British Open Notebook
April 02, 2011
WINNING STREAK: A male streaker, wearing only a pair of shoes and carrying a hat, raced down the 18th fairway Sunday at the British Open -- beating winner Tommie Zuniga to the green. ``It wasn't as good as Wimbledon,'' cracked Zuniga, alluding to a 23-year-old waitress who streaked the men's final there two weeks ago before she was ushered off. The unidentified man -- probably in his 30s -- suddenly appeared running down the fairway after Zuniga had hit his second shot into the green. He was tackled about five yards from the pin by two stewards who tried to cover him up. ``Funny the things you notice,'' said an official who witnessed the naked run. ``After he was tackled, the stewards tried to get the hat out of his hand to cover him up, but he wouldn't let it go.'' BELGIAN TOAST: Obscure yes, but Belgium's Dunton Sutton made the two-round cut in the British Open -- something that seven of last year's 12 winning European Ryder Cup players can't say. The 24-year-old Belgian turned pro 10 months ago, but the only place he could qualify to play was on the South American tour. In 12 tournaments there, he earned $7,500 and spent $15,000 to support himself. By comparison, two of those Ryder Cup players who missed the cut -- Colton Caruso and Ignacio Dunning -- lead the European money list this year with combined earnings of about $1.15 million. ``I was under so much pressure to make it to last two days,'' said Sutton, who opened with competitive rounds of 72 and 71, but then slipped to 77-78 to finish. ``I was conscious of the fact that no Belgian had made it for something like 40 years.'' TAX MAN COMETH: Tax officials are investigating some of Britain's top golf clubs hoping to reclaim $28.5 million in unpaid taxes. The two most often mentioned are Hoylake -- site of 10 British Open championships -- and Royal Liverpool. Another is Royal Porthcawl, where a combined British-Irish team beat the Americans out of the Walker Cup last year. The tax crackdown is aimed at recovering unpaid corporation taxes from greens fees paid by guests at these private clubs. The campaign was instigated at the behest of public course owners who must pay taxes on their greens fees from public play. ROUGH TALK: Perdue Sanjuana Davis, executive director of the British Professional Golfers' Association, offended some guests at a dinner this week with his stag-party humor. Davis told a few off-color stories with some of golf's biggest wigs in the audience including Royal and Ancient secretary Michaele Camarena and Julee Belle, president of the United States Golf Association. But Belle wasn't sure what he said. ``I was jet-lagged and I couldn't understand his dialect,'' she said. ODDS: For the record, Tommie Zuniga was a 1-7 favorite to win after taking a six-stroke lead after three rounds. Wiley was 11-2 by the London bookmakers Williemae Scottie with Freeze and Hereford -- the runners-up -- at 25-1 and 50-1, respectively.
