SOUTHPORT, England -- Against the Irish Sea and between such menacing foliage as sea buckthorn, common polypody and the always-malevolent gorse, major golf has returned to the site of one of its all-time roars.
That roar belongs in any roar pantheon alongside dins for Jack at Augusta in 1986 or Tiger at Torrey in 2008, and it lingers in aural memory even though it blared way back in 1998, so long ago that the English lad who used his wedge to cause it, Justin Rose, has lived about five lifetimes since then.
Returning as a married, ripened grown-up of 27 ranked No. 9 in the world in 2008 and No. 1 in Europe for 2007, Rose joins 155 other golfers at the 137th British Open at Royal Birkdale, where members and their guests routinely try to replicate the 59-yard approach he holed on No. 18 to send the bleachers into stunning clamor.
"Obviously '98 was a magical week," said Rose, who finished tied for fourth then, the best finish for an amateur since 1953 and the best finish for a 17-year-old since Young Tom Morris won the thing in 1868 without 12 TV camera crews waiting at his home upon return.
Of course, Rose then turned professional the next day as planned months earlier, missed 21 straight cuts, drove to Birkdale one fall day in 2000 but just couldn't bring himself to get out of the car after so much struggle, thrived finally in 2002, and lost his father and mentor, Ken, a calm and friendly presence among reporter scrums back in 1998, to leukemia at 57 in September 2002.
After so much calamity both worryingly professional and deeply personal, Rose does find one thing unchanged at Birkdale: England, with a batch of chronically promising players including Rose, still craves its first winner since Nick Faldo claimed his third Claret Jug in 1992 at Muirfield, and its first major title since Faldo marched through Greg Norman's rubble at the 1996 Masters.
In fact, the eight Opens played at Birkdale have yielded winners only American (Mark O'Meara, Tom Watson, Johnny Miller, Lee Trevino and Arnold Palmer) and Australian (Ian Baker-Finch and Peter Thomson twice).
"I think it's a coincidence," said Adam Scott, No. 4 in the world and Australian.
It's an unusually open Open. Tiger Woods sits home with a mending knee. The hottest player on the U.S. PGA Tour, Kenny Perry, chose to play in Milwaukee. The defending champion from Ireland, Padraig Harrington, arrived with a screaming wrist, a stash of painkillers and some doubt he could go the full 72.
