Open Championship round one: Another record falls to Tiger

A little piece of history took place on the 16th green at Carnoustie Thursday. Tiger Woods’s massive birdie putt now stands as the world’s longest televised putt. Mind you I rely for this piece of useless information on the BBC and, given that organisation’s current problems telling fact from fiction, maybe a tiny pinch of salt is required.

The record was held by one of their own, Irish radio and TV broadcaster Sir Terence Wogan (you can call him Terry), who holed a 33-yarder in a televised pro-celebrity match at Gleneagles in 1981. His radio buddies, who phoned him up to rub it in, were adamant Woods’s putt was 100ft to set the new standard.

It was not Tiger’s only piece of good fortune, because a rules official gave him an extremely helpful free drop when his ball hit some TV cables. “Immovable object,” said the rules official. “I tried to move it and it wouldn’t budge.” “Not so,” said an intrepid hack, again from the BBC, “I moved it 3ft.” I can hear that law for the rich and the poor refrain again.

Even that piece of luck, though, leaves the great man four shots behind the stunning opening round of Sergio Garcia, putting like we haven’t seen in years. The belly putter is clearly working, although it is also suggested his changed grip may be a factor.
But then round one seemed to represent nothing so much as a mass resurrection of jaded careers: Paul McGinley, whose season so far is almost down there with Todd Hamilton; Michael Campbell, who’s been starring in a global production of Rip van Winkle these last couple of years; Padraig Harrington and Retief Goosen, who haven’t exactly caught the eye recently.

Crumbs, we even had good old John Daly smashing his way to the top for a brief period before he did his usual kamikaze act. Add to that the latest teen sensation in the form of 18 year-old Irishman Roy McIlroy and you had a right rum mix.

Carnoustie ended Thursday littered with squandered birdie opportunities and that is what marked out the strongest finishers. Tiger was unlucky with a few, Colin Montgomerie missed one golden opportinity after another, and Phil Mickelson likewise wasted chances. His general game, however, was up there with the best - he only missed five fairways and four greens.

Friday will get interesting if Garcia can maintain his momentum in the morning to present Tiger with a yawning gap when the American tees off later in the day. But I’m thinking all bets are off until Saturday, when the weathermen are promising us a wet and windy howler that will really sort the men from the boys.