Technology Changes, Not Course

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — Peter Thomson, who won the British Open at St. Andrews 50 years ago, says technology has changed the game.

“I have no quarrel with the golf sticks ... but the flight of the golf ball has been the curse of our modern golf,” Thomson said Tuesday. “But fortunately, something is being done about it eventually now.”

Thomson won the British Open five times between 1954 and 1965 and said the Old Course hadn’t changed a great deal and probably wouldn’t change in the next 15 or 20 years.

“I don’t think it will look any different, because essentially it hasn’t looked different for the last 50 years,” he said. “I mean, the greens are the same, absolutely the same. The bunkering is just changed by the look of it and just an extension of the tees.”

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Tiger Woods, the British Open favorite, has been first, second or third in 42.9% of his professional tournaments -- 76 of 177.

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Paul Lawrie, on the Loch Lomond course after shooting 65 last week in the first round of the Scottish Open: “It’s so easy, it’s a joke. There is no rough, the fairways are huge and every hole is an opportunity for birdie.”

It became lots less funny later, with Lawrie ending with a 76 and a tie for 58th.

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Padraig Harrington withdrew from the British Open because of the death of his father in Dublin. Henrik Stenson of Sweden will replace Harrington.

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Nick Faldo, on whether someone will shoot 59 this week: “No, no. The golfing gods will strangle them on 17, just in case.”