Lefty leads new invasion of Americans

There was a time when it was fair to question whether American golfers even owned passports. So spoiled, so comfortable, so insular in their PGA Tour world were they that their travels outside the home fence were few and far between.

Oh, how they were so different than their European colleagues, a band of merry mates who crisscrossed borders, understood monetary systems and moved seamlessly between cultures.

For all the heartfelt cheers assigned to Arnold Palmer’s decision in 1960 to take on the challenge of the Open Championship — if you believe folklore, this gave birth to talk of a Grand Slam — some 25 years later some of that goodwill had begun to erode. Two-time US Open champion Curtis Strange bypassed the Open five times between 1982 and 1995 and famously tried to explain how the exorbitant travel costs were a legitimate roadblock to Americans playing in the Open, and Scott Hoch did his countrymen no favours by offering disparaging comments about links, even the Old Course.