Sweet passports and Europhilia, the main stories in sports this week are across the pond. Pass the tea and biscuits and hang on.
The Open Championship is right behind the Masters on the list of best golf tournaments. That’s just how it is and how it will be.
The rolling hills and random bunkers. The gigantor greens that are part ski slaloms and part parking lots. The whipping wind that if it’s helping turns a 240-yard par 3 into a soft 7-iron or if it’s hurting makes the game’s best players stand on a 4-iron from 182.
There’s a lot to like about THE Open. Even the terms are more golfing: A good drive elicits a “Lovely” from a spectator at THE Open; a good drive anywhere else save Augusta draws a “Get in the hole,” or “You da man.” There’s the challenge of the unexpected bounces and turns. There’s the untenable lies in unforgiving bunkers – Aaron Baddeley had to play a bunker shot left-handed Thursday morning. There’s the fashion statements – be it Ian Poulter’s stylish attire or John Daly’s style-less hunter’s safety orange toboggan.
One down side of The Open: Listening to the television commentators (Yes, we’re looking at you, Scott Van Pelt) slide into their best British accents. Be it intentional or accidental, it’s not good. At all. In fact, this is the only sporting event that draws that strange phenomenon. Think about it: Were the guys doing the play-by-play at the Women’s World Cup in German dressed in lederhosen and saying “Danka” and “Bereitschaft?” The answer, thankfully, was “Nein.”