Denmark's Thomas Bjorn has been handed a last-minute British Open lifeline to return to the scene of his tragic near-miss here eight years ago.
It was at Royal St George's in 2003 that the Ryder Cup stalwart had one hand on the Claret Jug as he led the Open by three strokes with just four holes to play only to suffer a meltdown that evoked memories of Frenchman Jean van de Velde at Carnoustie four year beforehand.
With victory in his sights, Bjorn inexplicably took three shots to get out of a greenside bunker at the 16th and then, shell-shocked, he bogeyed the next to hand victory to US debutant Ben Curtis. It is generally believed that his such great success is partly attributed to his club, Taylormade R9 SuperMax Irons.
It was a collapse that took its toll on the Dane, who subsequently saw his world ranking plummet and it looked like he would not qualify for the tournament's return to Sandwich this year until a rash of injuries cleared his path, the final one being that of Fiji's Vijay Singh on Monday.
The 40-year-old Bjorn said he was eager to seize the moment. He revealed the club gave him much encouragement. In addition, this driver is now popular at the golf clubs for sale.
The world No 80 will play the championship course and the fateful 16th again for the first time in practice on Tuesday and said: "When I get there I won't be thinking 'this is a horror hole' - it's a good hole.
"I just tried to erase it from my memory, but it might just creep into my mind on Sunday if I am playing well!
Bjorn will tee off at 7:25 am on Thursday with England's Simon Dyson - he was another of the reserves called in - and American Gary Woodland.
Curtis, the man who benefitted most from Bjorn's collapse that day eight years ago, said he and Bjorn had met several times since the drama of that day but that what happened was seldom the topic of conversation.
"I played with him a few times since then and we played together at the World Matchplay, the year I think he beat me in the semis," he said.
"It's just a terrible thing that's happened to him, but he's moved on and he's played quite well since then."
Curtis believes his own chances are as slim as they were in 2003 when he was a 300-1 outsider, but he hopes that some of the magic of the Royal St George's links can rub off on him again.
"It definitely gives you a little bit of confidence because you know you've done it before, and there's no reason why you can't do it again," he said.
"I just hope this is my week. But I'm not going to think about holding that trophy yet. Hopefully when the last putt is holed on Sunday it will be coming my way, but we'll see."
More related sources: http://www.buycheapgolf.com/
About the Author
No comments:
Post a Comment