Heaven and Hell

THOSE cynics among you who don't believe in fairy-tales will have to think again. Before a ball was struck at Royal St Georges on Thursday, nobody on this side of the Atlantic had ever heard of Ben Curtis.

You could have walked into the bookmakers and slapped any sum on him winning the 132nd Open Golf Championship and received a warm if disbelieving welcome.

But Curtis, who is still unknown to many fellow members of the US Tour and admitted he only ever spoke to Tiger Woods for twenty seconds in his amateur days back in 1995, pulled off an amazing triumph yesterday in front of a stupefied audience at Sandwich.