British Open 2012: Full Coverage Leading Up To Tournament

With the 2012 British Open ready to tee off Thursday, Tiger Woods remains the favorite.

Woods entered the week as the initial odds-on favorite at Royal Lytham, and the sharps have not changed their stance on the world’s most recognizable golfer. His odds to win the Claret Jug this weekend have risen slightly, though, from 8-1 from 13-2 as of Wednesday evening.

The 2012 British Open tees off on Thursday, but it’ll be a really early morning for those Americans who want to catch the action from Royal Lytham and St. Annes live. The first and second day British Open pairings are set, but what groups are really worth watching?

The most obvious must-see group for the avid golf fan includes both 2012 Masters champion Bubba Watson and world No. 3 Lee Westwood, still in search of his first major. It goes off at 4:20 a.m. Eastern, or not too early. And if you want to catch Tiger Woods, you’re in luck: he tees off with Justin Rose and Sergio Garcia just 22 minutes later at 4:42 a.m. EDT.

For the next four days, your TV source for everything British Open will be ESPN, which will broadcast 36 hours of live play starting with the Insomniac’s Special at 4:30 a.m. ET on Thursday and Friday.

The sports station moved up its opening 30 minutes to let golf fans who forget to take their Ambien catch Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson play their entire rounds (Woods tees off at 4:42 a.m. on Thursday, with Mickelson slated to start at 4:31 a.m. on Friday).

Organizers have issued a warning that they will not tolerate slow play at this week’s British Open. Saying that tortuously long rounds were “killing” the game of golf, especially at the amateur level, the head honcho of this week’s major championship at Royal Lytham & St Annes said Wednesday that players must finish play quickly or risk the wrath of the Royal & Ancients.

Threesomes going out on Thursday and Friday will have 4 1/2 hours to complete play, while weekend twosomes must complete their rounds in three hours and 45 minutes, Jim McArthur, chair of the R&A’s championship committee, told reporters.

Across the pond, the 2012 British Open begins in the early hours on Thursday, and if you don’t have a television available to catch ESPN’s broadcast, there are a few other options to follow the tournament’s action. ESPN’s online streaming component at WatchESPN will begin its coverage at 3:30 a.m. EDT, and that’s certainly a great option for the diehard fans out there.

The first wave of ESPN3 coverage covers just Holes 9-11, but 30 minutes later, BBC’s coverage will be available on the streaming service. There will also be Spanish language coverage and a focus on the first and eighteenth holes.

We already know that Tiger, Phil and Bubba will garner a heavy following from the British Open gallery and that Luke Donald and Lee Westwood will be monitored closely by the local fans and media.

So what does that mean for golf’s budding superstar ,Rory McIlroy?

It was just a year ago when newly crowned U.S. Open champ Rory McIlroy struggled to a T25 finish at the British Open, where he suggested before the contest even began that he would just as soon never again play links golf in the pouring rain.

Indeed, after a disappointing close to the Open Championship, McIlroy confirmed sentiments he had expressed previously and with some regularity that he preferred a calmer, more predictable environment than the one he found at England’s Royal St. George’s in 2011.

While Bubba Watson and Phil Mickelson pledged to take more conservative approaches at this week’s British Open than they are wont to do, Tiger Woods said he planned an aggressive attack of Royal Lytham & St Annes.

England’s extremely wet summer, which will likely include rain, rain and more rain for the rest of the week, had something to do with Woods’ stated strategy.

Boo-frickin’-hoo is what Royal & Ancient chief executive Peter Dawson may have wanted to tell Tiger Woods, Darren Clarke, and some other British Open players who complained that the rough at Royal Lytham & St Annes seemed a tad on the brutish side.

Instead, Dawson told The Guardian that sometimes it rains in England in the summertime.

The British Open gets underway on Thursday, and just like the other majors, the first and second day pairings have been set up with a select few loaded groups for everyone’s viewing pleasure. Lee Westwood, the No. 3 golfer in the world and arguably the most accomplished active player to never win a major, is paired with Yoshinori Fujimoto and Masters champion Bubba Watson for the first two days. Going off the tee 22 minutes after them on Thursday is Tiger Woods, along with Justin Rose and Sergio Garcia.

Reigning champion Darren Clarke is in a group with fellow major winners Ernie Els and Zach Johnson. Rory McIlroy is also in a group with two fellow major winners, Louis Oosthuizen and Keegan Bradley. Phil Mickelson is in a high profile group as well, along with former U.S. Open champion Geoff Ogilvy and world No. 1 Luke Donald.

The site of the 2012 Open Championship (or British Open for us damn Yankees) is often referred to as “unconventional” and downright “ugly” by many golf traditionalists, but make no mistake about it: Royal Lytham & St. Annes Golf Club is a major-caliber golf course through and through.

Founded in 1886 near Lancashire, England, Royal Lytham has been a hotbed for tournament golf for more than 100 years, hosting tournaments ranging from amateur competitions to major golf championships. According to the golf club’s website, Royal Lytham “is one of the premier links courses in the world, host to ten Open Championships, two Ryder Cups and numerous other major tournaments including the Women’s and Seniors Open Championships”. Many of golf’s greatest players have graced the fairways at this prestigious track, including Bobby Jones, who won the Open Championship at St. Annes in 1926.

As any golf fan worth his or her weight in gold will know, Tom Watson loves himself some British Open golf. This week, the 62-year-old Kansas native prepares for what might be another memorable run at Royal Lytham & St. Annes and a sixth British Open championship.

Three years ago at 59 years old, Watson all but made history by falling just short of winning his sixth Open title; however, a shaky putter in regulation ultimately spelled the end of his magical Turnberry run and allowed Stewart Cink to win his first major. Watson’s experience playing overseas on the grandest of stages always makes him a strong contender for the title no matter his age.

It’s been four years since Tiger Woods won a major, but bookmakers have him as the odds-on favorite to take home the 2012 British Open.

Woods is listed at 13-2 odds to win this week’s tournament, meaning that oddsmakers give him nearly twice as good a shot at winning as Brits Luke Donald and Lee Westwood -- who are tied with the second highest odds at 12-1 -- have. Although Woods’ major drought is nearly half a decade long, his three wins this year have him tops on the PGA Tour and there’s no reason to believe he can’t continue his strong play into a major and bring back his fourth Claret Jug.

Tiger Woods is a huge fan of the site of the 2012 British Open, Royal Lytham, according to The Guardian. But the rainiest summer “in living memory” has made missing the fairway a terrifying proposition for even the world’s former most-feared golfer.

Woods played a practice round Sunday because the forecast calls for some heavy rains Monday through Wednesday, meaning he might not get another chance to play before the Open. The tournament sounds like it will be loads of fun for golfers like Woods who have struggled to hit fairways consistently in majors.

After missing the cut at last week’s Greenbrier Classic, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson went their separate ways -- Mickelson to whip his game into shape In Scotland and Woods apparently back to the practice range in Florida. With the British Open set to start Thursday, both golfers talked about how eager they were to return to Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club; in fact, Woods said on his website Friday that the upcoming event, which he has won three times, was No. 1 on his hit parade.

“You can have so many different weather conditions. You just don’t know,” he said. “That’s one of the unique things about the British Open and why it’s my favorite major championship. It’s the only tournament besides the sandbelt courses in Australia that we can actually use the ground as a friend and bounce the ball into the greens.”

The British Open, more than any tournament on the American PGA Tour schedule, is regularly determined by the weather. If the weather gets nasty for part of the tournament -- which is almost inevitable -- a combination of luck and player adaptability will be the keys to victory for the winner. Phil Mickelson, who has yet to win the Open Championship, is hoping for some extreme conditions.

Mickelson wasn’t able to catch Darren Clarke in last year’s British Open but put together a solid and consistent set of four rounds, finishing in second place at the end of a very rainy and windy tournament. He’s currently in contention at the Scottish Open, where he’s three strokes back of Francesco Molinari, but the players haven’t faced fierce winds yet at Inverness.

Tiger Woods may be the odds-on favorite to win the 2012 British Open at Royal Latham, but he may not enter golf’s third major as the player facing the most pressure.

As Luke Donald and Lee Westwood, the No. 1 and No. 3 ranked players in the world, respectively, prepare for next weekend (Donald is currently competing in the 2012 Scottish Open, while Westwood is taking the weekend off) both golfers know that English golf fans will be paying particular attention to both of their country’s top stars from the moment they arrive in Lancashire.