George Kimballon how first alternate Heath Slocum had ordered a late breakfast when his number finally came up

HEATH SLOCUM arrived at Royal Birkdale at six o'clock yesterday morning and proceeded to the practice ground. While he's not one to wish to profit from others' misfortunes, what he saw did not exactly fill him with hope for the rest of the day.

"I watched Pádraig Harrington, and he looked like he was swinging quite well," recalled the 24-year-old American. "I really didn't expect that he wouldn't play, but from what I'd been reading in the media about his injury and him saying he was 50-50, I'd figured that if I was going to get into this tournament at all it would be because Pádraig had withdrawn. But as I watched him on the range it was clear he was making some pretty good passes at it, and I knew that wasn't going to happen. So I cut it short and just went inside to get warm."

When the field for the 137th British Open was first announced, Slocum was the fourth alternate - that by virtue of his 66th-place standing in the world rankings.

A year ago he had been fifth on the alternate list for the Open, but elected not to go to Carnoustie - presciently, as it turned out; he wouldn't have gotten in. But by last weekend, three exempt players - Kenny Perry, who opted to stay in the States in the hope of accumulating Ryder Cup points rather than punish himself in Lancashire; David Toms and Luke Donald, who both pulled out with injuries - had withdrawn.

That trio was replaced by the Colombian Camilo Villegas and the Americans Pat Perez and Jerry Kelly, leaving Slocum the first alternate.

His decision to fly across the Atlantic was further facilitated by the fact the tournament sponsors had chartered a jet to get participants in last weekend's John Deere Classic from Illinois to England.

"I figured if I get in, great; if not, it will have been a great experience," said Slocum. "And it turned out, even if I hadn't gotten in, I got to play a great golf course for two days. I'd never been over here before, so I was just going to treat it as a mini-vacation."

He reckoned the odds were someone would drop out this week, but on Thursday morning, six days after Kelly had joined the field to move Slocum up to number one, he was still stuck with his alternate spot and running out of time.

"To be honest, I didn't figure I had much of a chance at that point," said Slocum. At 7:58 he watched Harrington tee off, and then repaired to the clubhouse. After checking to see the other contestants had shown up, he ordered breakfast in the family dining room.

At 9:15 his mobile rang.

David Moffett, the R&A official in charge of entries, informed Slocum a vacancy had materialised in the field.

Slocum didn't even ask who he would be replacing. All he knew was he had less than half an hour until his tee time. He raced back to the range for what he described as "an express warm-up" before reporting to the first tee, where he greeted his playing partners, John Daly and Richard Finch.

He was so consumed by the excitement of the exhilarating moment he didn't even notice the puzzled looks on the faces of two dozen Japanese cameramen ringing the tee in expectation of capturing the first tee shot struck by Toru Taniguchi.

Details of the back injury that had led to Taniguchi's last-minute withdrawal had not been communicated to his compatriots, and they could barely disguise their disappointment when Slocum's name was announced instead.

Straight-but-short off the tee, Slocum's game is probably better suited to yesterday morning's conditions than those of many of his compatriots from the US tour.

A bit over four hours later he was back in the clubhouse, having carded a three-over-par 73 that left him tied (with the surprising David Duval) for low American until Rocco Mediate rolled in with his 69 a few hours later.

"I hit a couple of stray ones out there, but you're going to hit some stray ones on a day like this," said Slocum.

"But it definitely helps to keep it between the bunkers, and I did a pretty good job of that."

Slocum had planned on rain. That the wind-chill factor might come into play had not occurred to him.

"I'd watched tournaments on this golf course growing up, but until I got here this morning I hadn't seen a drop of rain all week," he said. "Today's conditions were just about exactly what I'd always imagined the British Open would be like. I mean, it rained sideways, and I was really, really cold. I guess I didn't pack appropriately."

But, particularly following his nail-biting morning, said Slocum of his first Open round, "it was an awesome experience."