Hoylake Diary: The US Open at Winged Foot might be remembered more for the guys who lost it (include Monty, Phil, Padraig and Jim on the list) rather than who did win it. But Geoff Ogilvy, the Aussie who stayed cool and calm to claim his first major title, has taken a unique approach to preparing for this major: he simply hasn't played any competitive golf.
Ogilvy decided to head home to Australia for a break after his win last month. "I've never done it before, take four weeks off," confessed Ogilvy. "We'll see. If I'm not sharp enough this week, I might not do it again. But part of the reason I did it is just to see if I could get away with doing it. I just tried to prepare for this without letting anything else get in the way. It might be alright, it might be a disaster. We'll see."
Jug runneth over
The first time the winner of the Open championship received prize money was in 1864, when Old Tom Morris collected the princely sum of £6 for his troubles. The winner of the 135th Open will receive £720,000 (€1,045,965). Of course, whoever wins will tell you that the claret jug is more important than the financial rewards. And we'll believe them. Of course.
McDowell at ease
In what will be his eighth appearance in a major, Graeme McDowell believes his time spent on the links at Portrush will stand to him at Hoylake.
"I'm very close to making the breakthrough," said the Irishman, who has fallen to 103rd in the world. "Being the type of course it is, you've got a lot of shot-making. You've got to shape your shots, you've got to control your ball. I've been falling back into my natural links golf since I got here. I enjoy the creativity of links golf. You can be chipping with anything this week, from lobwedge to three-wood."
McDowell's best finish in a major came in last year's British Open at St Andrews, where he finished in tied-11th position. He secured a place in the field this week by coming through the qualifying at Sunningdale last month.
Rota comes around
The R&A operate a rota of courses for the British Open. Royal Liverpool is playing host to the championship for the first time since 1967 and are hoping the wait until the next one isn't quite as long. Carnoustie, which was off the rota from 1968 until 1999, will play host to next year's championship. Royal Birkdale has been pencilled in for 2008, with Turnberry staging it in 2009.
Broadening the mind
Vaughn Taylor is virtually certain to be on the American Ryder Cup team for the match at The K Club . . . which will probably be the second time he will have had to use his passport. The Augusta native only took out a passport last year - "I got one just in case I needed one, I wasn't planning on coming over (here) or anything, but got one just in case," he explained - and used if for the first time to travel for his British Open debut.
