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CNN Live At Daybreak

British Open Begins Thursday

Aired July 15, 2002 - 06:32   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: The British Open tees off Thursday. It is professional golf's third major championship of the year, and it is not just Tiger Woods that the rest of the field has to contend with.

Here is CNN's Bob Fiscella with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVIS LOVE, III, RANKED 7TH IN WORLD: There is one guy playing out here really, really well, and a bunch of guys, you know, right on his heels. He's not winning by 40, you know, and he's not winning every week. He's just winning some big golf tournaments when he has to.

BOB FISCELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Perhaps Tiger is not winning every week, but he has won both majors so far this year, and 7 of the last 11, which is why British bookmakers have installed him as a prohibitive 7-to-4 favorite to win at Muirfield, as the venerable links plays host to the Open championship for the first time since 1992, when Nick Faldo hoisted the (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

NICK FALDO, THREE-TIME BRITISH OPEN CHAMP: Well, one of the great compliments I heard is Tiger watched tapes of me playing St. Andrews to then go and win there, which it's a nice compliment to me. So I bet he has been watching tapes of me winning at Muirfield, and see if he has worked out the secret. I know what is, but I ain't going to tell him, yet.

FISCELLA: It's no secret that weather is likely to play a large part in the Open championship. It invariably does. Blustery, unpredictable winds are all but guaranteed. Don't bet against temperatures nose-diving, forcing players to scramble for their doublements (ph). And there's always the possibility of those horizontal sheets of rain that have wreaked havoc on so many past Open championships.

NICK PRICE, 1994 BRITISH OPEN CHAMP: You prepare yourself for, you know, cooler weather, rain, make sure all of your rain gear is waterproof.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It could be 50, it could be 40, it could be blowing rain, it could be -- who knows? FISCELLA: What we do know is that the moderate length of the golf course will not play into Tiger's hands, like the stretched-out Augusta National did, and like at Bethpage, which was the longest venue in U.S. Open history. Muirfield measures more than 7,000 yards, but the hard-and-fast fairways make the links play shorter than the listed yardage, and only two holes have been lengthened since the course last hosted the championship.

DAVID TOMS, RANKED 8TH IN WORLD: You know, length always is a benefit on every golf course, so you can take advantage of certain holes if you can hit it far. But those first two you were talking about, the Masters the U.S. Open, they were very difficult. But British Open is the type of conditions that I think you will see anybody has a chance.

PRICE: And I think what the R&A (ph) did last year to Lytham -- Royal Lytham in St. Anne's, was fantastic. All they did was extended the bunker lines down from, say, down the right-hand side of the fairway from, say, 250 down to 300. So the longer hitters didn't have an advantage of being able to carry the bunkers. There was just a wall of bunkers down the right side, and if you pushed your drive, it didn't matter how far you hit it, it was going to end up in a bunker.

VIJAY SINGH, RANKED 9TH IN WORLD: The links, golf course is always short unless or until the wind blows. You know, you could play a whole day to (ph) drive a wedge, and the next day, you won't reach it to -- you know, to woods. So it really doesn't matter how short or how long a golf course at the links is, it depends on how windy it can get there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you don't drive the bunker, then you are just going to get smoked. So that's the whole key is just you go and you're driving good, you might have a chance to do something there, because the greens are fairly flat, and there's nothing tricky about it. It's just a great -- it's one of my favorite courses in the world.

FISCELLA: The question now: Will it become one of Tiger's favorite courses, and the sight of his third major triumph of the year on his way to the grand slam?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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