Ames to do ‘some hiring and some firing’
LYTHAM ST. ANNES, ENGLAND – Stephen Ames has never been what you would call inscrutable. When he walked off Royal Lytham & St. Annes having shot 73 Friday for a 7-over total of 147 to miss the cut, he didn’t hide his feelings.
“One more week, thank God,” he said, speaking of next week’s RBC Canadian Open. “I feel very tired right now, and I’ve got a lot of thinking to do. I’m not in Fedex, I’m just playing the Canadian Open and then I’m really contemplating just taking the rest of the year off.
“I think I’m going to be doing some hiring and some firing, too. Things aren’t working well right now.”
Ames said his caddie, Don Donatello, would be going “for sure.”
“He’s going to find someone else, hopefully someone that’s making money,” Ames said. “And then I’m contemplating on Sean (Foley, his swing coach), too. Too many things going on there right now. And then maybe a new psychologist, too, and go from there.”
Ames was Foley’s first PGA Tour client, but since then the 38-year-old from Burlington, Ont., has branched out to a number of more successful players, including Justin Rose and Hunter Mahan–and most notably Tiger Woods.
Ames just doesn’t think he’s getting enough personal attention any more.
“No, this is the ... I want to say seventh time I’ve seen him this year. Maybe less,” Ames said. “I have to look at it, have to talk to him about it a little bit more.
“It’s understandable. He’s gone in a different direction, which is great for him. But if he can’t supply me with the time I need, I’ve got to find someone else.” Mr. Bean’s luck: If you’re planning to attend an Open Championship and intend to get hit on the head by a golf ball, you should try to make sure it’s Rory McIlroy’s ball.
The spectator, 16-year-old Jason Blue, who was beaned by the 23-year-old Irishman’s tee shot at the 15th hole Thursday, got an autographed glove that McIlroy signed “Sorry. Rory McIlroy” with an unsmiley face.
McIlroy definitely didn’t hold it against him that the ricochet off the fan’s head sent the ball flying out of bounds 15-20 yards away. Indeed, a story appeared in the paper Friday detailing just how generous McIlroy was to the injured fan, and he admitted to it after shooting 75 in the second round.
“I didn’t want him sleeping the night in a tent when he’s got a massive gash in the side of his head,” McIlroy said. “So I put him and his mate up for the night (in a hotel) and gave them a bit of cash to go out and get something to eat. It was the least I could do. If someone gave me a big hole in my head, I wouldn’t be too happy.”
Asked how much cash he gave the fans, he said: “Not much. A hundred something quid.” One more reason: The incident underlined, if anything, the contrast between McIlroy and golf ’s previous child prodigy, Tiger Woods, who was only a year or two younger in 1997 at Troon when he hit a young girl with a golf ball, allowing him to save par on the hole, but refused to pose with her for a newspaper photo the next morning beside the practice putting green.
Jim Furyk was also on the green at the time, came over and spoke to the little girl and told her how brave she was. A small gesture, but it cost nothing. Old Tom’s diary: The term “ageless” has been applied to Tom Watson, who almost won a sixth British Open at Turnberry at age 59 ... but age has now and then crept into his putting stroke. Friday, the 62-year-old missed the hole entirely on an 18-inch par putt at the 17th hole to fall outside the cut line. But he rammed in a 30-footer at the 18th to save himself, earning nearly as big a roar as Woods had in the previous group, when he holed it from the bunker for birdie. Rory’s collapse: McIlroy was one of the top betting favourites coming into the week, but his 75 left him, too, barely inside the cut line. He made a double-bogey at the ninth hole when he left a bunker shot in the greenside trap. “Double at the ninth was sort of the turning point and I couldn’t really recover from that,” he said. Lawrie calls B.S.: 1999 Open champion Paul Lawrie was asked whether he looks at leaderboards during a round.
“Every hole, absolutely,” the affable Scot said. “People who tell you they don’t ... I’m not so sure they’re telling the truth. They’re quite big as you maybe have seen. They’re quite hard not to look at. No, I’m a leaderboard looker.”