|
|
| |
 A chiropractor's field day Walking wounded aim to scale heights at Olympic Club
Posted: Tuesday June 16, 1998 04:25 PM
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -- The walking wounded will be trying to scale the heights this week at The Olympic Club, where rolling hills, awkward lies and penal rough will test the shot-making skills of the game's top players at the U.S. Open championship. "The rough is brutal," groused British Open champion Justin Leonard. "It's the worst I've ever seen. You can't even get a sniff of the green if you miss the fairway." Brilliant sunshine and fresh Pacific breezes are firming up The Olympic Club track, which has been softened these past few months by an unusually heavy amount of rain. Questions about the course conditions share equal billing with worries over the state of several leading contenders who have been slowed by injury. Defending champion Ernie Els and Tiger Woods, who this week supplanted the South African as No. 1 in the world rankings, both skipped their last tournaments because of back ailments. Mix in the suspect backs of Fred Couples and PGA champion Davis Love and you have the makings of a chiropractors' field day at the Open. Only Casey Martin is extended the courtesy of a golf cart -- an accommodation to which he is entitled by law because of a congenital circulation problem in his right leg. One sturdy contender among the leading figures in the 156-man field is young Briton Lee Westwood, who has been one of the hottest players in the world this year. The 25-year-old Westwood, who rose to international prominence with his stellar play in last year's Ryder Cup victory over the United States, won his last two tournaments in Europe this year. Earlier this season he won at the PGA stop in New Orleans after a splendid joint fifth at the Players Championship. Westwood said Tuesday his success has been "a culmination of a lot of hard work and once I started to put in some good performances, confidence." Westwood was looking forward to his glamour grouping with Tiger Woods and Tom Watson for the first two rounds of the championship. "It is nice to play in front of lots of people," Westwood said before heading off for his first round of practice at Olympic. "It is always nice to have a big gallery and I imagine it will be a fairly big one walking around with us." Some of the other intriguing groupings for the opening two days include Scotsman Colin Montgomerie, David Duval and Jim Furyk; Couples, Frank Nobilo of New Zealand and John Daly; and Els, Leonard and U.S. Amateur champion Matt Kuchar, who delighted the Masters galleries this year with his fine play and indelible grin. Despite his lack of personal experience on the course that hosted the 1955, 1966 and 1987 Opens, Westwood said he already had a good idea of what to expect. "It will be tight, narrow fairways and thick rough off the sides of the greens and in the fairways. I expect the greens to be quite firm by Thursday." Westwood said his recent streak of success had come after he heeded some advice from Gary Player at the Masters to get in better shape. "I had lost seven pounds," said the husky Westwood. "But it has all gone to the dogs in the last week." Westwood may not be at his best fighting weight, but he likes his chances before the bell sounds for the year's second major championship. "I don't think there is any point coming into a tournament unless you think you can win it," he said. "And I think the way I am playing, if I play well this week, then I can win it."
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. | |||||||||||||||||||||
Copyright © 1999 CNN/SI. A Time Warner Company. Terms under which this service is provided to you.
| |||||||||||||||||||||
Tiger Woods missed his last tournament due to a back injury 