Meeting the English challengers
Tucked in behind fairytale third-round leader Greg Norman and determined defending champion Padraig Harrington were five young Englishmen hoping to emerge as Open champion at Royal Birkdale on Sunday.
No Englishman has won the Open since Nick Faldo at Muirfield in 1992, but forget the more established likes of Lee Westwood, Justin Rose or Paul Casey for now.
Simon Wakefield began his final round in fourth place at five over, three shots adrift of Norman. Ross Fisher was among those five back and Graeme Storm, the amateur Chris Wood and Ian Poulter were still in contention six shots behind.
Here's a brief rundown on the not-so famous five:
Simon Wakefield: +5 (after 54 holes)
Age: 34
Birthplace: Newcastle-under-Lyme
World ranking: 252
Best Open: T48 in 2006
Tournament wins: 0
"It's obviously very unfamiliar territory for me this week. It's a fairytale to be honest. Winning the Open is a long way off my mind, there is a lot of golf to be played. All I'm going to do is try and commit to my game and just do the best I can."
Ross Fisher: +7
Age: 27
Birthplace: Ascot
World ranking: 55
Best Open: MC in 2007
Tournament wins: 2 - 2007 KLM Open, 2008 European Open
"I am thoroughly enjoying the Open experience. I'm in good form and good spirits, confidence is high. I looking forward to the final round. I'll go out and shoot as low as I can and see what happens."
Graeme Storm: +8
Age: 30
Birthplace: Hartlepool
World ranking: 139
Best Open: T78 in 2005
Tournament wins: 1 - 2007 French Open
"You need to stay around par as long as you can but there's chances out there. It's a case of grinding it, not getting down if you make a bogey and playing as hard as you can. Everybody's making mistakes the same. I felt good coming into this week, sort of found something on Monday and played pretty good on Tuesday."
Chris Wood (amateur): +8
Age: 20
Birthplace: Bristol
World ranking: N/A
Best Open: Debut
Tournament wins: N/A
"Am I in with a shout? Definitely. I would need a 66 or 67 and I would need things to go my way but Camillo Villegas birdied the last five holes on Friday so the possibility is there."
Ian Poulter: +8
Age: 32
Birthplace: Hitchin
World ranking: 42
Best Open: T11 in 2005
Tournament wins: 8 - 2000 Italian Open, 2001 Moroccan Open, 2002 Italian Open, 2003 Wales Open, Nordic Open, 2004 Volvo Masters, 2006 Madrid Open, 2007 Dunlop Phoenix in Japan.
"I'm sitting on full right now, absolutely buzzing, don't worry about that. I've got 18 holes of good golf left in me. I'm not out of it by any means."
I'm Rob Hodgetts and I cover golf and stuff for 91Èȱ¬ Sport online when I am not news editing or managing the front page.
Comment number 1.
At 20th Jul 2008, campg0904 wrote:Great Open but spoiled for me by the frequent shots of players against the setting sun - they make great photos but lousy television.
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Comment number 2.
At 20th Jul 2008, yahtrebork wrote:It would be interesting to have face-on recordings, and if possible, corresponding recordings from behind, of various players so we could see, in slow motion, the details of their swing action. I imagine the variations are many numerous?
Great golf presentation - many thanks.
yahtrebork
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