Simon Lewis
A QUESTION for Tom Lewis: does the name Hennie Otto mean anything to you?
Good. Keep it that way, because, like you, he led the British Open at Royal St George’s after 18 holes on the last visit here and with all due respect to the South African, he’s not exactly a household name.
A very good pro, of course, won the Italian Open three years ago, but his 68 at Sandwich in 2003 was his claim to fame, his moment in the spotlight.
You got yours on Thursday, and in some style with a five-under-par 65, the lowest round by an amateur in Open history, going one better than either Justin Rose or Tiger Woods managed in 1998 and 96 respectively, not forgetting Frank Stranahan in 1950.
And you’re the first amateur to lead the Open after any round since Michael Bonallack shared the opening-round lead with Brian Barnes after matching 70s in 1968 at Carnoustie and first to head any major since Mike Reid led the US Open by three strokes after the first round in 1976.
Leading majors and winning them, though, are completely different and no-one is expecting you, at 20, to kick on and lift the Claret Jug as the first amateur since Bobby Jones did so for the third time in 1930.
Still, as impressive as that 65 was on Thursday, if you managed to stick around into the weekend and contend with the big boys... well, Major Tom, you’ll have really made the grade.
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TOMMY MORRIS Jr won the British Open in 1868 at 17 years, 5 months, 3 days and we all know by now that Lewis named for another famous golfing Tom, the five-time champion Tom Watson, who was very impressed by the poise the 20-year-old Englishman displayed late Thursday afternoon after the two had played together with Henrik Stenson in the first round.
“Tom Lewis, how about that? He could be my grandson,” the 61-year-old Watson said. “We had a few conversations today. I said, ‘Do you still go to school?’ He said, no, but one of his teachers, professors, was jogging along the 14th hole today and said hello to him.
“I guess he left school when he was 16 years old, and he’s been working on his golf game ever since.
“He’s quite a refined player at age 20. We certainly have a new young breed out here, don’t we? We’ve got the McIlroys and the Ishikawas and the Lewises. We have a lot of young players playing very good golf.
“I just had to smile inside to watch him play. I didn’t play particularly well myself, but I certainly was impressed by the way he played.”
Watson recorded a respectable two-over-par 72 for his first round. Not quite the opening 65 of two years ago at Turnberry, when he came so close to a fairytale sixth Open title but we won’t knock him for that. Incidentally, Watson had been paired for those opening rounds with a young Italian amateur named Matteo Manassero, who went on to win the Silver Medal for low amateur and the veteran American saw plenty of favourable similarities between the pair.
“They didn’t miss too many shots,” Watson said. “Both Matteo and Tom hit the ball where they were looking almost all the time, and their putting strokes were beautiful and aggressive. I remember those aggressive putting strokes when I was 20.”
And the way Manassero has been going since turning pro, such comparisons will be far more welcome than becoming just another one-round wonder at The Open.
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/SbuUl4tAjO0/post.aspx
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