Sharp Swat

Few storytellers could top the one Ireland's Harry Bradshaw, 35, former Irish Open golf champion, could tell last week. It happened to him at Sandwich, England, in the second round of the British Open championship.

Bradshaw's drive off the fifth tee landed in the bottom half of a broken bottle lying in the rough. He studied the impossible lie, gulped and selected a niblick. One mighty swat sent glass splinters flying, but the ball trickled only a few feet. That stroke cost him the British Open.

Bradshaw finished the 72 holes in 283 strokes to tie South Africa's heavy-jowled Bobby Locke and force a playoff. Next day, Bradshaw took a 12-stroke trouncing from precision-putter Locke, who fired a 67 and 68 over the Royal St. George's course. Locke collected $1,200 for his victory. Harry Bradshaw could have used the money too, but then the story about the broken bottle would have lost its edge.

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