TT star 25/1 outsider for title

Trinidad and Tobago born golfer, Stephen Ames, is a 25/1 outsider to win the prestigious British Open beginning at Royal Troon. Ames who captured his first PGA tournament ten days ago, when we won the Western Open in Chicago, is probably in the best form of his life with eight top ten finishes for the year to propel him into the Top 20 Players List on the world scene to date. Ames, 40, will be looking to improve on his previous best performance in a major, also at the British Open when he placed fifth. Tiger Woods remains the favourite at 6/1 with South African Ernie Els at 7/1 and US Masters winner the leftie Phil Mickelson at 14/1. Other leading players, such as Fiji’s Vijay Singh is at 16/1, Spain’s Sergio Garcia at 20/1 and Ireland’s Padraig Harrington at 25/1. With the Ryder Cup on the horizon in the future, the European will be looking for a major physiological advantage over the American.

Ames will tee off on the opening day today in the fifth to last group with Tom Lehman and Andrew Willey from 3.37 pm, and he will make his bid to make the cut from a tee-off time of 10.26 am.  Tiger Woods will tee off at 1.42 pm and 8.31 am respectively today and tomorrow. Ames told Newsday: “At the British Open it is a patience kind of golf that is needed, as a player you need to use a lot of your imagination, for hitting golf shots, not the typical US (United States) kind of golf, with one shot involved with the straight up in the air ballshot, in this case in the British Open you can play a variety of different shots, and that kind of brings the fun out of me in playing golf.”