I was just looking at the latest odds at Betfair and discovered that over $3,500 was bet on Norman at $1,000. If he wins I think that will be the highest odds I have ever heard of for a successful single bet. Not that I imagine it was one large bet probably thousands of small ones.
Either way now, I think it’s a hell of a story. Either Norman wins and puts all the ghosts to rest in unforgettable style, or he folds up AGAIN, which would be so improbably sad it would almost achieve a certain poignant greatness of its own.
First ball in the fairway for Norman. Great shot. Backing off made me think he was going to shank it OB.
Seeing the ball land in the fairway must have felt good for Greg.
Enjoy the round!
I have never heard of such a thing … usually they are DQ’d before they reach their car if they dont sign their card.
I wonder if it would have change the cut line at all if she had been removed on friday.
The entire story around her is a nightmare
Turns out that the deal is this:
She left the scorer’s tent without signing the card. There is a fence around the tent; if you leave the fenced area without signing, you are deemed to have failed to sign your card. She left the area, but the volunteers manning the tent went and got her and told her she had failed to sign, and brought her back to sign it. Next day, AFTER she has already teed off, the tournament officials find out almost inadvertantly from the volunteers about what happened. Rather than remove her from the course, thereby affecting her playing partner (the tournament leader), they let her finish, then brought her to a room and asked her to confirm what happened, then informed her she was DQ’d.
Yeah, she’s lead a nightmare for the last few years. This week’s result would have made it almost certain she would have qualified for next year’s tour automatically; now she will probably have to go the Q-school route.
Dang…it’s like, the Red Sox and White Sox H-bomb their respective curses in consecutive years, gritty cancer survivor Lance Armstrong completes his 7-year Rocky story for the ages, Matt Serra completes the MMA comeback of the decade and proves again that the only sure thing is that there are no sure things, Danica Patrick works a fuel strategy to perfection and gets off the hump, Angel Cabrera beats Tiger Woods in the only sport in the world where you could possibly imagine that happening…we’ve had so may feel-good stories in such a short time, it seems like the karma-o-meter is completely drained right now.
The Giants win the Super Bowl. Yeah, the underdog prevailing is kinda nice, but it’s happened before, as has the Giants winning the SB (the last time with Bill Parcells, nobody’s feel-good coach); this isn’t in the same league as John Elway or even Brett Favre. The Celtics are NBA national champs. Great effort, but this is the rich getting richer (as anyone who watched the Yakees’ latest mini-dynasty what a thrill this is), plus Kobe Bryant losing in the finals meant another goddam 50,000 Jordan-is-the-greatest-of-all-time-no-one-comes-close-who-needs-a-discussion platitudes, something a lot of us got sick of before he became irrelevant.
And now Padraig Harrington has won the British Open. Not the overwhelming sentimental favorite (Greg Norman), the embattled would-be phenom with something to prove (Sergio Garcia), the surprise upstart (Ian Poulter), the superstar tired of always being second best (Phil Mickelson), the eternal never-say-die underdog (Retief Goosen), heck, not even the pride of Canada (Mike Weir). If even 25% of golf fans can feel anything about Harrington, that’d be impressive. He’s not a first-timer nor a runaway juggernaut. This is his second British Open in a row, neither a breakthrough nor a landmark. The event he’s best known for dominating is…the Ryder Cup. There would’ve at least been some excitement if two or three of the favorites duked it out with him to the end, but none of them were even on the same page.
I dunno. The PGA was really hoping this’d be a good one, and so was I, and it turned out to be a typical case of one guy being a lot better than everyone else. Other than the stupid asterisk talk being silenced (Harrington is the man here now, and don’t forget that he beat out Woods last year), this one looks like it’ll be largely forgettable. As for Norman, even if you like to point and laugh, how long is that going to last? Hell, Nelson Muntz barely made it half a day.
What say you all?
You forgot the “out of nowhere AM” by the name of Woods (sans s)
I thought it was all quite fun and had a good time watching it. Unfortunately, my FIL is sick and we had to go to the hospital to visit. I was able to record the second nine for the last group and watch it when I came home.
I though Paddy played like a true champion - calm cool and collected…certainly the way he closed this tourney out eliminates any doubt about last years win.
Norman - played like always - full tilt and the consequences be damned
Ian played well but floundered - he should have played 17 much better…He will have to improve his game if he wants to compete with Tiger…as he is quoted earlier in the year.
I think Anthony Kim will be a force to be dealt with…
The big guys were absent - even though Furyk was on the leader board he came on when it was safe to do so - no real pressure.
Awesome round by Harrington 3 under on the back 9. Look at the people around him. He shoots 69, the leader (Norman) shoots 77, equal second (Choi) shoots 79, fourth(Wakefield) shoots 79, the guys tied for 5th shoot 2 75s, a 77 and another 79.
I’ve long been a big fan of Harrington. Not only an excellent golfer, but seems like a really decent bloke with his head on straight. Glad to see him getting such success. Would love to see him translate this double into even more success.
Poulter looked strong as well. And Kim. Will be interesting to see if Tiger returns from his absence to see his competition somewhat changed.
(Oh, my “fair weather Tiger cubs checking out for the duration” comment was intended to suggest that many Tiger fans are “fair weather” fans of golf, and would be checking out of watching golf for the duration of his incapacitation.)
Regarding Wie - how the hell does something like that happen? I mean, WTF else do you have to do after your round other than sign your card? That is the ONLY thing that EVERY competitor HAS to do IMMEDIATELY after EVERY round. How does it happen that SOMEONE, either a volunteer, official, or her caddy, didn’t say “Hang on a sec. Don’t go quite yet - you haven’t signed your card”?
Agreed. Apparently he annoys a lot of players with his slow pace of play, but those of us watching on TV don’t have to worry about that
That was my first thought, too. Signing an incorrect card I can understand, especially under pressure, but forgetting to sign altogether seems impossible…almost like forgetting to putt out on the last green. I mean…the scoring tent is right there behind the 18th green. By now you’d think she’d have a Pavlovian response to seeing it…go to tent…verify score…SIGN CARD!!!