I saw most of the morning wave's play, but only the early part of the afternoon wave's play. So here's some of those random musings you stop by for...
Scoring - Conditions were as benign as you'll find them for an Open Championship, and I'm actually surprised the boys didn't go lower. Combining low winds with four reachable Par-5's, I'd have expected the lead to be even lower. But while we didn't get that low one or two numbers, we have an amazingly compressed scoreboard, with no fewer than seventeen lads from 2-4 under. If we get the nasty weather forecast for tomorrow, that'll sort things out.
Rory - He owns Thursday, doesn't he now? Shackelford this morning gave us the litany of his bets at Paddy Power, Ladbrokes and God knows where else, can he find our for us the Over/Under for Rory's
Friday round.
Ryan Herrington goes out of his way to provide young Rors five ways to beat his Friday jinx, including gems like this:
3. Take it one shot at a time.
You think that one up all by your lonesome? He makes the case for patience, never a bad thing in this game.
But this is the one that may prove to be the issue:
5. Don't sweat the bad weather.The forecast for the afternoon isn't looking great, which could become an issue, obviously. Taking it in stride will be important, something that Rory hasn't always done in the past.
The problem here is that Rory isn't much of a bad weather player. When he got caught in the high winds at The Old Course in 2010, he just kept throwing his moon balls up into it. As Tiger would tell you, Rory, gotta get some reps in working on your traj.
Tiger - I would think the Striped One would be pleased to have posted a decent number, especially after the bogey-bogey start. He made as many birdies as Rory so, unlike at Congressional, he could find the cup.
Luke Kerr-Dineen posts on the three lessons we learned from Tiger's round, including this:
He can still grind.
Just like the Tiger of old, there was no sign that he was taking it easy once things weren't going his way early in the round. Tiger started with consecutive bogeys on the opening two holes but managed turn things around with birdies on the fifth, 11th, 12th, 13th, 15th and 16th. He finished the day at three-under 69, which considering his lack of recent competitive experience and his poor start is a real sign of encouragement.
No real disagreement with that, though I thought he got away with a few loose shots. That birdie at the Par-5 16th, in particular, included two bad swings. If the wind picks up, that'll expose any indifferent ball-striking, but for now he's undoubtedly happy, as he should be.
Team Italia - This is just insane, as the three-man Italian team is a combined 13-under. I'll have whatever they're drinking...
Good to see Edoardo Molinari, who's been fighting injuries seemingly since forever, back again.
My Picks - I went with Henrik Stenson as my pick to win, with the usual result. On a better note, Sergio was my longshot, a place I had promised myself I'd never go again.
How bad did it go for Henrik? This bad:
The great Dan Jenkins, home in Texas, has this tweet after Stenson's wedge met its untimely demise:
The Merseyside Beat - Given our venue, you're of course expecting Beatles jump music and the like, and you'll be sorely disappointed. Shackelford had the same reaction as your humble blogger to the use of Live and Let Die (for Chrissakes, it's a Bond movie theme) as jump music:
Actually, don’t knock ESPN for using "Live and Let Die" or other solo works by the Beatles. They wanted to play Liverpoolian-themed Fab Four tunes all week during the Open Championship telecast, but even a network valued at $50 billion can’t justify paying the Beatles catalog rightsholders what is expected for proper Beatles songs like "Strawberry Fields", "Penny Lane" and "Hard Day’s Night."
Actually, I thought (perhaps erroneously) that you could use it for bump music under the Fair Use Doctrine, but not for an extended segment. But folks, we're in Merseyside, how about Gerry and the Pacemakes. You know, Ferry, Cross the Mersey... go ahead, hum a few bars. I'll wait.
In other music-related news, John Strege posts the video here of players asked to name the four Beatles. Good guess Rory, I'm quite sure that George Lucas wanted to be in the Beatles.
And for no other reason than he can, Shack also offers this gem as the worst Beatles cover ever:
Give it a listen if you dare, as he might just be right. Though I'd have to check whether William Shattner did any Beatles covers. And since we're on the music scene, here are my pics of the Cavern Club:
It's a bit of a recreation, but occupies a portion of the original site. It's suitably claustrophobic, and filled with tobacco (or other) smoke one might not last long.
And during our travels, we ran across the ill-fated Eleanor Rigby:
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