Better Lucky Than Good

I was at the golf last week ...that's "golf" with an O not a U ... on the south coast of England... at the Open.

Over here we call it THE Open, not the British Open... as if it were the only one that counted. Sorry about that, America. It was a great tournament won by an American of whom no one had heard called Ben Curtis... described by his father as a good old country kid from the middle of nowhere. His father couldn't make it here to watch -- he didn't have the money ... and he didn't have the passport.

I spent most of the time watching Tiger. In fact, I even got to run around in the long grass looking for the great man's first tee shot ... about as much chance finding a ball in that lot as finding a weapon of mass destruction.

So, Tiger lost that first ball, two shots gone... & he lost the title by two shots. To be honest, half the players there feel they could have won if the ball had bounced more kindly. But, no.. they were beaten by the rankest of rank outsiders... a man nobody noticed until the final Sunday. Is he a better player than them? No.

But I tell you what he had going for him -- luck.

And he was brave enough and good enough to take advantage. Golf is like life in that respect. Doesn't matter if you are the best in the world. If you don't get the breaks you don't win. And luck always seems to come in a run. Some weeks you're a winner ... other times the prompt breaks down right in the middle .... in the middle of a sentence.

I'm beginning to think our Prime Minister Tony Blair has run out of luck. You can see it on his face. The war in Iraq is won and Uday and Qusay are dead. But over here all he gets is grief over the reasons he gave for going to war. He spends billions on our health service and no one notices any improvement. He has kept his party in power for years, but his old buddies seem to hate him.

The real problem is... his luck has run out. His ball has bounced off the fairway and into the bunker, and when he gets it out, it'll bounce into another bunker. It will happen to George W in the end. It happens to everyone in the end. Be lucky.