I tried to relax the pressure on us by saying ‘I think we can win both singles tomorrow regardless

I tried to relax the pressure on us by saying, ‘I think we can win both singles tomorrow regardless.’ I think the pressure is in their court now.”. Peter Nicol, the world No 3, celebrated his 24th birthday by becoming the first Scot for 33 years to reach the final of the British Open in Cardiff yesterday. The left-hander beat the second-seeded Australian Rodney Eyles 5-15, 15-12, 17-14, 15-2 with one of the finest performances of his career and one belying his four-year hoodoo at this tournament. Now he faces the difficult task of dethroning the great Pakistani, Jansher Khan, who beat Ahmed Barada of Egypt by three games to one in the other semi-final.
Nicol, who had never won a match in the main draw here before, has been successful this week because he added to his wonderful court coverage, which helped him through his difficult quarter-final with another Australian, Brett Martin, the imposing ability to get in front of his opponent, to move him about to the four corners and to tire him out.It first became apparent that this was happening against Eyles yesterday after a rally in which, paradoxically, Nicol was on the wrong end of every stroke except the last. A sequence of spectacular retrieves were followed by the Scot’s winning backhand drop and, within two or three points, Eyles was struggling to reach anything short.Nicol had to save a game point at 13-14 with a backhand drop, but comfortably won all three points in the tie-breaker.. Brad Faxon is the man Colin Montgomerie hopes will cure his putting blues at Augusta National this week.

The two will play a practice round on Tuesday but the Scot should be careful about relying too much on any information received “I’m going to lie to him,” Faxon joked. Montgomerie, whose game is based on the straightness of his driving, feels the wide Augusta fairways neutralise his advantage off the tee, which is accentuated at a US Open. Instead, his putting is shown up, as it was when Monty was paired with Faxon in the final round of the Players Championship, where the American finished fourth, his best result of the season.
“Along with Loren Roberts, Brad is one of the best at holing out on the US tour,” Montgomerie said. Faxon admits that he can be a frustrating player to be paired alongside. “A lot of people, I think, get too much into ball striking,” Faxon said “They just want to play on the practice range.

They get mad when I start holing everything on the greens.”After two rounds of the Freeport McDermott Classic, Faxon was three behind the half-way leaders Larry Rinker and the defending champion Scott McCarron. Jose Maria Olazabal, continuing his remarkable comeback with a second- round 67, was two further back. The third was delayed until late afternoon by a heavy thunderstorm.On the opening day, Faxon took just 23 putts. On day two he slipped to 28, which is his average for the season. That puts him sixth in the putting statistics, while he is outside the top 100 in hitting greens in regulation and not in the top-140 in driving distance and accuracy.Faxon, a 35-year-old from Rhode Island, has not won since 1992. Of his winless interlude, he said: “You finish eighth on the money list and think you really need to improve your driving to go forward. Rather, you should say, I’ve finished eighth driving the way I have and was not far away from a great year.”If I start being like Nick Faldo and try to hit every shot on the fairway and hit every green, then I get ratty That’s not my game.