'Tiger probably thinks (Nottingham Forest's) a golf course'

Lee Westwood drew the short straw and will have to play through the circus atmosphere that will surround his pairing with Tiger Woods and Japan's Ryo Ishikawa in the first two rounds of the British Open this week. He was asked by John Hopkins of the Times what they might talk about.

"We talk about what anyone else would talk about -- the weather and Nottingham Forest," Westwood said, the latter his favorite football team. "Tiger probably thinks it's a golf course."

It recalls Woods' debut in a PGA Tour event, at 16, in the Nissan Los Angeles Open in 1992, when Sandy Lyle was asked about the prodigy. "Tiger Woods?" he replied. "Is that a new golf course?"

-- John Strege