Open Championship

In an age of record-breakers, regardless of the sport, it is amazing to find one of 1908 vintage still intact and likely to remain so.When Fred McLeod won the 1908 U.S. Open championship, he stood 5 feet 4 and weighed 108 pounds. To this day, the Scotsman is the smallest player to have won this crown, and, with the exception of Ben Hogan or Gary Player, both several inches taller and 40 pounds heavier, no one has even come close to his measurements.Although he either won or was a serious contender in every major golf championship from 1903-1930, McLeod is probably best remembered in this area as the head professional at Columbia Country Club in Chevy Chase, a position he held officially for 64 years.

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.

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.

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.