BRITISH OPEN NOTES

ST. ANDREWS – John Daly said being at St. Andrews is “like coming home.” That being the case, hopefully he’ll behave more accordingly than in the last two U.S. Opens, when he disqualified himself by walking off the course.

“I’d have walked over broken glass to be here,” Daly said on the eve of today’s first round of the 2000 Open at the Old Course, where Daly won the Claret Jug in 1995. “Nothing was going to stop me from coming here. This is the place to be. I wouldn’t have missed it. It suits me. There are places in life where you just want to be, and this is one of them.”

Daly insisted that, despite the fact that he’s been playing poorly of late, having missed 10 cuts and withdrawn twice in the 20 events, he’s aiming to become a two-time champ.

“Nothing would excite me more than to be walking down the last against Tiger Woods on Sunday,” Daly said. “That would be awesome. Some might say it’ll be a miracle if I won here again. I don’t.”

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Colin Montgomerie, asked for a few predictions entering today’s opening round, said he thought the winning score would be “double the first-round leading score and add two. So, if it’s 6-under that starts, 14-under will win. If it’s 5-under, 12-under is going to win.”

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The last time Sergio Garcia played in a British Open, he imploded, missing the cut by miles, shooting 89 in the first round and 83 in the second at Carnoustie a year ago.

“I am hoping for better than that,” Garcia said. “Carnoustie is gone.”

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Defending champion Paul Lawrie, though still wearing a bandage on his left wrist, insisted he felt great and was ready to defend his title. Lawrie’s wrist was injured when a youngster hit it making a backswing during a youth clinic Lawrie was doing earlier this week.

“I told [the kid] to give me a second while I got behind him and he obviously didn’t hear me,” Lawrie said. “As I walked behind him he just nailed me.”

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For today’s first round, it’s supposed to be cloudy with a 10 percent chance of a shower and winds at 5-10 mph.