And it became clear that he had been indulging in a little gamesmanship in the build-up to this important race for his BAR-Honda team. The 22-year-old from Barnard Castle recently graduated from Tennessee State University as the top-ranked English collegiate player and won the Scottish and Welsh Amateur strokeplay titles in the space of seven days last month.Dinwiddie, who smashed the amateur course record at Alwoodley with a 65 in regional qualifying last Monday, said: "I played fairly steady. It would have been nice to go lower but with a low one [today] I'll have a chance.". If people power is as potent still as it was here for Nigel Mansell in 1992, Jenson Button will win this afternoon's British Grand Prix, and throw a monkey off his back. Dinwiddie was named in the Great Britain and Ireland men's amateur squad who will attempt to win an unprecedented fourth straight victory over the United States in Chicago in August, and now has an excellent chance of playing at St Andrews as well. "It was a good day's work and a pretty stress-free round," said Faxon.
"The course was there for the taking, but I know it will take another of those to get me into St Andrews."Qualification this year is tough with 384 players fighting it out for 12 places - three from each of four coursesSweden's Per-Ulrik Johansson carded a 70 at Ladybank while another former Ryder Cup player, Hampshire's Steven Richardson, shot a 68 at Leven Links.Durham's Robert Dinwiddie celebrated his Walker Cup call-up with a three-under-par 68 at Ladybank. That much seemed certain last week when Woods added his bellow to the burgeoning chorus of disapproval, whose most distinctive lyric is "Why?" What made Woods' criticism all the more damning was that the player who raised the original concerns, Paul McGinley, had first reasoned that the R&A were playing directly into the titanium-tipped hands of Tiger and the other mighty drivers who monopolise the upper rungs of the world rankings."Too many times they are getting an advantage," ventured the 38-year-old "Look at what they have done at St Andrews I'm very disappointed - they've changed the home of golf. They didn't need to lengthen it, they have just rewarded the big hitters, because there are some bunkers there that are now in play for 80 per cent of the field But Tiger can just blow it over them. I mean, that's not the future of golf, is it?"It is the immediate future, however, as McGinley was quick to point out when he was approached last week to expand on his objections. And at St Andrews this time we will have ructions about the changes made to the Old Course, the men who dared to alter "the home of golf", and the argument promises to roar with all the vehemence that the Royal and Ancient feared it would when they added five new tees and 164 yards to the course.
But the pressure might be a little bit less, not having the uncertainty of wondering where I'll ever be able to do it. So being able to come through when I needed to did give me a little bit of extra confidence, yes."It's hardly a war cry, although in this studious mood, Mickelson will never again see the worth in issuing one of those He has learnt to prepare. His perspiration is at last some sort of match for his inspiration.. The Open just would not be The Open without a controversy rumbling along somewhere in the background.
