British Open will miss Woods

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: The Open Championship — or the British Open as we like to casually refer to it, has made more news for the players who will be missing it this time around than those who are participating in the year’s third major championship and the only one this side of the Atlantic.

First Tiger Woods announced that he will miss the rest of the season due to knee surgery, then Kenny Perry, ranked 16th on the PGA Tour Money List, decided to play a PGA Tour event and miss the British Open in preparation for the Ryder Cup which is scheduled to be held later this year. Luke Donald pulled out due to injury and defending champion Padraig Harrington suffered a wrist injury while playing the Scottish Open at Loch Lomond the weekend before the Open was due to start but decided to defend his title anyway.

However, all this aside, no one can take away the charm and unique experience that comes with playing golf in the British Isles.

The first two rounds saw the golfers covered in rain suits and their hands kept warm with thick gloves. The rain came down persistently and the wind was more than 16 kilometers per hour. And this in the middle of summer.

But the most exciting development was to see former world number one Greg Norman take the lead during the second round of the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale. Norman, who married former tennis star Chris Evert last month said that he plays more tennis these days than golf but that does not seem to have harmed his golf game at all. At 53, his expectations of winning are really low, but I am sure that all his fans would love to see him win his third British Open title.

Known as the Great White Shark, Norman has a personality that envelopes all those around him and if there is anyone who can pull this off — at this age and with a few surgeries behind him — it is Norman.

Then there are those who have pitted Sergio Garcia to win this week, making it a Spanish summer after Spain won the Euro 2008 and Rafael Nadal won Wimbledon. Garcia has worked on his short game, specially his putting which let him down last year and will be back stronger from the experience and can hopefully get the monkey of never having won a major championship off his back.

Rocco Mediate won hearts with his U S Open performance and is having a dream run. Well placed at the halfway stage, he just might realise his wishes of winning a major championship yet. And on the Asian front, qualifier Singapore’s Lam Chih Bing survived the cut and will play over the weekend, as will former Asian number one, Liang Wen Chong.

Regardless of the outcome, it promises to be a great championship. The weather as always will play a major part and the golf course will test the skills of some of the best professionals in the world. Links golf is not everybody’s cup of tea as we have seen and requires a lot of imagination, ball control