Vandals pour bleach on green at Canadian Open

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — A case of vandalism on one of the greens didn't affect play Saturday at the RBC Canadian Open. Grounds crews discovered bleach had been poured on the grass on the eighth green, a par-3 hole at the Shaughnessy Golf and Country. "When they found it, they did all they could to wash it out," said Bill Paul, the tournament director. "We are investigating it right now with Vancouver police. That's all there really is." The damage was discovered at around 6 a.m. when superintendent Rob Barr was inspecting the course. Some brown streaks could be seen on the green, but it didn't affect play in the $5.2 million tournament. "I'm sure it soaked it but it hasn't affected the play at all," Paul said. "(Barr) got to it on time. There is no doubt some of it got into the roots of the grass." The eighth hole is a secluded part of the course, near residential homes. That might be one reason why it was targeted. "I'm going to assume it's access," Paul said. "I don't know why." Paul called the damage an isolated incident. "We've had some damage to a green where somebody has driven a stake into it or something like that, but I've never had it where somebody has dumped a chemical on it," he said. Paul said organizers are considering adding extra security at night.

Miyazato plans to aid Japan relief after Evian win

EVIAN-LES-BAINS, France (AP) — Ai Miyazato clinched her first title of the year at the Evian Masters on Sunday and pledged to share her prize money with the people still suffering in the aftermath of the disasters back home in Japan. Miyazato shot a 2-under 70 to protect her two-shot lead and hold off a surge from Stacy Lewis of the United States, the Kraft Nabisco winner who missed a golden chance to even the scores on the 16th hole. The 26-year-old Miyazato will now donate at least part of her $487,500 first prize to the relief efforts in Japan. "I haven't decided yet, whether it will be all of the amount or some of it," she said. "This year I was playing for Japan." Miyazato played with consistency throughout the tournament, dropping shots on just five of the 72 holes overall and finishing with a 15-under total of 273. Lewis also shot a 70 to finish two shots back in second, with a trio of players another stroke behind. "It feels amazing, this is my favorite tournament so I'm really happy that I could win this again," Miyazato said. "Especially (because) right now, Japan's having a tough time. So I am just really happy to bring some happiness to Japan." Miyazato had not won a title since the Safeway Classic last August, and she now has seven LPGA titles overall. She won her first at Evian in 2009, and added five more last year. "There was so much happening at the beginning of the season, to be honest," Miyazato said, referring to the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan in March. "I always have Japan in my thoughts, it gives me motivation to play." Miyazato raised both arms in the air after she sank her winning putt, and several players ran on to the green to soak her with water. Miyazato joins two-time winners Laura Davies of England and Annika Sorenstam of Sweden, and needs one more Evian win to tie Sweden's Helen Alfredsson, the inaugural tournament champion and record-holder with three. "I want to win it as many times as possible," Miyazato said. "I am looking forward to getting more opportunities." Lewis, the Kraft Nabisco winner, kept the pressure on and moved one shot behind Miyazato with a birdie on the 15th. "We played in the same group yesterday, she played well without mistakes," Miyazato said. "Even though she was in front of me I knew she would play solid today." But, with a birdie chance to level the match on the next hole, Lewis three-putted for a bogey to be two adrift of Miyazato again, her chances slipping away. "That's the one shot I wish I could go back and hit again. Just left myself in a really bad spot," Lewis said. "When I missed that putt, I looked up and saw (Miyazato) had fallen back to 15 under, so I was kind of disappointed with that." Lewis had been self-critical after all her previous three rounds, saying she lacked a cutting edge in the last few holes of the day. "I knew I was in (contention) when I made the putt on 15," Lewis said. "Just kind of disappointed with 16." Lewis' luck had clearly deserted her when her putt for birdie on the 17th stopped agonizingly short. She could only make par on the 18th, a hole designed for attacking. Miki Saiki of Japan, Angela Stanford of the United States, and South Korea's I.K. Kim all finished three shots behind Miyazato. Kim had moved into contention at 10 under following a brilliant third round of 64, but the South Korean's bid was undone by three straight bogeys on the front nine Sunday. Miyazato started with three birdies and no bogeys on the front nine. On the fifth, Miyazato's drive hit the lip of the green and rolled back, leaving her a 15-yard uphill putt for birdie. She got it close enough to comfortably make par, and then birdied the sixth and had another on the eighth to surge ahead at 16 under. At that point, it looked as if it would be a comfortable victory. Miyazato then showed signs of nerves on the back nine. A bogey on the 12th and a birdie from Hong, Miyazato's playing partner on the day, trimmed her lead to just one shot. Miyazato bounced right back with a birdie on the next hole, while Hong then bogeyed to drop three behind and give Miyazato some breathing space, which she needed after another bogey on the 14th. "I was nervous this morning, but I had a really good feeling with my game and I really trusted myself," Miyazato said. "Even when my lead was down to one I was never in a hurry, I expected that to happen."

Williams: I wasted two years being loyal to Woods

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Steve Williams says he wasted the last two years of his life standing by Tiger Woods through injuries and eruptions in the golfer's private life. In frank interviews about his dismissal published Friday in his native New Zealand, the 47-year-old caddie said he had lost "a tremendous amount of respect" for the game's biggest star. Williams told the New Zealand Herald "realistically I could look back, and I've wasted the last two years of my life because he's played infrequently, he's been injured and played poorly." "I was prepared to hang in there through thick and thin," Williams said, "so I find the timing extraordinary." Williams said he had no idea he was going to be fired after a dozen years as Woods' caddie until Woods called him to a meeting at the AT&T National tournament two weeks ago. "Sometimes you get an inkling that something's going to happen ... And I basically didn't have much to say with him. I was somewhat in a state of shock, but I just listened to what he thought," Williams told the Herald. "I didn't agree with what he was telling me but at the end of the day that wasn't going to make a difference so I just took it on the chin." Williams told the newspaper he was not upset at being fired, but at its timing and after his staunch loyalty to Woods' during the upheaval in his private life. "I understand that's part of the game ... To be let go after staying incredibly loyal during the most difficult time in his life and then for him to decide that he needs a change, I think that the timing has been very poor," he said. "When Tiger went through the Tiger scandal, as it's known, I was obviously very disappointed in him, as everyone was. Obviously I lost a tremendous amount of respect for him ... and I told him that he had to earn back my respect. Whatever respect he may have earned back, he's just lost." Williams said he had not spoken to Woods since their working relationship was terminated. In a separate interview with Television New Zealand, Williams said he felt his loyalty to Woods had not been repaid. "I'm a very big stickler for loyalty and I stuck with Tiger through his difficult period when a lot of people thought I should have left his side," he said. "That was the most difficult period that I've ever been through in my life. I'm pretty hardheaded and took it probably a lot better than my wife and family did, but there's no way that I should have been put through that." Williams said he felt like he'd been considered guilty by association after sticking with Woods during the scandal. "My name should have been cleared immediately. It wasn't and that's what makes it even more disappointing what's transpired." he told TVNZ. "I never really got pardoned from that scandal so the timing of it is extraordinary. You could say I've wasted two years of my life." Williams also repeated his previous assertions he had no knowledge of Woods' extramarital affairs. "I had no idea what was going on and that was the hardest part ... it was a difficult time," he told the New Zealand Herald. "I'm a straight-up person, I'm a loyal person - if I knew something, then I'd say I did." Williams is often described as New Zealand's highest-paid sportsman - a definition stretched to encompass the caddie who may have banked around $9 million during his association with Woods. He operates a charitable foundation which makes regular donations to an Auckland children's hospital and is highly respected by New Zealanders.

Saiki takes 2nd-round lead at Evian Masters

EVIAN-LES-BAINS, France (AP) — Miki Saiki of Japan took a one-stroke lead at the Evian Masters on Friday, shooting a 5-under 67 in the second round to move to 9 under as the drenched course started to dry. Saiki leads Americans Angela Stanford, whose 66 included seven birdies, and Kraft Nabisco winner Stacy Lewis (67). Also challenging at 8 under are former Evian champion Ai Miyazato of Japan, who finished with a 68, co-overnight leader Maria Hjorth of Sweden (69) and South Korea's Ahn Shin-ae (69). "From yesterday, I was hitting the ball really well and it kind of continued today," Saiki said through a translator. "Yesterday there was a lot of rain and you didn't know what you were going to get. Today you had no wind, the greens were consistent." Paula Creamer (67), Cristie Kerr (69) and Karren Stupples (70) were two shots behind the leader. Kerr had an eagle on the ninth and followed with a birdie on 10. Stanford's plan was to attack from the outset. "Before we went out (we) realized the course could be scoreable with some of the pin placements," Stanford said. Players were relieved not to have the burden of the teeming rain to deal with, although more showers are forecast for Saturday. "We didn't have our umbrella up the whole time, so that was nice," Stanford said. Lewis picked up her form after going 3-over in the last four holes at the end of her rain-soaked first round Thursday. Starting the day at 3 under, the Lewis decided she would take a positive attitude and finished with seven birdies. She wrote a single word on her glove to cheer herself up. "I just wrote 'confident.' Just to trust what I'm doing," she said. "I just started making birdies and putts." Ahn was pressuring for a share of the lead again until she hit a wild tee shot into the rough on the 18th, managing par. Creamer was only 18 when she beat 15-year-old Michelle Wie to win at Evian in 2005. She has not won it since, and admits that early success resulted in unrealistic expectations. "Every year I've come back and I've expected myself to do it over and over again," she said. "In reality, I put a little too much pressure on myself." Meanwhile, Wie shot 73 and missed the cut at 5 over, despite birdies on the last two holes. Seven-time major champion Juli Inkster also failed to make the cut, finishing 3 over. Miyazato is looking forward to better conditions in the third round. "The greens are still soft, so everyone's going to shoot a low score," she said.

Stupples shares 1st-round lead at Evian Masters

EVIAN-LES-BAINS, France (AP) — Former British Open champion Karen Stupples of England shot a 5-under 67 for a share of the first-round lead with Sweden's Maria Hjorth and South Korea's Ahn Shin-ae at the Evian Masters on Thursday. Stupples, who won her only major in 2004, recovered well from a double bogey on the ninth hole to make six birdies for a 30 on the back nine as heavy rain soaked the course at regular intervals during the day. "Obviously the weather was pretty grim to start with. It's been a while since I've played in conditions like that," the 38-year-old Stupples said. "After I made that double bogey on nine, it was almost like the kick I needed to get going." Cristie Kerr, the 2007 U.S. Open champion, had a consistent day with six birdies and only two bogeys for a 68, tied with 2009 champion Ai Miyazato of Japan. Defending champion Jiyai Shin of South Korea made a solid start with a 69, including three birdies in the first four holes, before bogeys on No. 6 and 8 slowed her down. The 23-year-old Shin is still looking for her first title of the year. Stupples used the pace of the slick, rain-soaked greens to her advantage to shoot a brilliant 30 on the back nine, after going out in 37, where she had a bogey on the sixth hole. "With the kind of rain we've had here, it's made the greens a bit like dart boards, so you can really fire at all the pins," she said. "I was hitting my irons well, confident with my putter too. The greens are absolutely perfect, I've never seen them in as good a condition as they are now." Kerr, who was third at the recent U.S. Open, has yet to win a tournament this season. She finished runner-up at three consecutive tournaments - the Sybase Match Play Championship, ShopRite LPGA Classic and State Farm Classic. Kerr feels a tournament win will come if she stays patient. "Just trying not to put too much pressure on myself and execute well," she said. While Stupples birdied the last three holes, Hjorth did the opposite, going from 8-under to 5-under with bogeys on the last three holes. Still, on a good day for veterans, the 37-year-old Hjorth was in upbeat mood. "I've been putting great today. The greens are the fastest they've ever been, and I've been playing here for 15 years," Hjorth said. "I played really solid, obviously not the finish that I would have liked. But you could have three bogeys anywhere. But I take five-under any day." Kraft Nabisco champion Stacy Lewis looked well set to take the lead at 6-under with four holes remaining, but a double bogey on the 15th meant she finished the day level with Shin and five others on 69. "I played really well for 14 holes," Lewis said. "I just missed a couple of short putts and hit a bad chip and that kind of compounded my mistakes. The weather was all over the place: it was rainy, it was cold, it was hot." Lewis lost balance as she was preparing to tee off on the 15th, and then lost more ground after a bogey on the 18th. "Off the tee my foot slipped a bit and I pulled my tee shot," she said. "It was a bad chip. I chipped in earlier in the day so it wasn't like my chipping was bad today, I just hit a bad shot." Michelle Wie struggled with a double bogey, three bogeys, and only one birdie in a 4-over round of 76. Wie first played at the event in 2004 as an invited 14-year-old amateur, and she tied for second the following year behind winner Paula Creamer - who ended the day with a 2-under 70. Late in the afternoon, Wie was back out on the practice greens, where she chipped for several minutes, before taking her frustrations out on the driving range.

Bubba Watson is that rare Tour star who packs a punch on the course but drops his gloves off it

Bubba Watson wants to win majors and cash big checks and play in more Ryder Cups, but if it doesn't happen, well, c'est la vie. "I don't let stuff worry me," says Watson, who has climbed to 12th in the world rankings with an enviable combination of power and finesse. "Golf is a job. It's not my life." Don't be fooled. The left-hander hasn't always been so carefree. Working his way up the ranks from his native Bagdad, Fla., Watson used to beat himself up, cursing and scowling and brooding when things didn't go well. Then, in 2009, his father, Gerry, was diagnosed with cancer, and soon after so was Bubba's wife, Angie (she later learned that she had been misdiagnosed). Golf suddenly seemed insignificant to Watson, which ironically made him a better player. Not obsessing over every mis-hit and lip-out, he says, freed up his mind and his game. He won his first PGA Tour title in 2010, and nearly his first major. A year later he's backed that up with two more victories and is a lock for the Presidents Cup team. "Every year I've gotten better on Tour," Watson says. "And just like any amateur, my aim is still to get better." In 2010 you faced tragedy off the course while reaching some important goals on the course. What did you take away from that season? I think everything happens for a reason in life. My worst year off the course turns out to be my best year on the course. My dad was diagnosed with throat cancer in November 2009. We thought my wife, Angie, had a brain tumor, but we found out it was misdiagnosed. What I believe is that to get my dad and my family through it, it was important [for them] to see me on TV a lot and playing good golf. Your father died in October, nine days after you returned from the Ryder Cup. How were your last days with him? It was great. We spent a lot of time sitting on the front porch. The doctor told us that he was going to have days where he wasn't going to do anything. But he never had those days. So we never felt like his death was coming. I mean we knew it was coming but he never stopped moving. He always wanted to go and do something. An hour before he passed, he met with the plumber. With your dad in your thoughts, how difficult was it to concentrate in those matches? It was harder than I could ever have imagined. Every night I would call the house to talk to my parents to see how they were doing. That was my dad's Ryder Cup. He wanted to make sure that he was alive for it. He went to the doctor every day to get an IV so that he could stay hydrated enough to stay up to watch the matches. He kept telling the nurses that his goal was to just make it through the Ryder Cup. I didn't play as good as I wanted to, but obviously I had more important things on my mind. After you earned your first career win at Hartford in June 2010, you said that winning wouldn't change your life and that golf wasn't the most important thing to you. Do you still feel that way? Golf is the way I make a living. If I retired from the game today I would still play golf every day with my buddies. If I had been wealthy I never would have turned pro. I would have been like Bobby Jones and just tried to be the best amateur and try to go to the Masters by winning the U.S. Amateur. So winning a golf tournament doesn't change me as a person. I'm still going to be goofy Bubba from Bagdad, Fla. You came awfully close to winning your first major at the PGA last year. Did losing in a playoff to Martin Kaymer gnaw at you? Not at all. My biggest goal last year, outside of winning an event, was making the Ryder Cup. My main goal each year is to get into the team event. I don't let bad rounds or bad tournaments gnaw at me. You and Kaymer were tied on the third playoff hole when your drive came to rest in a bad lie in the right rough on 18, a par 5. Kaymer's ball was nestled just in front of yours in another difficult lie. Why did you go for the green? I was trying to win the tournament. I didn't know how it was going to come out of that lie. There was no way to predict how it was going to come out of that rough. So I thought it was going to do one thing and it came up way short. If you look back at the video, I didn't know where my ball finished. I didn't think there was any way that it was that far short in the [creek]. I thought it was short in the bunker. It must have been tough for your regular caddie, Teddy Scott, to not be with you that week. He took off to be home for the birth of his child. Teddy is best friends with Mark Carens, who stepped in to caddie for me that week. Mark was having some tough financial times. So we wanted to help him. Some people have caddie shares that call for the full-time caddie to get some money regardless of whether he works or not. But we didn't do that. All the money went straight to Mark and his family. So the whole PGA experience was a lot deeper than most people know. Are you surprised with how your game has matured over the last two years? Not really. I was working on a few things with my putting. The game of golf is so messed up that you could hit the ball great and not win and then hit the ball bad and win. It's the putter. If you're rolling it well, you're going to win out here. We're always trying to get better from six feet and in. When I can make those I know that I'm going to have a great week and a great year. At this year's Masters you started the final round five shots off the lead, but closed with a 78. What happened? I knew that a big week would probably get me in the top 10. I was thinking too much about climbing the world ranking and not enough about golf. You don't have a swing instructor and you've never taken a formal lesson. How much do you practice? In the winter I play golf almost every day. On Sundays I go to church and hit balls afterward and take off on Monday. From Tuesday through Saturday I play with the boys at the Estancia Club in Scottsdale, where I'm a member. Sometimes I'll play against the best ball of three players. I start out in these matches taking it easy for the first three holes, but eventually I start grinding if the match is close. As one of the game's biggest hitters, do you believe the distance craze is good for the game? I don't think we should be lengthening courses. I'm the long hitter so it doesn't bother me. It's to my advantage. But I think the golf industry is going the wrong way. We're the only ones changing our sport. No one else is changing their game so much with technology. Basketball isn't going to 12-foot rims because the guys can jump higher. Golf is supposed to be providing a great atmosphere for the amateurs and the weekend golfers. We should want to grow the game for the people. Why would anyone want to play an 8,000-yard golf course? Do you look at driving statistics? I know I had the driving distance title for the first few years on Tour and I've lost it the last few, but otherwise I haven't really paid much attention to it. I would rather win golf tournaments and be the shortest hitter in the world than be the longest hitter and not win. If the longest hitters on the PGA Tour had a driving contest, who would win? If we were just on a big open field I would put my money on J.B. Holmes. I think, though, that if Alvaro Quiros was on our tour he'd be the longest. Dustin Johnson is the longest into the wind because like Quiros he hits a low bullet, whereas J.B. and I fly it a long way in the air. What's your best long-drive tip? Since I'm not a big muscle man, I've really concentrated on creating a big arc. The bigger the arc the greater the clubhead speed, no matter how fast you're swinging. On YouTube there are dozens of videos of you hitting various trick shots using fruit and persimmon clubs. What's that all about? It's like Jackass for golfers, without the injuries. It's the same concept but nicer and cleaner. I've done about 60 movies so far. What's the hardest trick shot you do? Hitting a bunker shot with a driver. I tee it up a little bit in the bunker but you still have to get up over the lip. You have about 130,000 Twitter followers. Have you gotten to know any of them personally? There was one guy who played college golf from Chicago and I could tell from the things that he was saying in his tweets that he really knew about golf. So when he came down to the Phoenix Open I met him and gave him tickets. Once I met him I invited him to come out and play golf with my caddie and I at Estancia. So now we play Xbox online and we've become friends. Do your Twitter followers ever alert you when they're in the gallery? At last year's British Open there was a Scottish woman in the gallery who had won a contest for one of my drivers. While I was there she wanted to know how she could get in touch with me to thank me. So I gave her a special word to say to let me know that she was in the gallery. I do this all the time with people. What kind of code words do you use? It's not any words that you would ever hear at a golf tournament. And they are never the same from person to person. At the 2008 Zurich Classic of New Orleans you cursed out Steve Elkington for repeatedly moving while you were hitting. How is your relationship today? The way I handled myself with that was wrong. I'm not embarrassed that it happened because you learn from mistakes. I got my point across to him. We made up and since then I've met his wife and we're friends. Is etiquette generally good on Tour? The way I feel about etiquette is that if I'm shooting 100 and I'm going to miss the cut, I'm going to play as fast as I can to not get in the way of a player who still has a chance. But the hard thing about etiquette is that sometimes you're so focused on what you're doing that you forget there's another player in the group. So sometimes you might disrespect a player and not intend to. You've acknowledged that you're a bit of a "head case." Have you seen a sports psychologist? I approached Ben Crane as a fellow Christian and Tour pro about who was the best psychologist to help me. He told me that the best help would be the Bible because it was going to show me that golf doesn't mean anything and that there were bigger things in life, like doing good for others. Do you struggle with being a good person? I have my biggest downfalls on the golf course. I'll use bad language every once in a while. I don't mind saying that I cuss on the course because you need to be able to talk about your issues. I'm not happy about it and then I'm mad at myself for not being mad at myself when I mess up. So then I'm just fighting myself. So I'm trying to get better on the course. To help me mentally I had to realize that it's just a game and that I should be having fun. Tweet

American performance at Royal St. George's bodes well for future majors

As the 140th Open Championship came to a close and Darren Clarke of Northern Ireland was crowned champion golfer of the world, a plaintive wail rang out across Royal St.;George's: What's wrong with European golf? The long overdue first major championship victory for Clarke, 42, merely highlighted the ongoing underachievement of his majorless contemporaries. Crowd favorite Miguel Angel Jiménez, 47, was in position to challenge for the claret jug, but he closed with an eight-over 78 and tumbled to 25th place. First-round leader Thomas Bjorn, 40, couldn't break par the rest of the way and endured a slow, agonizing fade to fourth place. Clarke's wingman, Lee Westwood, 38, missed the cut, while Colin Montgomerie, 48, failed to even land a spot in the field and made headlines only with his threat to quit the sport in favor of full-time TV commentating. Yes, Clarke's victory was the fourth by a Euro in the last six majors, but that's clearly a statistical anomaly given that Americans have won 69.8% of the majors since World War;II. And yes, Clarke's victory is a wonderful valedictory to a star-crossed career, but it is the young lads who must carry the banner for European golf, and they had a rough go of it last week. World No.;1 Luke Donald, Graeme McDowell and Ian Poulter all missed the cut, while Rory McIlroy and Martin Kaymer stumbled badly on the weekend. Going forward they will have to tangle with a suddenly rejuvenated U.S. side. Five of the top seven finishers at the Open were Yanks, including the three most talented innocents abroad: Dustin Johnson, Anthony Kim and Rickie Fowler. Phil Mickelson, 41, put a huge charge into this Open with a Sunday surge during which he played the first seven holes in five under par to briefly tie for the lead. He ultimately fell short, but Mickelson has found a new confidence and playing style on the linksland that should make him a contender at future British Opens. Befitting the rugged individualism of their homeland, the U.S. players were not necessarily reveling in their collective surge. Phil used the word fun seven times following his round on Friday; the only time his mood soured was when he was asked about the "American drought" in the majors. Phil, is that something you think about, and do you feel extra motivation to get the U.S. a win? "No and no." Still, it was impossible not to notice all the red, white and blue on the leader board, which would explain the perma-grin worn by Davis Love III, the 2012 U.S. Ryder Cup captain, who, it should be noted, tied for ninth, a stroke ahead of countrymen Steve Stricker and Lucas Glover. While actually winning the British Open is nice, you can make the case that the Americans traded short-term glory for long-term gain, with a host of players learning valuable lessons that will stand them in good stead for the future. Mickelson's abysmal record at the Open -- contending only once in two decades -- has always been one of golf's great mysteries, given that these wild and woolly, rolling courses should be ideal showcases for his touch and creative shotmaking. Part of the problem was Mickelson's stubborn attempts to impose his game on the Open, playing by air and not by land. He brought a more open-minded approach to St. George's. "I'm entering this year kind of like a fresh start," Mickelson said on the eve of the championship. "I'm going to try to learn and enjoy the challenge of playing links golf. I'm trying to pretend like it's my first time here. I feel excited and kind of reinvigorated to come over here and try to learn this style of golf and play it effectively." Instead of his usual towering ball flight, he often employed a low, stinging driver that got on the ground quickly and ran for days. Without any ballooning foul balls, Mickelson avoided making a double bogey at a tournament where he has often been undone by big numbers. A missed two-footer on the 11th hole on Sunday blunted Mickelson's comeback, but he chose to accentuate only the positives after his seventh runner-up finish in a major. "Oh, man, that was some of the most fun" -- there's that word again -- "I've had competitively," he said. Part of Mickelson's buoyancy was having his family join him at an Open for the first time. "I think we're coming back," Amy Mickelson said on Sunday. That's the ongoing theme with Johnson -- the guy simply keeps coming back ... from his final-round 80 at last year's U.S. Open ... from the brutal 72nd-hole penalty that cost him a spot in the playoff at the PGA Championship ... and, last week, from illness and a disastrous start that left him four over par through his first 13 holes. Johnson proceeded to go birdie, birdie, ace, birdie to salvage his round. A trip to the doctor helped him cope with glands that had swollen to the size of golf balls and were bulging over the collar of his polos. (With a nod to Johnson's soul patch, Justin Leonard joked that if Dustin had let a few whiskers on his neck grow, it would've look as if he had three chins.) Back-to-back 68s earned Johnson, 27, a spot in the final pairing for the third time in the last six majors. On Sunday he was four strokes back after Clarke's eagle on the 7th hole, but Johnson made birdie there and kept fighting, birdieing the 10th and 12th holes to get within two strokes of the lead. After a perfect drive on the par-5 14th;hole -- and after Clarke had laid up -- Johnson unsheathed his two-iron. "It was definitely a go situation," Johnson said. But he made a mediocre swing, and his ball drifted into the rarest real estate on a links course: out of bounds. His bid was over, but it's clear Johnson remains fearless enough to keep putting himself in position to have his heart broken, a prerequisite to finally breaking through. "Dustin really doesn't think about a whole lot," Fowler said afterward, and he meant that as a compliment. "I don't think he's going to be too worried about it. He's someone who gets over things quickly. He'll be fine." Like Johnson, Fowler continues to patiently build his résumé. At his Open debut last year on the Old Course, he showed a natural flair for links golf, placing 14th despite a jittery 79 to open the tournament. A quintessential feel player, Fowler seems more at home at the British Open than on the manicured playing fields of the PGA Tour, a phenomenon diagnosed by Tom Lehman. "This tournament brings out the creativity that a lot of the guys have but they're not forced to use," says Lehman, the 1996 British Open champ. Fowler put on an audacious display of the art of scoring at the close of his second round. "I made probably my worst swings I have all week the last five holes and I somehow played them one under," he said. The highlight came on the 17th hole; 170 yards from the hole, he flew his approach only 125 and let it bounce and roll and trickle until his ball cozied up near the flag. On Saturday, Fowler was paired with golf's new boy king, McIlroy. They've had a nice little rivalry going back to the 2007 Walker Cup, when Fowler was pivotal in a crucial second-day foursomes match over McIlroy in the U.S.'s eventual one-point victory. Fowler, for all his flash, approaches his career with the solemnity of a middle manager, and he is keenly aware that McIlroy's recent achievements have devalued his own. (Rookie of the Year in 2010, 11 career top;10s on the PGA Tour but no victories.) Fowler is too modest to say it, but he took immense enjoyment in thumping McIlroy on Saturday, 68-73. On Sunday, Fowler's putter went cold, and he could do no better than par the first 13 holes, falling too far behind to make a run at Clarke. But Fowler saw the pint glass half-full after his tie for fifth. "I really haven't been in contention come Sunday in a major, so it definitely felt nice," he said. Kim was similarly bullish after his own tie for fifth. Since his stellar near-miss at the 2010 Masters he has been derailed by wrist surgery and subsequent swing problems. Two months ago Kim, 25, went back to basics with his action, telling his coach, Adam Schriber, "Let's start over, like I'm a beginner." His motivation has also been renewed by all the attention lavished on golf's other bright lights. "I definitely feel like I've been forgotten," Kim says. Trying to keep up with the other guys helps explain how tiny Northern Ireland has produced three major champions in the past 13 months, fueling the notion that American golf is in trouble. It was left to accidental philosopher Bubba Watson to sum up his countrymen's productive week in England. "Bad golf is bad golf, and good golf is good golf," Watson said. "It don't matter where you're from. It just so happens that this week we're playing good golf." It is, indeed, only one tournament. But even with all of the lads coming up short on Sunday, their showing in the Open bodes well for a U.S. contingent that has needed some good news.