Tough test for home golfers in Open

It's tough being a British golfer at the Open.

No one knows that better than Colin Montgomerie, who has laboured under the expectations of a country growing increasingly desperate for a winner.

"We are well overdue, especially for a Scottish winner, especially my win," said Montgomerie, a Scot. "Next question.''

For the better part of three decades, British golfers have struggled to win their Open. Aside from Nick Faldo's three wins, the only other British golfer to win on home soil in the last 30 years was Sandy Lyle in 1985.

The Claret Jug has gone out of the country so much it could qualify for frequent flyer miles. In that same 30 years, Americans have won 18 times, including the last four Opens.

"Anybody who wins it is a fantastic player," Northern Ireland's Darren Clarke said. "It just so happens they've been Americans."

The Open returns this week to the game's Scottish roots at the Carnoustie Golf Links, just across the bay from St. Andrews. But even that may not boost British chances that pretty much begin with Montgomerie and end with Lee Westwood.

Though a full quarter of the 156-man field consists of British golfers, only a handful are serious threats to end a foreign dominance that began after Tony Jacklin won in 1969 at Royal Lytham.

Faldo, mired in the deepest slump of his career, is viewed as such a nonfactor that British bookies make him a 100-1 pick to win the Open he won three times during a six-year span ending in 1992.

"I still feel good about it, about being here," Faldo said.

And though Justin Rose captured the hearts and hopes of the country by finishing a shot behind last year as a 17-year-old amateur, he has played so badly since turning pro that he missed 22 straight cuts before finally making it to the third round last month at the European Grand Prix.

"I don't have any expectations this week," Rose said.

His countrymen do, though, and that has been the undoing of many British golfers in their home Open.

It took Faldo 11 Opens and much criticism from the country's press before he broke through in 1987 at Muirfield with his first Open victory.

Montgomerie has won 20 times on the European tour, including at Loch Lomond last week with a closing 64. But he has missed the cut in five of the last seven Opens.

"The amount of pressure I put on myself is enough, so there is no added pressure," Montgomerie insisted.

Westwood had won the Loch Lomond the week before the Open last year and went into it anointed the favourite by the bookies and his country's press. But he shot himself out of contention with a pair of 78s in the last two rounds.

"I would think there would be less expectation," Westwood said. ``I'm fairly comfortable with most situations now."

AP