OPEN
CHAMPIONSHIP
DAILY BY PAUL MAHONEY
WEDNESDAY
SANDWICH, ENGLAND | Cry
God for Harry, England and
St George. Okay, concentrate,
there’s an English theme this
year at the 140th (it’s not the
British) Open Championship.
The oldest major (howdy, U.S.
Open!) returned to the south of
England for the first time in eight
years to find the world’s No. 1
and No. 2 are the home nation’s
Luke Donald and Lee Westwood.
No pressure then, lads, to be
the first Englishman to win the
Open since Nick Faldo in 1992.
Great Expectations, as the great
Englishman Charles Dickens
would say. Under normal cir-
cumstances, Donald and West-
wood would have been engulfed
in a frenzy of patriotic fervor. But
under normal circumstances,
Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy
wouldn’t have won the U.S. Open
last month by eight shots. So,
RoryMania crossed the Atlantic
from Maryland to Kent via Holy-
wood, Belfast. There were seats
aplenty for the Englishmen’s
preview press conferences. For
McIlroy, it was SRO. The English-
men gave the impression they
were rather chuffed to sidestep
all the hype and see it heaped on
Wee Rory. “It would mean every-
thing to me,” Westwood said for
an Englishman to win the Open
on this English links. “It’s named
after St George. You can’t get
much more English than that.
It’s obviously being played in the
south of England, which only
happens every now and then.”
Did we mention there’s an Eng-
lish theme at Sandwich? Cup of
tea, anyone? A
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Luke Donald
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