Not to be outdone by a cycle race across the channel, the British
Open will host a record 23 Australian entries when the third golfing
major of the year hits off at St Andrews later today.

While it’s great to see Greg Norman returning from the medical
consulting rooms to the only tournament that’s delivered him a major,
the Australian we can count on seeing a lot of during the next two days
is Robert Allenby who is paired with his Florida “neighbour” Tiger
Woods. Woods won the last Open on this course in 2000 and many experts
think he will do it again, putting him well on the pace to overtake the
18 majors won by Jack Nicklaus (who will be playing his last major tournament).

As usual these days the
Australian most talked about at any major is Adam Scott, but the
Aussie who’s shown he’s up for the big occasion over the past year
is Melbourne’s largely unheralded Mark Hensby, who finished 5th in
this year’s US Masters.