Hamilton Stuck in a Major Slump

So which Todd Hamilton is going to show up at St. Andrews next week? Will it be the player who went to PGA Tour qualifying school eight times or the British Open champion who defeated Ernie Els in a playoff last year at Royal Troon?

Hamilton wishes he knew.

“I don’t feel like I’m playing terribly, I’m just not getting anything out of it and it kind of drives you crazy when that happens,” he said.

Last year, as a 38-year-old rookie, Hamilton shocked everyone with his upset over Els, joining such recent first-time major champions as Ben Curtis, Shaun Micheel and Rich Beem. He earned more than $3 million and made the 11 years he toiled on the Japan Tour seem like a distant memory.

So far this year, Hamilton doesn’t have a top-10 finish in 19 tournaments and has missed six cuts, three of them in the last four weeks. His best result is a tie for 18th at Houston.

Hamilton isn’t a long hitter, but he has dropped 30 places in driving distance from last year, to 115th. And he’s also 117th in greens in regulation and 115th in scoring.

Whatever shape his game may be in, Hamilton hopes for the best when he tackles the Old Course.

“I wouldn’t say I’m dreading going over right now, but hopefully going over there I can find a little something, find a little spark to put in a decent attempt at a defense,” he said. “I don’t want to go over there and miss the cut or just make the cut and finish back of the pack.”

“There were days when I felt, ‘Man, start playing like a major winner rather than a guy that just got out of college as a rookie.’ Sometimes that’s hard. I’ve always expected a lot of myself. Maybe that’s why I haven’t done as well since the Open Championship last year.”

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Tiger Woods might blame his putting for not winning his last three times out, but he tied for third at the Memorial and was second at the U.S. Open and the Western and, believe it or not, he will arrive at St. Andrews with an improved putting average.

Woods is 14th, up from 20th a week ago, with such notables as Chris DiMarco, David Toms, Phil Mickelson, Justin Leonard and Jim Furyk ahead of him.

On the Old Course, putting may not be as important as how far you hit it and how quickly you get the ball on the green.

So, for the record, Woods is second in driving distance at 309.4 yards (Scott Hend is first) and third in greens in regulation at 70.8% (Sergio Garcia leads). Oh, and Woods is No. 1 in scoring average with 68.92 (Mickelson is second).

And because there’s no rough at St. Andrews, here’s another statistic that probably won’t hurt Woods: 169th in fairways hit.

A more important statistic at St. Andrews is bunkers hit -- and when Woods won in 2000, the number was zero.

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He tied for 41st at St. Andrews in the 2000 British Open, but Furyk is clearly thinking positive now. After getting shaded by Padraig Harrington at the Barclays Classic and then holding off Woods to win last weekend at the Western Open, Furyk is on the upswing, so he is leaving this weekend for Scotland to speed his adjustment to links golf.

Furyk moved from 14th to eighth in the world rankings.

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Birdie news: All right, so Birdie Kim, the surprise U.S. Women’s Open champion, didn’t exactly need a wheelbarrow to carry away the money she won last weekend at the $2-million HSBC Women’s World Match Play event -- the richest ever -- but at least she worked her way into the field with her victory at Cherry Hills.

Kim won only $5,161 and she wouldn’t have had that if not for her stunning upset win at the Open that opened the door to a lot more chances to cash in on her unexpected success.

Besides the standard rewards of a five-year exemption on the LPGA Tour and a 10-year exemption into the U.S. Open, Kim also has received an exemption into two exclusive, limited-field events: the $850,000 Samsung World Championship at Bighorn Golf Club in Palm Desert in mid-October and the $850,000 LPGA Tournament of Champions in November.

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The Michelle Wie bandwagon rolls into Silvis, Ill., for the John Deere Classic this week, when the 15-year-old from Hawaii takes on the PGA Tour again. This sets up the potential of a great story -- Wie would be all but certain to receive an exemption into the British Open if she wins -- but also the real possibility of some serious headline-stealing.

That’s because while Wie is playing against the male pros, the LPGA Tour is playing the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic at Toledo, Ohio, where 17-year-old Morgan Pressel is in the field, but superstar Annika Sorenstam isn’t.

Who gets the most coverage in this contest?

By the way, Wie’s caddie at the John Deere will be Jimmy Johnson, who also worked for her at the U.S. Women’s Open. Johnson was once Nick Price’s caddie.

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There are 142 players who have earned places in the field of 156 for next week’s Open Championship at St. Andrews and the last 14 will be decided by the highest finisher not already exempt at the Barclay’s Scottish Open and at the John Deere Classic and 12 from local final qualifying.

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The North Course at Los Serranos Country Club in Chino Hills is getting a face-lift that will extend the 80-year-old course about 370 yards to just over 6,800 yards.

Besides new tee boxes and new fairway bunkers, the existing bunkers will be returned to their original shape and depth with new sand. Landmark Golf Company of Indian Wells is overseeing the changes, which should be completed by the end of the year.