Tiger Woods and Vijay Singh are two of five golfers at 6-under-par thus far in the British Open. Singh shot a 3-under 69 for the second straight day, and Woods has just started his round today.
Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els each rebounded today with rounds of 67, moving them to within three shots of the lead.
My column this week expands on a previous post I made about Sean O’Hair, the PGA golfer whose dad treated him like dirt as he was growing up. Despite his difficult childhood, O’Hair has adjusted well and has a mature outlook about golf and about life.
Tiger Woods came out firing at the British Open today, shooting a 6-under-par 66 to grab a two-shot lead over Luke Donald, Peter Lonard, Jose Maria Olazabal and Retief Goosen in the early going.
I’ll start, and I’m going with Ernie Els to win this year’s event.
UPDATE: For those of you finding this through search engines, here’s a link to my entry for the 2006 British Open, which offers a couple of links to some predictions. Thanks for visiting. Feel free to contribute.
Sean O’Hair won his first PGA tournament this weekend at the John Deere Classic. As a boy, O’Hair’s father was brutal on him in pushing him to succeed at golf. Here’s an excerpt from the story:
“O’Hair was up running every day at 5 a.m. and on the course from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. For every bogey on his scorecard, his father made him run a mile. He was pushed to turn pro at 17, before he’d even graduated from high school.
“‘What am I supposed to do — say, “Oh, Seany boy, you don’t have to get up early today?” The military, they know how to build a champion,’ Marc O’Hair told The Orlando Sentinel in December. ‘Somebody who slacks off, that’s a loser. The typical high school kid is hanging out at the mall. That’s a loser.’”
O’Hair and his father haven’t spoken in almost three years. Marc O’Hair may have succeeded in creating a golf champion, but he proved to be a lousy dad and alienated his son in the process. That’s not something even a PGA tournament win can fix.
Michelle Wie is two under so far today, bringing her to three under for the tournament. The projected cut is three under, so she’s on the bubble.
Michelle Wie, the 15-year-old golfing phenom, shot a one-under-par 70 yesterday in the PGA Tour’s John Deere Classic. With a solid round today, Wie could become the first woman since 1945 to make the cut of a PGA Tour event.