The photo of Ben Hogan hitting his 1-iron into the 18th green at Merion in the 1950 U.S. Open is among the most famous in golf history, capturing the pure swing of one of the greatest players when the pressure of a major championship was at its peak.
Woods won four majors on courses he had never played — Medinah for the 1999 PGA Championship, Valhalla for the PGA Championship the following year, Bethpage Black in the 2002 U.S. Open and Royal Liverpool for the 2006 British Open. Merion is new not only to him, but just about everyone.
Tiger Woods was long gone from PGA National when Jack Nicklaus settled into his seat in the NBC Sports tower.
Woods seized control in the fog-delayed Farmers Insurance Open with a strong driving performance that carried him to a 3-under 69 and a four-shot lead after the third round. Even when he got a little wild off the tee late in chilly afternoon of the fourth round, he still made birdies to stretch his lead to six shots when play was suspended by darkness.
A capsule look at 20 top contenders in the British Open, to be played July 19-22 at Royal Lytham & St. Annes (listed in predicted order of finish):
To chase his dream, K.J. Choi had to climb a mountain.
Graeme McDowell and Jim Furyk, a pair of U.S. Open champions, managed to beat par at The Olympic Club.
Steve Stricker withdrew from the BMW Championship on Friday because of weakness in his left arm that first began to bother him nine months ago.
