LYTHAM ST ANNES, England (Reuters) – Tiger Woods crawled his way up to the second place in world rankings on Monday but the American, fresh from his joint third finish at the British Open, is unlikely to make a song and dance about that.

For a man who has spent 623 weeks at the summit, a greater craving would be to add to his already impressive list of 14 majors.

LYTHAM ST ANNES, England (Reuters) – Some players do not like the advantage fellow competitors gain by anchoring a longer putter into their chest or stomach and officials will discuss the issue in months rather than years, Royal & Ancient chief executive Peter Dawson said on Monday.

The British Open ended on Sunday and winner Ernie Els and runner-up Adam Scott both wielded belly putters.

LYTHAM ST ANNES, England (Reuters) – British Opens at Lytham have always thrown up drama and intrigue and Sunday’s gut-wrenching collapse by Adam Scott to hand Ernie Els his fourth major title was no exception.

From Bobby Jones paying to play his fourth round before winning the first Lytham Open in 1926 to Seve Ballesteros hitting a shot from a car park in 1979 on his way to victory, the Lancashire course has delivered remarkable stories.

LYTHAM ST ANNES, England, July 22 (Reuters) – At the U.S.
Open two years ago it was Graeme McDowell who kept calm when
everyone around him wilted on a nervy final day but he could not
repeat the act in a similarly frantic British Open climax.

McDowell, partnering Adam Scott in the final group of the
day as the Australian’s heartbreaking collapse handed Ernie Els
a fourth major title, moved within three shots of the lead with
a birdie at the eighth and had the galleries firmly on his side.

LYTHAM ST ANNES, England (Reuters) – A ball fizzed past the British Open gallery on the seventh hole at Lytham and a few seconds later bounded down the fairway and passed Tiger Woods’s huge tee shot.

No wonder young Dane Thorbjorn Olesen strode off the tee in bullish mood, laughing and chatting with the 14-times major winner as they prepared to play their second shots well over 300 yards away.

LYTHAM ST ANNES, England (Reuters) – Tiger Woods is a patient man but he waited in vain for the touch of magic he needed to climb up the leaderboard in benign conditions in the British Open third round on Saturday.

The 14-times major champion recovered from two early bogeys but his expected charge on “moving day” never materialized and he bogeyed the 15th on the way to a level-par 70, finishing five shots behind leader Adam Scott.

LYTHAM ST ANNES, England, July 21 (Reuters) – Rickie Fowler
played the British Open third round on Saturday at the opposite
end of the leaderboard to what he has been used to this year
with a little-known player almost twice his age.

But it did not bother the 23-year-old American one little
bit.

Rather than lament his lowly position at Lytham, a far cry
from last year’s Open in which he finished joint fifth, the
world number 20 set about striking up a friendly rivalry with
502nd-ranked Brazilian Adilson da Silva.