Langer and Jacobson in British Open
Bernhard Langer, last year’s European Ryder Cup captain, and Fredrik Jacobson, the player he left out of his team, were both called into the British Open championship today.
Langer was the first to receive the call-up to St Andrews – the course on which he finished second to Seve Ballesteros in 1984 – when Japan’s Shingo Katayama withdrew because of injury.
Then Jacobson was contacted as there was a place for him because 51-year-old Jay Haas had also scratched from the starting line-up.
The two withdrawals mean Londoner Brian Davis, sixth at Sandwich only two years ago, is now on stand-by and will play if another exempt player pulls out.
But this morning’s news will only make England’s Greg Owen angrier than he already is.
Owen should have been Katayama’s replacement, but was deemed to have withdrawn from the British Open when he did not play in the American qualifier in New Jersey two weeks ago – although he did not know that was the consequence of not teeing off.
The next highest non-exempt player on the world rankings is called up, but with Billy Mayfair pulling out of the British Open last week Owen and Americans Arron Oberholser and Jeff Maggert have all now lost places in the championships because of their non-appearance at Canoe Brook.
Langer and Jacobson, 73rd and 74th on the rankings compared to Owen’s 66th, are the beneficiaries of that decision.
“They sit there and discuss it over a glass of port and then make it law,” said Owen, describing the Royal and Ancient Club’s decision as “disgraceful”.
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