Thomas Bjorn’s wait is over as he will now tee up in this week’s Open Championship at Royal St. George’s.
Bjorn was on the practice range most of Monday as first reserve and looking for someone to withdraw that would see the Dane tee up on the Kent venue where he went so close to winning in 2003.
Thomas Bjorn now into The Open
Near 5pm local the R & A received a phone call from Vijay Singh’s management team indicating the Fijian’s back had not healed and as such he was not fit enough and was withdrawing.
The 42-year old Singh had withdrawn after 36 holes of the recent AT & T Championship due to a back injury.
It meant Bjorn’s wait was over and he’s now in the field for the 140th Open Championship and playing alongside American Gary Woodland and England’s Simon Dyson with the trio teeing off a 7.25am on Thurday.
“I’m very pleased but then obviously very sorry for Vijay as no one wants to withdraw from any event let alone a Major,” said Bjorn.
“I arrived here today not knowing what I was going to do all week, and whether or not I should play a full practice round each day or just stay on the range.
“But now that I’m in The Open it means that I will now be able to prepare properly.”
And with Bjorn now into golf’s oldest Major, it’s sure to rekindle memories of that incident on the 16th and that bunker referred to by R & A CEO Peter Dawson as ‘Bjorn’s bunker’.
“It doesn’t bother me today that I lost that Open,” said Bjorn earlier this year to Golf Week.
Obviously I would have love to have won it, but it’s not something I think about a lot. I learned to live with it.
“I said at the time and I say it today, it will always live with you if you don’t win a major championship. But at least I got myself in that position and some people never do.”
“For me it wasn’t that I felt uncomfortable about the situation or felt that I couldn’t handle it. From the outside people said I choked, and I can understand that, because that’s what people see. But I never felt as if I choked.
“I think it was just the finish of it that bothered me really.
“I played so well for 68 holes, and then bogeyed 15, doubled 16 and bogeyed 17 too. I don’t feel today that I would have done too much differently from what I did then.
“Everything was clear in my mind what I wanted to do. I just didn’t hit the right shots at the right time. I just pushed my tee shot at 16. Those things happen in golf.”
And when asked by Golf Week if he will practice bunker shots from the 16th hole bunker, he said: “I might just start my practice round on that hole.
“Maybe I’ll play a different shot to the one I played eight years ago. Hopefully I’ll get up and down this time.”
