Day 3, 3rd Rd at the 138th Open, Turnberry Scotland

The drive from home to Turnberry took about 1½ hours. Parking was on the fairway of the Kintyre course, the 2nd Turnberry 18th holes course. Security at the entrances was very thorough with lots of Policemen and CISCO-type security personnel, X-ray scans, metal detector tunnel, body searches, etc. They were not necessarily looking for weapons but even worse than that. They were looking for mobile phones and cameras!! The 3rd day found us spending more time at the merchandise pavilion, hospitality/restaurant pavilion, VAT refund tent. We bought the Open programme which cost £6 and a radio (cost £8) pre-tuned to the BBC channel reporting on the Open. This is the only way to know what is happening else where on the course. Probably only good to be used again at next year's Open.

Today didn't see much rain but lots of wind which still prove to be a problem for the golfers. There was lots of sunshine so we decided to have a bit of lunch from the picnic bag we brought. We did this while seating on the grass watching BBC1 showing on a super large LED screen together with hundreds of other fans. The weather was really nice while we sat in the sun with the cool wind blowing, munching our lunch together with cokes and ginger ale. Noticed quite a lot of American fans beside the Scots and some other Brits. Only noticed 1 Sing and 2 half Sings and a handful of Japanese. Also with the sun out , dressing was generally lighter and the ladies (SYTs) started looking quite delicious (eye-candy). Atmosphere was quite good, lots of happy people enjoying their day at the 138th British Open. I think I will come again next year now that I know what is involved. Probably bring along my own eye-candy.

Though there was no rain, the wind was still quite strong and chilly. Saw a number of approach shots into the green carried pass the pins by the wind. We decided to first watch Tom Watson and Steve Marino on the LED screen while having our picnic. By the time we finished we then queued almost ½ hour at the 7th green to get seats on the stand to wait for the leader flight. Kenichi Kuboya played a very clevel chip (4th) from outside the 7th green pass the pin and then let the ball rolled back down the slope to rest about 3' from the pin. The crowd roared their approval as they saw him come up earlier to study the slope behind the pin. He converted his put for a par but ended the day with a 75. The crowd didn't seem partisan in their applause and showed approval to anyone with a good shot. Of course when Lee Westwood and later Ross Fisher came up to the 7th Green there was extra loud applause. Understandably they cheered loudly for them as all hopes of UK now rests on their shoulders.

Choosing to watch the golfers from the 7th green proved quite a good decision as we saw so many great shots into the green. Retief Goosen put his 3rd into the rough (real rough) short of the green needing golfer, caddies, marshalls and even a spectator scrambling to find his ball. Fortunately for him the spectator came over from the crowd to point to the group where the ball entered into the rough. The crowd cheered the spectator while he raised his hands to acknowledged their applause and that must have made his day! Jimenez who is Goosen's flight mate had earlier put his 2nd into the greenside bunker and later played such a beautiful 3rd out of the bunker to about a give-me distance from the pin. He converted that for a birdie. The best was saved for the last flight when both Watson and Marino placed their 2nd shots onto the Par 5 7th green. Watson's was about 20' below the pin while Marino's was almost a give-me distance from the pin. Watson couldn't convert his eagle and got a birdie 4 while Marino made no mistake with an eagle 3.

What really impressed me watching the last flight walking up was firstly the applause given to both the old (past use-by date) golfer and the young rookie Open golfer. The atmosphere is not easily explainable and you will need to be here understand the feeling. Another thing was when looking down the fairway to the 7th tee-box and beyond, we could see hundreds or thousands of fans following the leader flight lining both sides of the fairway. The number of fans following is just amazing. I also noticed Tom Watson intentionally slow down to let Marino go ahead of him to receive the initial applause as Marino had a better approach shot. Such professional and gentlemanly conduct which made me respect the 59yr old even more. Everyone seems to be cheering on the 59yr old leader at every hole and it was amazing .

Later we went over to the 12th green and sat on the slope of the knoll where the WW I&II monument to wait for the leaders. The par 4 12th didn't prove to be so boring even though it is short as the challenge is the rather small green. Both Watson and Marino missed their par puts to end with a bogey 5 each. By this time, except for Tom Watson and Ross Fisher, the leaderboard was already missing some of the the previous day's names. We also watched Sergio Garcia, Jim Furyk, Angel Cabrera, Ernie Els, Boo Weekly, Richard Johnson, Graeme McDowell play the 15th hole. We were real close to Ernie Els as he walked past, wow so tall but yet looking so cool and steady man. I called out "Hi Ernie" and he turned around and acknowledged by tapping his cap with a smile!! One golfer I have been looking out but not seen yet is non other than John Daly. I must look out for the guy and see what his outfit will be tomorrow.

Today only 6 golfers managed to play sub-par games. Testimony of how a simple and seemingly easy course with just the element of wind can humble the best and the greatest that the golfing world can offer.

We will try to leave a bit earlier tomorrow as we want to watch some of the earlier play. Also can get parking closer to the course while the last 2 days we had to park almost 3-4 par 5 holes away from the entrance. We took many pictures of houses around the course especially the Turnberry resort/hotel which overlooks the course. Overall, we enjoyed ourselves and girls also got to spent money do shopping, buy Open merchandise, etc. Now looking forward to the final Sunday round. :-)