Open Championship

Curtis Strange tried for a third straight U.S. Open championship last year, and was the object of worldwide attention. Betsy King is going for a third straight U.S. Women's Open championship this week, and only the most hardy of golf fans know about it.The LPGA superstar from Limekiln, Pa., will try to become the first woman to take three consecutive Open championships beginning today at Colonial National Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas.While it's going to be a tough task, it is much different than the bid by Strange.

Derek Nie sat down in front of the camera at the Maryland Table Tennis Center in Gaithersburg and fielded the question from the television reporter. "Will [making the Olympics] make all this hard work worthwhile?" Derek, of North Potomac, paused and then shook his head. "No," he responds. "Because I still have to win the gold medal. " Never mind that the United States has never won an Olympic medal of any kind for table tennis. Never mind that Derek is just 11 years old, and never mind that he is about 4 feet tall and weighs just under 70 pounds.

SOUTHPORT, England -- Ian Baker-Finch finally got it right. Baker-Finch the player and Baker-Finch the man finally came together, performing in nearly flawless harmony, and together they won the British Open championship yesterday.Baker-Finch had taken the old links for 6-under-par 64 Saturday and found himself in the final group in this championship for the third time in the past eight tournaments. The first was '84. He failed miserably going off tied for the lead, and cried miserably afterward.

SHEBOYGAN, Wis. — Whistling and Straits barely rank among the popular buzzwords this week. Getting far more play: "Mosquitoes," "arthritis," "Jim Gray" and "wide open. " The "wide open" part reflects the outcomes of the last two majors — U.S. Open champ Graeme McDowell arrived at Pebble Beach ranked 37th in the world and Louis Oosthuizen was 54th on the eve of the British Open — and the state of the world's top three. •Tiger Woods made 25 bogeys (or worse)

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. -- It will be a different course than the one that was played 28 years ago, as well as a different format used, but the U.S. Open Championship will be returning to Congressional Country Club in Bethesda.The U.S. Golf Association confirmed yesterday what has been rumored for more than a year: that the 1997 Open will be played at Congressional, two years after the U.S. Senior Open will be played there. Contracts have not been signed, but they appear to be a formality."It's not carved in stone because the executive committee [of the USGA]

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- One of the more interesting pairings for the first two rounds of this year's U.S. Women's Open championship grouped Laura Davies, Ayako Okamoto and JoAnne Carner.Golf is a sport that thrives on its history as much as its current events, and the fact the three players had once been involved in an Open championship playoff was not lost on the pairing's creator.In the 1987 rain-marred tournament that wound up lasting six days at Plainfield, N.J., the three had tied at 285 after 72 holes.

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — It's WUHST-hy-zen. Louis Oosthuizen. Or just call him the "Champion Golfer of the Year." Your British Open title-holder. The unknown guy with the unpronounceable name finished off the unexpected task Sunday at golf's ancestral home, St. Andrews, and it wasn't even close. South Africa's Oosthuizen captured the claret jug in convincing fashion — a seven-stroke triumph, touring the ancient linksland in a tidy 1-under-par 71 while his pursuers largely stumbled over their golf spikes.

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. -- It will be a different course than the one that was played 28 years ago, as well as a different format used, but the U.S. Open Championship will be returning to Congressional Country Club in Bethesda.The U.S. Golf Association confirmed yesterday what has been rumored for more than a year: that the 1997 Open will be played at Congressional, two years after the U.S. Senior Open will be played there. Contracts have not been signed, but they appear to be a formality."It's not carved in stone because the executive committee [of the USGA]

CHASKA, Minn. -- After what happened yesterday at Hazeltine National Golf Club, the folks in charge of deciding the playoff used in the U.S Open might want to reconsider seriously the 18-hole format.Call it a blight to the finish.With a 3-over par 75 -- the highest winning playoff score in the tournament's past 67 years -- Payne Stewart won the 91st Open championship by two strokes over Scott Simpson, who bogeyed the last holes to lose.It was Stewart's second major title, following his win at the PGA Championship in 1989, and came under similar circumstances, when Mike Reid faltered down the stretch with bogeys on two of the last three holes.

LAKE ORION, Mich. -- Helen Alfredsson turned the first round of the 49th U.S. Women's Open into a one-woman demolition derby at Indianwood Golf and Country Club yesterday.Alfredsson, 29, reeled off eight birdies in posting a 32-3163 over the 6,244-yard, par-71 course. It elevated her name to the highest level of single-round scoring in a major championship, man or woman, a level previously reserved for the likes of Nicklaus, Norman, Miller and Sheehan."When you're shooting a good score, sometimes you don't realize it," the Swedish star said.

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — It's WUHST-hy-zen. Louis Oosthuizen. Or just call him the "Champion Golfer of the Year." Your British Open title-holder. The unknown guy with the unpronounceable name finished off the unexpected task Sunday at golf's ancestral home, St. Andrews, and it wasn't even close. South Africa's Oosthuizen captured the claret jug in convincing fashion — a seven-stroke triumph, touring the ancient linksland in a tidy 1-under-par 71 while his pursuers largely stumbled over their golf spikes.

NEW YORK - Andy Roddick had just hit his 23rd ace. This one at 133 mph on match point in the U.S. Open men's final against the game but sluggish Juan Carlos Ferrero, the new world No. 1. Roddick bent at the waist, totally overtaken by his emotions. He had sat in the upper deck at the Open as a 12-year-old fan. He had hit tennis balls as a kid in his garage and pretended he had just beaten Ivan Lendl, Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg. But when he actually won the U.S. Open yesterday, 6-3, 7-6 (2)

POTOMAC - Rich Beem left the Tournament Players Club at Avenel after winning last year's Kemper Open with his future on the PGA Tour apparently secure, with a caddie who helped prod him to victory and with a girlfriend who seemed to give the one-time vagabond some much-needed stability. When Beem returns to defend his first and only title this week, the name of the tournament is not the only thing to have changed. Beem will come into the renamed, $3million Kemper Insurance Open having missed the cut in 10 of the 15 events in which he has played this year.

The champion took home $150 in prize money and a $50 medal. The margin of victory -- 11 strokes -- is still the record for a U.S. Open championship. The golf course on which it was played closed more than three decades ago.But go out to the elevated first tee at the original Baltimore Country Club in Roland Park and envision what it must have been like a century ago. Gaze out from the 100-foot drop and turn back the clock.Jack Emich has."I could picture the U.S. Open being played there," he said last week.

PINEHURST, N.C. -- Imagine, if you will, the scene here come Sunday should Tiger Woods walk up the 18th fairway on the famed Pinehurst No. 2 course, a three-shot lead on the scoreboard and his first U.S. Open in his pocket.Now try to picture what it would be like if Colin Montgomerie of Scotland finds himself in the same position, the long-suffering and often-blustering bridesmaid finally claiming his first major championship.And here's a third scenario: Greg Norman, his shoulder healed and his confidence revived from his runner-up finish at the Masters, grabbing hold of the Open demons he has chased since losing in a playoff to Fuzzy Zoeller 15 years ago.The 99th U.S. Open begins this morning with these scenarios -- and many more, given the nature of the Donald Ross course and soggy conditions -- being played out over the next four (or five)

HERE'S to Jenny Chuasiriporn, Baltimore's gift to golf. Monday's playoff between the co-winners of the first 72 holes of the U.S. Women's Open championship in Kohler, Wis., was one of the great matches in the game.Two 20-year-olds, Ms. Chuasiriporn and Se Ri Pak of South Korea, squared off in this classic sports struggle.They were well under the age of the youngest previous winner of the women's U.S. Open. Ms. Chuasiriporn turns 21 today.Se Ri Pak is South Korea's leading sports celebrity.

GULLANE, Scotland -- Raymond Floyd took a significant step yesterday toward becoming a legendary figure in golf. He shot a 64, 7-under-par, in the opening round of the 121st British Open at the Muirfield course and shared the lead with Steve Pate.If Floyd, 49, goes on to win, he would join Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus as the only players to have won all four majors: the U.S. and British opens, Masters and PGA Championship.Asked about his chances, Floyd said: "I don't look at it like that.

LAKE ORION, Mich. -- Helen Alfredsson turned the first round of the 49th U.S. Women's Open into a one-woman demolition derby at Indianwood Golf and Country Club yesterday.Alfredsson, 29, reeled off eight birdies in posting a 32-3163 over the 6,244-yard, par-71 course. It elevated her name to the highest level of single-round scoring in a major championship, man or woman, a level previously reserved for the likes of Nicklaus, Norman, Miller and Sheehan."When you're shooting a good score, sometimes you don't realize it," the Swedish star said.

Some golfers head into major championships hoping to make history. Tom Lehman goes into the 98th U.S. Open later this week at the Olympic Club in San Francisco hoping to find one place in the record books -- and avoid another.In each of the previous three years, Lehman has entered the final round of the Open with at least a share of the lead. It is a feat that has been accomplished by only one other player. The legendary Bobby Jones did it between 1928 and 1930, winning twice.Lehman has taken an 0-for at the Open.

NEW YORK -- Women's tennis has never seen the likes of this. Raw emotion, chest bumping, a raucous crowd, stupid shots, brilliant shots and a 17-year-old girl driving both heropponent and the crowd crazy at Arthur Ashe Stadium on a sunny afternoon in the semifinals of the U.S. Open.Venus Williams, the African-American sensation, fought off a bumping incident on a change-over in the middle of the second set, stood up under No. 11 seed Irina Spirlea's self-inspiring shouts, won a war of intimidating all-court games and fought off two Spirlea match points, for a 7-6 (7-5)