Els Says He Never Quit at Shinnecock

TROON, Scotland —  It has been nearly a month since he shot 80 on the last day of the U.S. Open on the baked grass at Shinnecock Hills and fell from second to a tie for ninth, but Ernie Els is still steaming over the conditions.

“It was quite unplayable ... ridiculous,” he said Tuesday. “For me to shoot an 80 after playing so well, you know, I’m sorry. I’m just laughing at that, to be honest with you.”

Els stopped laughing, however, when told of the comments of USGA official Tom Meeks, who told the Boston Globe that Els “gave up.”

Meeks told the Globe: “I think a lot of golfers lost their patience and gave up early. I really think Ernie Els gave up after the first hole.”

Els, who hadn’t heard Meeks’ comment before Tuesday, reacted angrily.

“They shouldn’t have said that. How do you give up? That is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard in my life,” he said. “I’ve never given up on any round of golf in my life. If I did give up, I would have shot 100. I mean, that’s ridiculous.

“You know what, they have no idea. They’ve lost the plot in the story. To take one of the best golf courses in this entire world and to make it a farce like that, I mean, they’ve got egg on their face is all I can say.”

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Phil Mickelson said he doesn’t want to be too ready to play Thursday, so he has developed an unusual routine -- he’s playing only one practice round at Royal Troon, which was Monday. Mickelson did play Friday after he missed the cut at the Scottish Open, but he is spending the rest of his time practicing instead of playing.

“I feel like I have a pretty good game plan or have a pretty good idea of how I want to play it on Thursday, so I don’t want to overdo it,” he said.

The winner at the Masters and runner-up at the U.S. Open, Mickelson hasn’t done well in 11 British Open appearances. His best result was a tie for 11th at St. Andrews in 2000. In 40 rounds, Mickelson is a combined 77 over par.

“My record here at the British Open has never been the best, or something that I’ve been proud of,” he said, “but I am really looking forward to playing at Troon this Thursday.”

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He knows the eighth hole at Royal Troon measures only 123 yards, but that doesn’t mean Tiger Woods isn’t full of respect for the shortest hole of all the British Open courses.

“If the wind doesn’t blow and the pins are up front, I’m sure some of the guys could hit sand wedge,” he said. “If the wind is howling off the right, you could hit as much as a seven-iron or six-iron.

“But it’s the penalty of missing the green, if you miss it left. But if you miss it right, you have one heck of a difficult bunker shot to get it up because you’re playing downwind now. So it presents quite a challenge.”

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Woods, asked why he was having such difficulty remembering all the holes from his experience playing Royal Troon at the 1997 British Open: “Old age, probably.”

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Here’s the latest four-day weather forecast for Troon:

Today, showers in the morning; Thursday, showers in the morning; Friday, showers in the evening; Saturday, showers all day.

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Retief Goosen won the U.S. Open with a game so devoid of extravagance, many believe it spilled over into the personality of the player himself. Goosen said he didn’t have a colorful personality, but he didn’t apologize for it.

“Well, I’ve got way more colorful shirts,” he said. “Everybody has their style of playing around the golf course. Tiger used to get very involved when he used to make putts and things like that and he has even tuned down a bit on that, not quite as many fist pumps as there used to be.”

Goosen also mentioned Darren Clarke, who has slimmed down and tried different fashion on the course.

“But you have your older guys like Darren trying to be more colorful now, and getting haircuts and all sorts of stuff and trousers that are so ugly that you don’t even want to think about it.”