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CNN Live At Daybreak

Woods Start 2nd Round of British Open 5 Strokes Back

Aired July 19, 2002 - 06:33   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: We are also tracking the Tiger at the British Open. He may have a bit of a fight on his hands.

Our Patrick Snell is joining us live from Scotland with the very latest on that -- Patrick. Patrick, not ahead so far, right?

PATRICK SNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Catherine, a very good morning to you. Yes, all eyes on the Tiger. Tiger Woods is due to start his second round here at Muirfield at the British Open in about one-and-a- half hour's time, and he is going to have to do a bit of work, a bit of catching up to do. He finished yesterday with a 70, a 1 under par, and that's around 5 strokes behind the lead at the moment, the lead with Zimbabwe's Nick Price on 6 under par.

So all eyes on Tiger. He is arriving at the course. He is gently limbering up for his second round. It's a very, very crucial round for him. You may recall last year at the British Open at Royal Lytham, he simply got too far down the leader board and left himself with too much to do in the final round. He'll be desperate to avoid that this time around. This is a very, very important day for Tiger Woods -- Catherine.

CALLAWAY: It looks like a bit of a mess out there, too, today, rainy. It wasn't certainly that way yesterday. What is the weather like?

SNELL: Yesterday we had idyllic conditions. And it's a surprise to some that the world's No. 1 player didn't take full advantage of them. It wasn't a bad round by any means, 1 under par, but there was much, much better scoring out there yesterday.

And today, earlier in this day, Friday, the conditions have not been that good. We have had persistent rain throughout the morning. There is meant to be an improved forecast later on in the day, which should coincide with Tiger in his rounds. So he should get lucky with the conditions. The wind isn't too bad at the moment, and if the rain can keep off, hopefully from his point of view, he can get a low score and get right back in contention.

But as I say the good weather yesterday was not a guarantee that Tiger Woods would see himself right the top of the leader board -- Catherine.

CALLAWAY: You know, Patrick, we can barely see you, because of all of the raindrops on the lens there. You're starting to go out of focus a little bit. Tell me, you know, Tiger hasn't been really happy with the media during this Open. I know they have frustrated him a little bit so far, the reporters that is.

SNELL: Not a good sign from his point of view. You look at his psyche yesterday on the first hole. In my opinion, he was all too easily distracted by a photographer from Japan who allegedly clicked at the wrong moment. He tried to take a snap during Tiger's swing. Obviously, one can understand that that can affect the mindset of another golfer, but there are golfers out there who will openly admit to being too focused to be open to any of that kind of distraction.

It wasn't a good start psychologically for Tiger Woods. And I do think it's indicative possibly of his mindset that things haven't gone his way so far in this championship, and it will be very, very interesting, indeed, to see how he copes with all of those thousands of people who are dedicated to following just him alone as a golfer -- Catherine.

CALLAWAY: Right. And now, coping with the nasty weather you are having there. Thank you, Patrick -- Patrick Snell joining us live from Scotland.

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