OPEN NOTES
LYTHAM ST. ANNES – The most compelling story at the top of the British Open leaderboard involves the least-known player. Alex Cejka is one of four players leading the 130th British Open as it enters today’s final round.
Who is he?
He was born in Czechoslovakia and escaped the Communist country to live in Germany by swimming across a river with his father when he was a child.
“I was too young to understand what was going on,” Cejka recalled yesterday after his third successive 69. “I remember we swam across a river and my dad hugged me and said, ‘We did it.’ “
Making Cejka’s story here this week even more fairy-tale-like is the fact that he came through local qualifying earlier in the week to make it into the field.
In fact, he purposely failed to sign his scorecard at the Scottish Open last week after shooting successive 67s, because he thought he had a better chance of getting into the Open by playing in the qualifier.
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England’s Greg Owen, who’s becoming a darling of this tournament, is two shots off of the lead thanks to a double-eagle 2 carded on the par-5 11th hole.
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One of the great scenes yesterday was Colin Montgomerie in a contorted position trying to hit out of a pot bunker with one leg out of the bunker and one in.