Troon Can Get You By Mail or By Rail

By THOMAS BONK

July 18, 1997 12 AM PT

TROON, Scotland — It is 126 yards long, and it’s hard to lick. It’s the “Postage Stamp,” the most famous hole at Royal Troon.

In 1910, Willie Park took one look at the putting surface of the short par three and sniffed.

“Skimmed down to the size of a postage stamp,” Park said.

The name stuck. It has been said that it takes a first-class delivery

of a golf ball to play the thing properly, and that’s probably correct.

There is a grassy mound to the left of the smallish, kidney-shaped green, which is ringed by five bunkers.

It’s the shortest hole in major championship golf. It’s also one of the quirkiest. Eight of Troon’s first nine holes play with the prevailing wind, but the Postage Stamp plays into it.

In 1950, Herman Tissies of Germany shot 15 here.

In 1973, 71-year-old Gene Sarazen made a hole in one at No. 8 in the first round, then holed a bunker shot for a two the next day, thus completing a rare double of playing the hole in consecutive days without using a putter.

It’s a famous hole, all right, even if Andrew Magee didn’t find it at all charming or historic.

“It’s not charming, it’s brutal,” Magee said.

The eighth remains slightly more notorious than the utterly diabolical 11th. The 463-yard par four is usually dead into the wind, and there’s a railroad track down the right side, so it’s called “The Railway.”

Errant golf balls have been known to bang off the side of trains traveling between Glasgow and Ayr.

One local betting establishment is taking wagers on the number of double bogeys or worse recorded on No. 11 this week.

The figure is 170 to 180. Maybe they can do the same thing at No. 8 and bettors can mail in their response. They could use a postage stamp.

ATTN. DENNIS RODMAN

Greg Norman said he didn’t know fellow Australian Grant Dodd, but he had some advice for his countryman on the occasion of his first British Open.

“He’s got to put his pants on the same way and lace them up and go for it,” Norman said.

Lace them up? Pants?

ATTN. FLUFF

Mark O’Meara lives at Isleworth near Orlando, Fla., where he is Tiger Woods’ neighbor. As a matter of fact, he’s close enough to Woods that he felt he needed to sound a warning to Woods’ caddie, Fluff Cowan.

“I told Tiger that I’m 40 years old now, I’m going to play two more years and I’ve told Fluff too: ‘Make sure you get that pocket pretty full because I’m going to start caddying two years from now.’ ”

ATTN. GAME WARDEN

From Graham Hunter in the Scottish Daily Mail about Woods: “His drive on the first fairway will be pursued by the vast, fearsome, trampling herd of wildebeest that is his gallery.”

UNKIND CUT

There may no sadder case than Ian Baker-Finch, the 1991 British Open champion, who hasn’t made a cut in 31 consecutive events dating back three years.

Baker-Finch is 60 over par in his last seven rounds in the British Open, including a 78-84 that was 20 over last year at Royal Lytham St. Annes.

Amazingly, it got even worse in the first round Thursday at Royal Troon. It was the worst round at the Open in 11 years--a 21-over 92.

“Horrendous,” Baker-Finch said.

Baker-Finch managed to par only five holes. He made six bogeys, six double bogeys and a triple bogey.

Baker-Finch played the last five holes in eight over par, but said he had to keep on playing . . . for one reason.

“Well, you don’t have an option,” he said. “You can’t say to yourself, ‘Oh, well, I’ll walk in now.’ ”

The 36-year-old Australian, who used Wimbledon doubles champion Todd Woodbridge as a caddie, had been upbeat about his chances. He hoped he had turned a corner in his career and that humiliation wouldn’t be just around it.

“Basically, my friends and people close to me don’t want me to go through what I don’t want to go through, but really want me to play,” he said. “They know deep down I want to play.

“No one likes to play the game poorly, like I have for a long time now, but deep, down somewhere, it’s about to turn around.”

Maybe next year. He withdrew after completing his round.

SECOND HELPINGS

Since he won the British Open at Troon in 1989, Mark Calcavecchia has won only twice, but he has had 12 second-place finishes.

One of his many runner-up results was at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic this year, where Calcavecchia shot 32 under par and still lost by three shots to John Cook.

All this has taught Calcavecchia a lesson, he said. Sometimes, it’s just not your day.

“You know, finishing second’s OK, but . . . I mean when John beat me at the Hope, I shot 32 under and didn’t win and I felt like I just shot 85 or made a 12 at the last hole.

“I mean, I was crushed. That was as bad as I felt in a long time. Then I had to get over it and realize the guy just shot 19 under in a weekend.

“Sometimes wins fall in your lap and sometimes no matter what you do you’re not going to win. In fact, I can’t remember anybody giving me a win. I’d like to get lucky once.

“Maybe this week. Maybe I’ll be leading after 54 holes and it will rain six feet.”

Calcavecchia shot a 74 in Thursday’s first round.

ELEMENTARY, WATSON

The man who used to rule golf in the United Kingdom will be 48 in September and is playing his 22nd British Open, which he has won five times.

Only Harry Vardon has won more British Open titles than Tom Watson, who won his five from 1975 through 1983, when he was the dominant player in golf.

In that span, Watson won 33 tournaments, eight of them majors.

It’s quite an accomplishment, all right, one that even Nick Faldo finds impressive.

“Yeah, he did it in such a short span as well,” Faldo said. “He was totally dominant in this, you know, because he was such a strong ball striker to play in the wind. He always hit the ball very solidly.

“In his heyday, he was obviously the best putter by miles. So with those two combinations on a links course, a solid striker and a great putter, you’ve got it in the bag.”

Watson was three under on the front until the wind caught him--like everyone else--and he finished with a par 71.

WORLD TOUR

Ken Duke, 26, from Little Rock, Ark., and Henderson State and the 1995 Arkansas Open champion, is staying in a bed and breakfast about a mile from Royal Troon.

John Kernohan, 33, from Bowling Green, Ky., and Indiana University and the 1996 Singapore Open champion, is staying in a nearby hotel with his father, Bill, who was born in Belfast.

Duke and Kernohan aren’t exactly household names in the United States, much less in the bed and breakfasts in Scotland, but they are two of the nine American qualifiers whose names are up there on the scoreboard in the British Open.

A veteran of the Canadian Tour and the Asian Tour, Duke played the 1995 Nike Tour, missed getting his PGA Tour card in 1996 and played in South America. He also has played in Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan and Korea.

“I’ve seen so many places it’s unbelievable,” Duke said.

Duke’s opening 80 was nine over par, which means he’s going to have to score really low today to make the cut. His biggest problem was on No. 11, where he lost a ball and made a triple-bogey seven.

The British Open is still a great experience, Duke said.

“It’s so worth it,” he said. “My mom gets on me all the time for not taking pictures.”

Bettie and Ray Duke of Arkadelphia, Ark., are following their son’s progress on television this week.

Kernohan is missing a move to St. Simons Island, Ga., this week, which his wife, Frederica, is overseeing by herself. But the Indiana graduate, who has been working on the Omega Tour in Asia, didn’t have that on his mind when he holed a bunker shot for birdie on the 18th hole on his way to a 76.

“It’s just fantastic to be here,” said Kernohan, who had the lowest score of any of the 45 qualifiers.

Troon is tough enough, but Kernohan also had a problem off the course when the ticket he left for his dad was stolen from the front desk of his hotel. However, Royal and Ancient officials provided Kernohan with a guest badge for his dad. The other good news is that Kernohan is still playing.

“To make the cut would be a great achievement,” he said. “That makes it at least possible that a qualifier might win. Who knows?”

CALENDAR NEWS

If you liked the order of events on the West Coast portion of the PGA Tour this year, that’s nice because it’s going to be the same in 1998.

The 1998 tournament schedule begins with the Mercedes Championships at La Costa Jan. 8-11, the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic Jan. 14-18, then Phoenix, the AT&T; Pebble Beach National Pro-Am Jan. 29-Feb. 1, the Buick Invitational at La Jolla Feb. 5-8, the Hawaiian Open, Tucson, then the Nissan Open at Valencia Country Club Feb. 26-March 1.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

No. 8 at Royal Troon

Par 3

126 yards

“Postage Stamp” is Troon’s most famous hole and the shortest in the British Open’s rotation. Five bunkers, one at the front, two to the right and two to the left, guard the green.

First-Round Scores

* 21 birdies

* 86 pars

* 34 bogeys

* 15 others

* 3.29 stroke average

Source: Associated Press