Lytham Closely: Four Share Lead

It’s possible that the reason Albert Einstein theorized on relativity is because he couldn’t figure out golf. That would have placed him alongside everybody else who ever lived. No one can figure out golf.

Leading on Friday after two rounds of the British Open at Royal Lytham & St. Annes Golf Club, Colin Montgomerie said he was looking over his shoulder at two players, Tiger Woods and Jesper Parnevik. Of those two, it’s pretty clear which one was most likely to challenge. It was the defending champion, the winner of five of the last seven major tournaments.

But Woods double-bogeyed the seventh hole, which had played easier than all but one in the first two rounds, and stumbled in Saturday with a two-over-par 73, leaving him five shots behind the leaders in a tie for 28th place.

Montgomerie and Parnevik, meantime, are tied--but for second place. And your leaders are--drumroll, please--David Duval, Bernhard Langer, Ian Woosnam and Alex Cejka.

Except for Duval, who has contended in recent majors, none was drawing much interest in the local bookie shops before the tournament. Langer and Woosnam, a couple of 43-year-olds who both have worn green jackets from Augusta, were considered, like the Bobby Jones plaque at the 17th hole, part of history. Cejka, a 30-year-old Czech-born German who lives in Prague, wasn’t considered at all. He’s not even the most famous person in his own home.

Yet, here they are, the Fab Four, leading the British Open entering the final round at six-under 207. Duval had the best round Saturday with a 65. Langer and Woosnam shot 67, Cejka 69.

Right behind at 208 are nine players, including Montgomerie, the sole first- and second-round leader who struggled to 73 Saturday. Right behind them at 209 are six players. Right behind them . . . suffice it to say that 23 players are within four shots of the leaders.

Next comes a group at one under that includes Woods, who couldn’t do much of anything in the third round, not even shoot himself out of the tournament.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if he lays down a good one tomorrow,” said Mark O’Meara, Woods’ neighbor and close friend who was paired with him Saturday. O’Meara one-upped Woods, shooting 72 and is four behind the leaders.

No one should be surprised by anything that happens in this golf tournament, which was proceeding fairly conventionally until Saturday.

“Tomorrow’s a brand new day,” said Nick Price, who shot 68 and is tied for second. “The only people that really feel maybe they have an advantage are those who have been in position before and have won. But the golf course doesn’t know that.”

If the golf course had feelings, it probably would be pretty proud of itself. Before the tournament, critics said that it was too short--6,905 yards--to remain in the British Open rotation, that the long hitters, made longer by technology, would overwhelm it, as they did St. Andrews last year.

But the course, assisted by the varying weather conditions, deep rough and tricky pin positions, has given as good as it has gotten this week. Almost every time a player struck a blow Saturday, Royal Lytham struck back. That made for a round as helter-skelter as a ride on the famous Big Dipper roller coaster in nearby Blackpool.

Cejka, who defected as a child with his father from the former Czechoslovakia and settled in Munich, and Langer appeared for a few holes as if they might turn this tournament into the German Open.

Cejka, who has returned to Prague and is married to the Czech Republic’s most prominent television anchorwoman, was at nine under as late as the 14th hole. But he bogeyed 15, 16 and 17. Two-time Masters champion Langer, who, like 1991 Masters champ Woosnam, hasn’t won a tournament since 1997, looked as if he might have the lead by himself at seven under before he bogeyed 18. Parnevik had two double bogeys, including one at 17 that dumped him from the lead. His playing partner, Greg Owen, double-eagled the 11th from 240 yards out, a three-iron shot that hit the pin on one bounce and fell into the cup, to get to seven under, then bogeyed 16, 17 and 18.

In short, the course lived up to the reputation it had before Tom Lehman handled it at 13 under in his British Open victory here in 1996 by making the players sweat on the closing holes, on an overcast, drizzly, increasingly windy day.

The only player who really handled it Saturday was Duval, who, because he was seven shots behind Montgomerie, played in relatively calm conditions early and had signed for his 65 before some leaders even teed off. His score matched the best of the week, by Montgomerie on Thursday and Des Smyth on Friday.

Duval birdied seven of the first 14 holes before he landed in the rough on 15 and made bogey. He parred out, although that required a chip from out of the foot-deep rough to within 10 inches of the cup on 17.

“Brilliant,” he called it, mimicking the galleries here after they have seen an outstanding shot.

Montgomerie was the last to tee off and caught the worst of the weather. He fell into an old habit of using that as an excuse, but, in fact, he didn’t putt as well as he had in the first two rounds.

He missed short putts at Nos. 4, 5, 6, 8 and 9--bogeying two of them to fall from the leaderboard for the first time--then birdied 10 and 11 to get back, he thought, on course.

If he doesn’t win the tournament, he may look back on his double bogey on 13 as the place where he lost it.

“That’s possibly the easiest hole on the course and one where you are looking for birdie, certainly not a six,” he said.

He tried to hit out of a deep bunker on that hole with one foot in it and one foot out but managed only to advance the ball to the other side.

Asked his options, he said, “Not many, apart from splitting my trousers, which wouldn’t have been the most embarrassing thing I’ve ever done.”

Duval and Montgomerie both said that it might take 65 to win today, which gives them solace because they’ve both shot that here this week. Then again, so has Smyth, who, even though he has missed the cut in 14 of his previous 20 British Opens and was disqualified in another, is lurking at two back after a 70 Saturday.

Heck, even Woods said he believes he can win if he shoots low in the morning and the weather turns ghastly on the leaders, which is hardly out of the question. In any case, he retired after his round to the driving range to consider the possibilities.

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LEADERS

David Duval 65--207 -6

Ian Woosnam 67--207 -6

Bernhard Langer 67--207 -6

Alex Cejka 69--207 -6

Nine tied at -5

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Leaders Scorecards D10

Complete Scores D10

Tee Times D10

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