|
SAN DIEGO, California: Expect golf’s big guns to
come out firing Thursday, as Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson tee off
in a group with Australian Adam Scott in the opening round of the
108th US Open championship.
“Awesome,” Mickelson said of
the unusual grouping of the top three players in the world for the
first and second rounds of a major championship.
“I like the opportunity to play
with the best.”
Woods, too, welcomed the group,
which is sure to draw a mammoth gallery when it tees off at No.1 on
Torrey Pines South, the 7,643-yard, par-71 layout that is hosting
the Open for the first time.
“I think it’s exciting,”
Woods said.
Scott, ranked third in the world,
has been keeping a low profile, but showed no ill effects of a
recent hand injury as he practiced Wednesday.
Only once before have Woods and
Mickelson been paired for the first two rounds of a major - the 2006
PGA Championship at Medinah.
Woods was three shots better than
Mickelson in that pairing, and went on to win the title.
US Golf Association President Jim
Hyler said extra security measures had been laid on in anticipation
of the crowds, including extra police to walk with that group as
well as those teeing off immediately before and after.
But Woods, seeking to add to his
13 major titles and further close in on Jack Nicklaus’s record of
18, said the hoopla sure to surround the group would mean nothing
once they got underway at 8:06 a.m. (15:06 GMT).
“Once you tee off, you’re in
your own little world,” Woods said. “You don’t really care
about what anyone else is doing. You have enough issues going on out
there, trying to play a major championship venue.”
The venue is one that has been
more than hospitable to both Woods and Mickelson, who between them
have won nine titles at the PGA Tour’s Buick Invitational here.
--AFP
|
