TOUR SCENE/News round-up: The shadow of the 102nd US Open, to be played at Bethpage State Park on Long Island, New York, starting on Thursday week, hangs over the upcoming European and US Tour events. While many golfers on the respective tours head for the Compass English Open at the Forest of Arden and Buick Classic at Westchester Country Club, New York, this week several prominent players are undergoing the gut-wrenching challenge of the 36-hole US Open qualifiers.
Greg Norman has had to pre-qualify for the first time since 1992, choosing the sectional qualifier in Tampa, Florida. The Australian ventured: "I've never seen Bethpage but I hope I get to see Bethpage because I've heard a lot of wonderful reports about it."
Several of those who competed in the Kemper Open that finished on Sunday headed for the Rockville sectional in Maryland, including Larry Mize, Franklin Langham and young prodigy Charles Howell III. The latter, though, was far from enamoured with the prospect of negotiating the pre-qualifying mire.
Having missed two cuts in the last three events - he finished tied 27th at the Memorial - the young American saw his ranking drop 10 places in May and he is out of the top 50.
"A guy wins in Europe, he moves up 91 spots. I tied for 27th at the Memorial and I lose three spots. How do you explain that?"
He probably cast an envious glance towards Nick Faldo, who last week received confirmation that he had received a special exemption from the USGA to play in the US Open, teeing it up for the 59th consecutive time in a major.
USGA executive director David Fay rather cryptically explained: "It's not like we have a recipe book. But some things are irrefutable and one is that he (Faldo) has won six majors."
US Masters champion Tiger Woods is taking this week off but did play a practice round at Bethpage last week with his good friend Mark O'Meara.
Several European tour regulars have passed up the opportunity to play in the English Open in favour of acclimatising at the Buick Classic in New York.
Defending US Open champion Retief Goosen, Thomas Bjorn, Angel Cabrera, Adam Scott and Michael Campbell join US tour regulars Sergio Garcia, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Bernhard Langer, Jose Maria Olazabal and Jesper Parnevik at Westchester Country Club.
David Duval, Phil Mickelson, Davis Love and Vijay Singh will head the home challenge at the Buick.
Darren Clarke, Padraig Harrington and Paul McGinley, Ireland's three representatives at the Bethpage, will enjoy differing schedules in the build-up to the major. Clarke is a short priced favourite at the English Open this week, a tournament he won two years in succession - in 1999 and 2000 - and he finished tied fifth last year.
To justify his pre-eminence with the bookmakers he will have to improve upon his moderate form at the British Masters which saw him finish well down the field. Harrington heads for a few days with coach Bob Torrance in Largs, Scotland, after finishing tied 11th at Woburn.
McGinley's form since missing the Deutsche Bank German Open had been a trifle worrying, including missing the cut at the Volvo PGA Championship but he seemed in better fettle when finishing tied 21st at the Woburn. He also has shown a liking for the Forest of Arden course where he competes this week.
Eamonn Darcy, Michael Hoey, Des Smyth, Philip Walton (a former champion) and David Higgins are also down to compete. The player in form, though, is Justin Rose following his excellent victory at the British Masters, his fourth success in 2002.
The Englishman was 14 under for the weekend in pipping close friend Ian Poulter by a single stroke.
Rose joined Ernie Els and Woods as multiple winners on the 2002 European tour schedule. He won the Dunhill Championship in January and followed it up at the Nashua Masters on the Sunshine tour in South Africa and The Crowns tournament in Japan.
He became the youngest ever winner of the British Masters and moved from 20th to seventh in the Volvo Order of Merit. He admitted: "It's nice to win one of the premier events on the European tour. I talked in Germany about the fact that I had won three times this year but I hadn't won an event with a full field and full status. I managed to knock that one off pretty quickly."
If there was a touch of flair and dash about the manner of Rose's victory the same can not be said of Kemper Open winner Bob Estes, albeit his victory is no less meritorious. Estes cobbled together 17 pars and a birdie for a closing 71 and one shot victory. At one stage there were four players tied for the lead and he even had to watch playing partner Bob Burns temporarily take the lead with a hole-in-one on the 11th.
However while the others fell away Estes was the epitome of solidity to win his fourth US tour title. "It was a really smart round of golf for the most part. There weren't a lot of birdies out there."
