Time to Feed The Shark

Nobody could have imagined this. The Shark holds the 54 hole lead by 2 shots over Harrington and Choi. He's 2-over par for the championship and the last time that The Open leader was over par after three rounds was back in 1986 at Turnberry. That too was Greg Norman, he was 1-over par after three rounds and held a 1-shot lead over some guy named Tsuneyuki Nakajima. In the final round of his first British Open win (that was 22 years ago by the way), The Shark shot a 1-under 69 to win by five strokes.


Back to what matters...Andy Cohen and Jeff Fannon are tied for the lead with 50 points and Mike Ridge sits alone in third place with 44. Anthony Kim (found on 5 entries) was our best scorer of the day with 4 points and Padraig Harrington scored 3.

It should be an exciting finish.


~Max

48 MPH Gusts Can't Stop Love

The conditions are brutal. No rain, but the wind is howling and players are finding it difficult to mark a ball on the green.

So far, the LRD is even par 70. Both Davis Love III and Henrik Stenson have accomplished this feat. Even par today is equivalent to the 5-under round that Villegas shot yesterday. Love's round had one birdie, one bogie and 16 pars. At this point, he's moved up the leaderboard by 40 spots. He was tied for 69th at the start of the day and is currently tied for 29th. If even par holds up for the LRD, you'll need scores of 74 or better to earn points today.

Good luck!

~Max

Weather Will Play Role Saturday

The forecast is for a high of 59 degrees, rain and 20-30 mph winds. The conditions will favor the pure ball strikers and those with experience playing in weather. It should be a lot of fun!

TNT Television coverage begins at 6:00 am (CDT) and moves to ABC at 8:00 am (CDT). Tee times and pairings can be found here.

~Max

Catch The Leader

Even though 21 points separate first and last place, everyone is still mathematically alive for a prize. There are 10 golfers that are held by one entry and 4 golfers can be found on only two sheets. So, if you are behind - you just need some great rounds by your picks who aren't on anyone else's list.

I've posted a chart that shows every golfer in our pool who made the cut and the number next to his name shows how many entries picked him. Personally, I'll be rooting for Adam Scott, Andres Romero and Martin Kaymer this weekend. Who is your wildcard?

~Max

Cohen Leads After Two

Camilo Villegas' 5-under, 65, gave a lot of players hope - but, there wasn't a lot of scoring at Royal Birkdale today. There wasn't a lot of scoring in the pool either. Only ten points were registered in the entire pool for the second round, compared to 36 in round one.

While 83 players made the cut (low 70 and ties), we had 24 picked in our pool. Only Andy Cohen had all eight picks make the cut. Fannon, Ridge, Dwyer and Hasan all have seven players teeing it up this weekend.

Today we may have witnessed the resurgence of David Duval, who made only his second cut of the season by shooting 73, 69. He enters the weekend only three shots behind leader, KJ Choi. We also may have witnessed the demise of John Daly, who shot a two-day total of 169 - 29 shots over par. Daly will be looking for something else to do this weekend. Do they have a Hooter's over there?

Villegas Shoots 65, Norman Leads

Camilo Villegas finished his second round with 5 straight birdies to card a 65. I'm almost certain that score will hold up for the LRD, meaning that your players will need to shoot under par (69 or better) today to earn points for Round 2.

The Shark, Norman, is the leader in the clubhouse after shooting is second straight round of even par, 70.

The projected cut is 8-over par. Currently there are 81 players sitting within the cut-line.

~Max

Detailed Round 1 Leaderboard

If Birkdale plays the same way tomorrow, it's possible we'll be looking at a double-digit cut-line. Top 70 and ties make the cut to play the weekend. As you know, you receive 3 points for each player who makes the cut. So, ideally, you need your players to post a two round total under 149 to be within in the cut-line tomorrow. Anything can happen, and it probably will ;-)

In 1999, Aussie, Rod Pampling shot a 70, to take the first round lead. He followed that up with a round that you or I might shoot - an 86! He failed to make the cut.

I posted the detailed Leaderboard. The summary is in the previous post.

~Max