British Open -- At A Glance -- Crack! Golfer's Leg, Not His Club, Makes Sickening Sound

SOUTHPORT, England - Richard Boxall was 1-over-par for the day and only three strokes off the lead when his British Open ended with a sickening "crack!"

Boxall was carried off Royal Birkdale's ninth tee on a stretcher after fracturing his left leg after a swing.

The Englishman, 30, had just hit his tee shot when he collapsed in pain. His leg was placed in a splint and he was driven by ambulance to a hospital for X-rays.

Doctors said Boxall fractured his tibia.

"He hit a perfectly good tee shot, but then there was this crack," said former Scottish amateur champion Allan Thomson, who was in the crowd. "I thought the shaft of his club had broken and gone into his arm. But then he just fell over."

Boxall was playing with Colin Montgomerie.

"Richard complained of pain in his leg at the sixth and seventh," Montgomerie said. "Then, on the ninth tee, he just collapsed and I heard a tremendous crack. I was totally devastated and my concentration went completely."

TRY A RAKE, MARK

-- Greenskeeper Jim Paton got an unexpected present Friday from former British Open champion Mark Calcavecchia - a set of golf clubs.

The American got rid of his clubs after failing to qualify for the last two rounds.

Paton had been raking bunkers behind Calcavecchia when the golfer, after finishing his round, said: "These are useless; you have them."

"I offered Mark my rake in return," Paton said, "as I thought it might be of more use to him the way he was playing."

BALLESTEROS CONFIDENT

-- Four golfers are ahead of him going into today's final round, but Seve Ballesteros says he couldn't have planned it any better.

"My position is just where I want to be," said the three-time Open champion. "I don't think I have to attack, I have to wait for them to fall.

"I have a very big advantage," he added. "I have the gallery. It's like having 15 clubs in my bag."

Ballesteros is in striking position after shooting a 69 yesterday for a 2-under-par 208 total, two behind co-leaders Ian Baker-Finch and Mark O'Meara. Eamonn Darcy and Mike Harwood are at 209.

"I'm very confident," Ballesteros said. "The leaders, they have the pressure and have to hang on. It's tough to be in the lead."

ROYAL VISITOR

-- Prince Andrew paid a visit to Royal Birkdale, briefly walking around the course and watching Ballesteros in action.

GRIPING ABOUT GREENS

-- Many golfers have been complaining about the greens at Royal Birkdale.

The harshest comment came from U.S. Open champion Payne Stewart, who finished the third round at 5-over-par 215.

"The greens are so inconsistent and always will be if they don't change the type of grass," he said. "The only way to improve them is to tear them up and reseed them with bent grass."

NEW SYSTEM COSTLY

-- The record 113 players who made the cut will cost the British Open an extra $162,000 in prize money, bringing the total purse to $1.65 million.

For the first time, the tournament used the 10-stroke rule for determining the cut. Anyone within 10 shots of the leader qualifies for the final two rounds.

LOVE STORY: 1 BAD HOLE

-- Davis Love III hated the 10th hole yesterday.

After shooting a sensational 30 on the front nine, he got a quadruple-bogey 8 on No. 10.

"I played all my bad shots on one hole," he said.

Love finished the round with a 69 and a three-day total of 212.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

-- Ian Baker-Finch, a tennis fan, describing the hard, patch, tough-to-read greens at Royal Birkdale: "They look like the courts at Wimbledon."

NOTES

-- Yesterday's weather: sunny and pleasant with scattered clouds and breezes. The high temperature was 70 degrees. -- Attendance was 40,069, for a three-day total of 118,087. The attendance on the third day in 1983, the last time the Open was played at Royal Birkdale, was 29,278 and the three-day total 91,794.