CARNOUSTIE, Scotland -- Sergio Garcia is tickled to sign autographs. Just don't call the 19-year-old Spanish golf prodigy Mr. Garcia. Or in Spanish, don't make it the very stiff Senor Garcia.
The heir apparent to countrymen Seve Ballesteros and Jose Maria Olazabal, the teenager has suddenly become a star after winning last month's Irish Open -- only his sixth professional event."I always like people calling me Sergio because it seems more familiar," he said. "When I go on the golf course and they say, 'Hey, Mr. Garcia,' I don't really like it."
He's so young that he has yet to get a driver's license and is still in school. The golf is the easy part, but he's unsure how to react to being treated like a full-blown adult. And he doesn't understand the newspaper style of using only his surname on second reference.
"I like to be recognized as Sergio, or Sergio Garcia, but not just as Garcia."
Si, Sergio, si.
ROUGH, ROUGHER, ROUGHEST: Like the knee-deep rough and the punishing wind at Carnoustie, the debate about it isn't going away.
Colin Montgomerie is warning about scores in the 90s and a winning four-day total of 300, which would be 16 over par and make a daily 4-over 75 good enough to win. Two-time champion Greg Norman simply calls the course "a brute."
British Open chairman Hugh Campbell said Wednesday the tournament didn't "set out to embarrass the best players in the world," although it might happen, particularly if the winds off the North Sea keep kicking up and bring rain.
"We set out to present them a test on one of the toughest links in the world, and the weather has chipped in to make it an even more severe test than we imagined it would be," Campbell said.
Heavy spring rain triggered wild growth on the undulating 7,361-yard links, Campbell said, warning that if players are worried about getting injured hacking away in the bramble, the rules offer a safe remedy.
"They can take an unplayable lie and drop under penalty."
"I would not regard a winning score approaching 300 as an embarrassment. Par is a notional number. We did not have a winning score in mind when we were setting up the course."
HOGAN'S ALLEY: Ben Hogan was sparse with his words, but he would have appreciated what Carnoustie has done to the par-5 sixth hole to keep so-called "Hogan's Alley" rough and tough.
The Texan won the last of his nine majors here in 1953, the first and last time he played this links on Scotland's North Sea coast.
In Hogan's day, two deep bunkers about 265 yards off the tee ruined the ideal line to the green. The choice was to thread it through a 25-yard gap between the bunkers and an out-of-bounds fence. Or play safe to the right, which made getting near the green in two impossible.
Hogan took the harrowing left route at least twice -- some say in all four rounds.
In January, Carnoustie added a third bunker -- 310 yards off the tee -- to keep the likes of Tiger Woods from flying the bunkers, forcing him to consider a risky flight down the dangerous left alley.
"The bunker is there to protect some of the Hogan mystique and to guarantee the integrity of the hole," said Paul O'Connor, the 32-year-old deputy greenskeeper.
"We have made the pros think, and we've hurt their egos a little. It makes them choose their weapons and armor carefully."
The fairway on No. 6 narrows to 14 yards at one point, leading U.S. Open champion Payne Stewart to note, "That's not the width of a room."
BAKER-FINCH RETURNS: Ian Baker-Finch, British Open champion in 1991, went out to play the Carnoustie course more in fun than anything. At age 38, the Australian no longer competes and is here doing television work with ABC.
Baker-Finch gave up the game 18 months ago because he was no longer competitive. At the Open at Troon two years ago, he shot a 92 in the opening round and, when he played a tournament back home in Australia, gave up after nine holes when he twice hit into the water when he was already 6 over.
Baker-Finch, who plans to enter the millennium British Open at St. Andrews on a one-time basis, had to get special permission from Royal and Ancient Club secretary Michael Bonallack to play a round at Carnoustie because he hadn't entered the championship.
"Basically Sir Michael allowed me to play the course as I am working as an announcer for ABC," he said.
"I am doing a little bit of homework, but it is a little bit of therapy as well."
NEW PAPA: The birth of Phil Mickelson first child -- Amanda Brynn -- the day after he finished second in the U.S. Open to Payne Stewart, has made him forget the disappointment of being the runner-up.
"Amanda's birth made it easier for me to handle it because I haven't really thought about it much," said Mickelson, who is still chasing his first major. "I was very disappointed and expected to think about it all week, but I've been so busy it's taken my mind off it."