Unashamed of Open Affection

Brad Faxon won the B.C. Open in Endicott, N.Y., in 1999 but told officials he wouldn’t be back to defend. “They understood,” he said. He preferred to play in the British Open, which, unfortunately for the B.C. Open, has been scheduled for the same week the last couple of years.

But, because he didn’t have an exemption for the Open, he had to qualify the week of the tournament, at Lundin Links. All he got for his long plane trip across the Atlantic was a tie from the club. He didn’t qualify to play at St. Andrews.

The only upside was that he still had time to catch a plane back to New York so he could defend his B.C. Open title, which he did successfully.

Then he had to apologize again to officials in Endicott.

This time, he made sure he wasn’t there to defend by earning an automatic exemption to the 2001 British Open with a top-50 world ranking.

“I love playing over here,” Faxon, a 17-year PGA Tour veteran from Rhode Island, said after his first-round 68 Thursday at Royal Lytham & St. Annes Golf Club. He shot even-par 71 Friday to remain in contention at three under.

“I love links golf. We don’t play this way at home anywhere, maybe one or two places. I played the Walker Cup down the street at Hoylake in ‘83, enjoyed everything about it. I love the people, the appreciation everybody over here has for the game. It turned me on. I tried to come over here every year since.”

He has tried to persuade, cajole or embarrass fellow pros on the U.S. tour who aren’t as enamored of links golf, golf history, British golf fans or Britain to follow him, becoming one of the British Open’s foremost disciples.

“They have told me to mind my own business,” Faxon said.

But he continues preaching.

“I just think if you look back at the history of the game and this championship, how old it is and where it is played and everything that has happened . . . I don’t know, I just love playing over here. You should come over here and try it out.”

What’s not to like about the British Open?

Start with the long flight across the ocean. No matter where you land, you’re still a significant train or car trip from whichever Open course is in play. The hotels are at least twice as expensive as they are normally in the summer and, for that, you get five television channels and water pressure so low that you hardly have to dry off after a shower.

The tabloid newspapers are menacing. (“Fuller Monty,” London’s Sun headlined a story Friday that focused on his weight gain instead of his first-round leading 65.) It’s hard to figure how he’s gaining because the food is terrible.

The weather is often worse. In a perversion of human nature, the chilly temperatures, blustery wind and frequent rain make the British almost giddy because they believe the elements are critical to the test of golf. One chapter about the British Open in John Feinstein’s 1999 book “The Majors,” is titled, “If It’s Nae Wind and Nae Rain, It’s Nae Golf.”

Tom Watson used to complain. Then he won five times. Now he’s as British as Harry Potter.

“When I first came over here, I hated it,” he told Feinstein. “I said, ‘This isn’t golf; golf is played through the air, not on the ground. And what’s the deal with all these bounces?’ It wasn’t until I had been over here several times that it occurred to me that this was golf, not what we played, that this was the way the game was meant to be played.”

He said he came to that realization at Royal Lytham in 1979, after he had already won in ’75 and ’77.

“I played one of those rounds where I hit a five-iron 230 on one hole and 130 on the next. Real links golf. Something just clicked in me that this was a really fun, challenging way to play.”

There is also something charming about coming to a place such as Lytham St. Annes for a major sporting event. I didn’t say Lytham St. Annes is charming. Quaint would be closer.

Lytham St. Annes is a consolidation of two small towns on the coast of the Irish Sea in northwest England. Population is 70,992, except every few summers when the Open attracts an additional 200,000 tourists.

The tourist board encourages them to see the sights in Lancashire County, including the spot in Chorley where King James I knighted a side of beef in 1617, creating sirloin steak. Oliver Cromwell allegedly left his boots in the town’s hall. They are still there. But the tourist board is opposing construction of an arts center in Lytham St. Annes because “half the art collection is hanging in the town hall . . . and the other half isn’t worth seeing.”

The lead story in the local Express on Thursday warned dog owners about a ring of pet thieves. There was a “shock announcement” about the closing of a local bakery. Kirkham residents are up in arms because a car wash might open in the Safeway parking lot.

“They fear it will bring yet more traffic chaos to the town centre--and could turn into a full-blown service station,” the paper said.

Local residents are certain that Tom Cruise is here for the Open. Although London tabloids report he is in Fiji with Penelope Cruz, there have been several reported sightings of him in Lytham St. Annes--without Penelope Cruz.

A sign on a picket fence on the main route to the course, St. Thomas Road, encourages passersby to “support our local artist.” A popular pub--The Taps--has installed grass as its carpet for the week. One department store announced extended hours during the Open--all the way up to 5:30 p.m. Open fever, catch it.

Faxon has it. He might even leave his shoes here.

Randy Harvey can be reached at randy.harvey@latimes.com.