Newsday (N.Y.): Rory's next test comes at Royal St. George's

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

SANDWICH, England -- The British Open this week returns to the course where Ian Fleming carried a handicap of 007 -- well, 7 -- where canines and females both were refused access; where France is visible across the Channel; and where Rory McIlroy is going to find out what it's like to be his sport's newest celebrity.

Royal St. George's is where Tiger Woods lost his opening tee shot in the rough in the Open of 2003; where Jack Nicklaus shot an 83 in the second round in the Open of 1981; and where a streaker darted out of the crowd only to be tackled by Peter Jacobsen at the 72nd hole in the Open of 1985.

When the wind blows, and Saturday it was around 20 mph, St. George's might be the hardest course in the Open rota. Unquestionably, it is the most southern, about 75 miles from London.

McIlroy, the reigning U.S. Open champion, will find out how it suits his game this week, and he hasn't played a competitive round since his overwhelming victory at Congressional.

McIlroy showed up at least twice at Wimbledon and jetted to Hamburg for last Saturday's Klitschko-Haye heavyweight championship fight.

"Some people may have wondered why I chose to go straight from one major to another, without anything in between,'' the 22-year-old McIlroy said this week. "The answer is simple. It's because of what happened at Congressional and the way it became such a big deal.

"I wanted to get everything out of the way and sorted, so when I did start playing again, I could just concentrate on golf.''

But Graeme McDowell, McIlroy's more experienced countryman and winner of the 2010 U.S Open at Pebble Beach, and three-time major champion Padraig Harrington said just receiving congratulations is a huge distraction. Colin Montgomerie, captain of the 2010 European Ryder Cup team which beat the United States, seemed worried about the same thing.

"He's so natural, I don't think there are any fears about his game,''

Montgomerie pointed out, "but it's the locker room. Whether it was the French or the Scottish Open, he could have got that out of his system and out of the way so he can start the Open afresh.

"Now he's got that ahead of him and on the first tee, I think he will be mentally tired -- but who am I to say?''

While McIlroy was climbing the ladder of stardom when he won the U.S. Open, the last British Open at St. George's in 2003 produced one of the biggest "Who's he?'' champions, Ben Curtis of Ohio. He was a rookie then and benefited from back-nine failures by Woods, Vijay Singh, Davis Love III and Thomas Bjorn.

If that sounds like the plot of a James Bond novel, Bond's creator, Fleming, became a St. George's member in the late 1940s. In "Goldfinger,'' where Bond takes on Auric Goldfinger and his evil "caddie,'' Oddjob, Fleming named the course Royal St. Marks, but descriptions of various holes -- especially the fourth, the "Himalayas,'' with a bunker as big as a swimming pool -- are identifiable.

There used to be a sign near the entrance, "No Dogs, No Women,'' but ladies are now permitted.

So are American pros, although the English press has spent the week going after Bubba Watson, following Bubba's oafish remarks about France and the Alstom Open there, referring to the Arc de Triomphe as "The arch I drove around in a circle,'' and other such comments.

A writer for the Daily Telegraph said Watson had the "aesthetic appreciation of Ronald McDonald,'' and joined the gloating on this side of the Atlantic because Americans are winless in the last five majors.

The most recent was the U.S. Open last month at Congressional, where McIlroy of Northern Ireland -- part of Great Britain -- set records and golf on its ear.