me about were strange. OK, about the binning of the letter, perhaps, but then to go on ranting about me as future captain, why? Who knows what kind of future captain I’d be?”

Bernhard Langer, Seve Ballesteros and Jean Van de Velde also expressed criticism over the vote by the tournament committee of players on the European Tour. Langer said the issue isn’t about standing up for Faldo, but that James should be more diplomatic.

Said Langer: “I don’t think that it will be easy for him to be a vice captain.”

If it were up to Van de Velde, it would be impossible. The Frenchman stayed on James’ bench until the Sunday singles matches, when he was trounced by Davis Love III, 6 and 5, in the biggest rout of the day.

Van de Velde has called for a larger referendum on James, a vote by all the European Tour players, not only the players on the tournament committee.

Said Van de Velde, who was not at the meeting although he is a member of the committee: “Mark has to go.”

The committee members who voted did not agree. They are Mats Lanner, Russell Claydon, Derrick Cooper, Paul Eales, Anders Forsbrand, Robert Lee, Ove Sellberg and Jamie Spence. All are minor players, which makes it obvious they were afraid to anger the establishment and thus risk their own professional interests.

In the meantime, there is another potentially sticky mess. Standard Life is considering whether to retain its $4-million sponsorship of the British Open warmup event at Loch Lomond and its officials say they are far from happy that the controversy has overshadowed their tournament.

James and Faldo crossed paths Wednesday at the Loch Lomond tournament and Faldo told James he doesn’t want to discuss the matter until after the British Open. This virtually guarantees the controversy will spill over into the Open at St. Andrews . . . and sell more books for James, of course.

One more thing: What will happen if Faldo plays his way onto the Ryder Cup team?

Will James write him a good-luck note?

Stay tuned.

MONEY NEWS

How do you know when you have too much money? Here’s one way. A London-born billionaire the Associated Press identified as Joe Lewis paid $2.1 million to play a round with Woods and Mark O’Meara later this year in Florida. The bid came at an auction as part of a 36-hole celebrity pro-am that featured Woods and O’Meara in Ireland on Monday and Tuesday.

UH, KING?

John Philpe, the course superintendent last year at Carnoustie for the British Open, recently received the Order of the British Empire honor from Queen Elizabeth.

Wonder what he would have gotten if the place hadn’t looked like a hay field?

THEY KNEW JACK

Jackie Burke, in VegasGolfer, on the proliferation of sports psychologists working with golfers: “Jimmy Demaret and I had our own psychologist that we kept in our locker. His name was Jack Daniels.”

TOAST DEAL STILL OPEN

Filling that gaping hole in its sponsorship list at last, the LPGA named MultiGrain Cheerios as its official cereal.

BUSINESS UPDATE

Kelli Kuehne signed with Gaylord Sports Management after leaving IMG.

Notah Begay signed with Imani Sports, which also represents Casey Martin.

Charlie Howell, the NCAA champion who signed with Hambric Sports Management, has sponsor’s exemptions into the B.C. Open, the John Deere Classic and the Sprint International.

The Tom Barber Golf Center has opened in Moorpark, where former El Caballero pro Terry Lange is the teaching pro.

LOOKS LIKE A RIVALRY

Karrie Webb got a head start this year, but Annika Sorenstam is catching up quickly. Sorenstam, who won last week at the Jamie Farr Kroger Classic in Sylvania, Ohio, has matched Webb with four victories.

Webb still has a wide lead in the player-of-the-year standings, thanks to her victory in the Nabisco Championship, but Webb now leads Sorenstam on the money list by only $953,463 to $850,635.

Said Sorenstam: “Karrie is No. 1, but I know inside I’m pretty good.

“I’m going to have to play super golf to beat her. I’m very, very stubborn.”

HAVING A BALL

It should be noted that Sorenstam, a Callaway endorsee, has won tournaments using the blue Rule 35 ball and the red Rule 35 ball. The way Sorenstam is playing recently, she is probably sorry there aren’t more colors.

SUEEEEEET!

This just in: Claiming it is hurting business, a golf course development in Stuart, Fla., is suing two neighborhood pig farmers who play loud country music to comfort their swine.

ANOTHER HOG STORY

And then there were 16. . . . The USGA added Dogleg Right’s new Hog driver to its list of nonconforming clubs. The driver, which has a forged titanium head, failed the USGA’s test for springlike effect.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that Leonard Thompson used Dogleg Right’s Hog 1003C putter to win the State Farm Senior Classic in Columbia, Md., last week.

STORK UPDATE

Remember when Phil Mickelson wore a beeper at last year’s U.S. Open at Pinehurst and said he would walk off the North Carolina course if he was notified that his wife, Amy, was ready to give birth?

That’s similar to what Tommy Biershank and Kevin Johnson were up against this week at the Buy.com Tour event in Greenville, S.C.

Not only are they former Clemson teammates and close friends on the Buy.com Tour, but their wives are due to deliver the same day, July 26. Johnson decided to quit playing until his wife gives birth, but Biershank is still in the field.

BIRDIES, BOGEYS, PARS

Smith Sirisakorn, 18, of Los Angeles was awarded the fifth Peter A. Bonanni educational scholarship. Sirisakorn is a member of the Los Angeles LPGA Urban Youth Golf Program.

The Jim Murray Memorial tournament will be played Aug. 21 at Lakeside Golf Club in Toluca Lake. The event benefits college scholarships for journalism students. Details: (818) 344-6195, Ext. 118.

The Partners in Care Foundation tournament will be played Sept. 18 at North Ranch Country Club in Westlake Village. Details: (818) 526-1780, Ext. 111.