ROYAL Birkdale's professionals' shop is one of the few in the UK to stock the custom-fitted Vega irons, which hail from Japan.
Sets retail at around £1,200 although the Australian player Richard Green got something of a fright when he enquired as to left-handed availability; it would cost a mere £38,000 to produce such a model. Safe to assume he stuck with his current sticks
, then.
Still no Love lostDAVIS Love admits he has got himself into trouble over the years by "chastising" his fellow professionals, but that hasn't stopped him from having a pop at some of his fellow Americans, who have criticised Birkdale's set-up.
"If you don't want to come, don't come," said the straight-talking Love. "If you don't like the US Open don't come, if you don't like the Masters don't play."
Point taken, Davis.
Crowds blown awayHIGH winds surely contributed to lower attendance figures yesterday than would be the norm for the Open's third round. Forty thousand customers poured through Birkdale's gates, 4,500 fewer than Friday. That's also 1,000 down on the third round the last time the Open was here, in 1998.
Popular with birdiesCOLOMBIAN Camilo Villegas carded five successive birdies on Friday to close his round of 65 and lift him into contention. It is not the first time the 26-year-old has been hot – he was selected as one of People Magazine's 'hottest bachelors' in 2006, the only professional athlete chosen.
In the same year Golf Digest named him "the most ripped player on tour".
Regal-eyed spectatorROYAL assistance was not enough to help Paul Casey in his hunt for a stray ball on the 15th hole yesterday. Prince Andrew, a former captain of the Royal and Ancient, braved the winds as a spectator and helped Casey in his search, albeit in vain.
"The Duke of York was there and he said he'd hit a ball in there the other day," Casey explained. "I said, 'Did you find it sir?' and he said 'no'."
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