Only Two Yanks among Top 10 at Open


Flags from South Africa, England, Northern Ireland and Sweden were situated above the Stars and Stripes on the final leaderboard of the Open Championship at St. Andrews.

The highest finishers for the American contingent were Sean O'Hair and Nick Watney, who both closed with 1-under 71s and ended up tied for seventh at 6-under 282 with Germany's Martin Kaymer and England's Robert Rock.

All the pre-tournament talk about Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson - ranked Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, in the world - going head-to-head at the "Birthplace of Golf" never materialized.

Woods closed with an even-par 72 for a 3-under total of 285, while Mickelson carded a 75 Sunday; the 2010 Masters' champion finished at 1-over 289, tied for 48th with, among others, fellow Americans John Daly (74), 2009 British Open champion Stewart Cink (74) and 2009 U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover (76).

Woods got much publicity before the tournament after changing putters from his long-time stalwart Scottie Cameron to a Nike model. On Sunday, he switched back to his old flat-stick, but to no avail.

"I drove it great all week, hit my irons pretty good, and I did not putt well except for the first day," Woods said. "I believe I had like nine three-putts for the week, so consequently I'm pretty far down the board. If I got something going, I would somehow find a way to stop the momentum. Basically that's kind of what I did all week."