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My Diary
In a short visit home for fresh clothes, Lee travelled to Lancashire on Monday afternoon for his next event, the third Major of the season, the
137th Open Golf Championship
at Royal Birkdale. This is his fourteenth appearance in the Open, with best finishes of 4th place in 2004 and 10th in 1997 and includes four missed cuts.
Currently enjoying good form, following his T11th finish at the Masters and 3rd in the US Open, Lee is best backed contender, tipped to win at 14/1...
no pressure then
...
When asked about the course Lee said, "I think its strengths are it's incredibly fair. Most of the fairways are flat. It tests most aspects of your game. I think if you're a good driver of the ball, you can take on a few of the holes. It's obviously had some length added to it, which makes it quite a lengthy, demanding test. It's a good driver's golf course, and I consider myself a very good driver of the golf ball. I think I need to putt more consistently over the whole week. I haven't really had a fantastic putting week over the four days when I've needed it. So if I can do that this week, then I feel pretty confident I'll be there or thereabouts, coming into the end of the week".
Lee visited the course last week with his dad, John and thought it was playing a little softer and could probably bring more players into contention, "When it is very bouncy and firm, it requires more sort of specific ball control, as in spin control, where to land it and what sort of trajectory to put on it, that you can play a little more one-dimensionally when it's as soft as this. The course probably plays -- I don't want to say plays easier, but probably plays a little fairer when it's very soft, and probably does play a fraction easier because you don't tend to get some of the odd bounces you normally associate with links golf".
Lee was grouped with Ben Curtis and K.J. Choi for the first two rounds, with a Thursday tee-time of 8.58 and Friday at 14.09.
Lee said the course plays a little fairer when it's very soft, but the players had to contend with a blustery wind and heavy rain on the morning of the opening round. Getting off to a horrible start, Lee was four-over after the 3rd and added two more bogeys to his card at 6 and 9 (40). He made his way home with a birdie at 10 and could only make par at the remaining holes despite some near misses, but at least he remained dry in the closing holes. Finishing 5-over for the day left him in T52nd position.
"Six-over at the turn didn't make me too despondent", Lee said."The driving rain as well as the wind made it awkward on the greens. It changes the pace of them. I'm OK on quick greens but when they slow down, I struggle". Lee was off to practise the rhythm to his stroke, which he said has been poor for a while.
Playing in only slightly improved weather conditions, Lee did not fare much better in the second round, finding tv cables on his opening hole and ending with a bogey 5. He three-putted the sixth to go 7-over par and dropped another shot at the 10th. He hit a monster drive at 11 but missed his birdie chance and at the 13th his chip rolled back off the green to almost it's original position, where he was able to settle for par. 9-over at the 14th, Lee made par at the remaining holes, settling for a 74. "I performed miserably, absolutely miserably on the greens", he said. "I can't remember when I last putted that badly and it was even more disappointing considering what was at stake".
He just made the cut and had an 800hrs third round tee-time with Nick O'Hern.
Winds gusting to 30mph were playing havoc with the third round of the Open Championship and Lee was one of the casualties. He opened with a double-bogey at the 1st and dropped a shot at the next. More bogeys followed at 5 and 6, and going into the turn on 5-over for the day, he double-bogeyed the 10th. After dropping more shots at 14 and 15, he was 18 over par. The highlight of the day was a birdie at the 17th (his second in this event) and after missing a birdie try at 18 he joked, "I didn't want to spoil it by birdying the last as well."
Clearly disappointed he said "I'd spent two hours practising last night and it seemed like a long way round after that start", and added , "I wish this was Sunday - I've just not felt comfortable on the greens. I went back to a normal grip on Saturday, but left everything short."
He had a final day's tee-time of 7.40 with Martin Weigele. Again in windy conditions, Lee managed a round of 73 (20 over - total strokes 300) and finished in T67th place on the leaderboard. Earning €12,390 in prize money saw Lee drop one place to 5th in the Order of Merit, but move up to 18th in World Rankings.
Off to the Belfry early Monday morning for a corporate day, Lee will travel to the US on Sunday for the WGC Bridgestone Invitational (commencing 31st July).
Lee at the Majors
>>more from my diary
