TROON, Scotland -- One of the games longest hitters is mystified by one of its shortest holes.Bubba Watson ranks near the top of nearly every statistical driving category on the PGA Tour, and that length trickles all the way down through the bag to his wedges.That didnt keep him from running into trouble on the famed Postage Stamp hole at Royal Troon, where the two-time Masters champion could not blast his way out of trouble -- either figuratively or literally. Having played the first seven holes at The Open in 5-under par on Thursday, Watson made a triple-bogey 6 at the short but fiendish par-3 eighth to tumble down the leaderboard. Watson needed a birdie at the last hole to shoot 1-under-par 70.I hit one bad shot all day, said Watson, referring to the 48-degree pitching wedge he used at the 124-yard eighth hole. And I hit it on the wrong spot. I just hit it on the par-3 there. That hole has been killing me all week, even in practice. So one bad swing there.Watsons tee shot came to rest in the famed Coffin Bunker that sits to the left of the green, a long, rectangular hazard that swallowed more than a few balls during the opening day of the 145th Open.Pot bunkers on a links course can be particularly penal, and that was certainly the case here. Watsons ball was up against the side lip, meaning the lefty could address that ball only with his back to the hole.His only play was to try to blast the ball out away from the pin, and he did well to get it out, seeing the ball barely clearly the far lip, then roll over the green and partway down a hill into some deep rough.I was trying to hit it there, Watson said. My caddie [Ted Scott] went and looked for me. Im not going to try to ricochet it off the hill in the tall grass. But my caddie went and looked and I went and looked. I couldnt get in there and hit it the other way, so its just one of those things.Then I was just hoping for a good lie, and I hit it. I didnt guess what the lie was too well on the first shot that came back. So it was just one of those things.Watson said he misjudged his third shot, and saw the chip roll back toward him. After hitting onto the green for his fourth, he two-putted for a 6 that saw him drop three shots in a matter of moments.Asked what happened, Watson said: Theres lots of reasons, but that would be making excuses. So Im just going to say Im not very good under pressure on that short hole.Watson said he struggled with the hole in practice as well, hitting into the same bunker on Wednesday.What ultimately occurred was that Watson expected the wind from the left to have more effect on his tee shot.In my mind, I feel like the wind is coming from the left, but its coming from the right, he lamented. Youd think after three days of practice in a tournament Id figure that out. Hopefully by the end of the week well figure it out.While Watson was alone in making a triple-bogey on the eighth, it did rank as relatively difficult, playing over par for most of the day. And that is saying something when you are discussing a 124-yard hole that requires just a wedge.As Colin Montgomerie said of the hole earlier in the week, If you do happen to miss the green, well, game on, you know? Drama unfolds from then on, depending where and what lie youre in.Watson, 37, has never finished better than a tie for 23rd in The Open and has four missed cuts in seven previous appearances. He nonetheless felt good about his score, despite the triple-bogey. He had seven birdies, three bogeys and a double, and managed to roll in a birdie putt on the last hole.After a long day on the course, Watson said he had yet to look at an updated weather forecast for Friday; hell be teeing off in the afternoon. He knew it was supposed to be bad and his caddie, Scott, later tweeted the ominous news: Today at The Open was a walk in the park. Better buckle up for tomorrow though. Scottish weather gonna bring the pain.By Friday afternoon, perhaps the Postage Stamp will be just a minor annoyance for Watson. Nike Free Sale . At a news conference Tuesday where it was thought that the fiery Schallibaum may be shown the door after a dismal finish to the Major League Soccer season, team president Joey Saputo said no decision has been made on whether the Swiss Volcano will be back in 2014. Nike Free Clearance Sale . What general manager Dave Nonis called "short and productive" negotiations ended with Kessel signing a US$64-million, eight-year contract on Tuesday. http://www.nikefreediscount.com/ .Y. - New Orleans forward Anthony Davis was chosen Friday to replace the injured Kobe Bryant in the NBA All-Star game that will be played in his home city. Nike Free Clearance . -- Golden State Warriors coach Mark Jackson asked his players a simple question during Fridays morning shootaround: How many of them had ever been on a team 14 games over . Nike Free Discount . U.S. District Judge Lorna G. Schofield in Manhattan agreed that lawyers on both sides could make their formal requests by Nov. 8. A hearing is scheduled for a day earlier. Jordan Siev, a lawyer for Rodriguez, wrote in a joint letter to the judge from lawyers on both sides that MLB lawyers planned to ask that the lawsuit be dismissed. CONCORD, N.C. -- Denny Hamlin didnt just have an engine failure with 26 laps remaining Sunday in the Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.It was an engine failure that all of a sudden gave four other drivers a whole lot more hope of advancing out of the second (quarterfinal) round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup.With four drivers sitting outside the top 30 and four drivers eventually being eliminated after the quarterfinal round, having five drivers finish outside the top 30 means that at least one driver who had trouble Sunday will advance.Kevin Harvick fell out of the Sprint Cup race with 183 laps remaining because of an oil pump bearing coming apart and left the Cup garage at the time 27 points behind the driver eighth in the standings. As other Chase drivers had trouble through the event, he is now just eight points out of the transfer spot with two races left in the quarterfinal round.I went to sleep and woke up and had gained 25 points or whatever it was, Harvick said after completing the Xfinity race later in the day. It definitely was a better situation than what it was when we first fell out. Its still not what you want, but it definitely could be a lot worse.Harvick is 12th in the standings after his 38th-place finish thanks to that faulty oil pump bearing.Weve had some crazy stuff go wrong this year and I guess you could just add that one to the list, Harvick said. But weve been here before, so we know what weve got to do.What he had to do got a whole lot easier after Hamlins issue. Hamlin, who finished 30th and sits in eighth, has a three-point edge on Austin Dillon (32nd, crash) and Chase Elliott (33rd, crash) and six points on Joey Logano (36th, two crashes). Hamlin is 16 points behind seventh-place Martin Truex Jr., and if he didnt have a problem, all of those who did would likely have been at least 19 points from the current cutoff spot.You at least have a chance now because there for a while, it was looking like four and that wasnt very good odds, Harvick said. The odds definitely got better. You at least have another option [other than winning].As crazy as this thing can be, anybody can have trouble, so it can even up pretty fast.Four of the drivers -- Hamlin, Harvick, Logano and Elliott -- would not surprise anyone if they win one of the final two races of the round at Kansas and Talladega. Dillon hasnt run as much up front, but he also could be a threat at Talladega.Were going to quite possibly our best racetrack, said Logano, who swept the round last year. I think Charlotte and Kansas are our two best racetracks, so I felt very confident going into this round and I had a very good car today.Im looking forward to getting to Kansas and seeing what weve got and seeing if we can break through to get a win, but, if not, a solid points day. We can manage with what weve got, but we cant afford to make any miistakes with Talladega coming up.ddddddddddddhile Elliott doesnt have a win, he has been knocking on the door. He led 103 laps at Charlotte.Its unfortunate for us, Elliott said after his crash. But we just have to have more race cars like we had today and I think we will be fine. ... We can just try to have another car like we had today and not make any mistakes next week.The driver who made the mistake Sunday was Truex. After Dillon took two fresh tires instead of four on a pit stop, Truex accidentally turned him on the ensuing restart. That crash collected Elliott and others.I flat-out ran Austin over, Truex said. It was stupid. He got going pretty good and started to spin his tires a little and I tried to give him a shove to get him going thinking I was going to help him out.I guess I hit him way too hard. I thought I was square and we were good. ... I feel awful for him and [his crew chief] and his guys and all the other guys I tore up. I just misjudged it. Just a stupid move.And there could be more stupid moves. There are two races left in the round.Each race youre going to have a handful that are going to have issues -- Kansas I dont think will be any different, and Talladega we know will be crazy, Hamlin said.Thats why were not out of it by any means. We just have a little hole we have to dig out of.Xfinity Series: Koch the big surpriseIn the Xfinity Series, Blake Koch was the big surprise as he finished 12th Sunday night at Charlotte to finish seventh in the first round. He had a two-point edge on Darrell Wallace Jr., who had a one-point edge on Ty Dillon for the final spot.Opening-round winners Daniel Suarez and Elliott Sadler earned automatic bids to the semifinal round, while Justin Allgaier, Brendan Gaughan, Ryan Reed, Erik Jones, Koch and Wallace advanced on points. Dillon, Brennan Poole, Ryan Sieg and Brandon Jones failed to advance.Koch, whose Kaulig Racing team started this season and moved during the year to a shop it bought on the Richard Childress Racing campus, had finishes of 11th,14th and 12th to advance.I thought it would take an average finish of 10th, but some people took themselves out of the Chase and we knew we couldnt do that, Koch said. We have been making our cars better. ... We had a pretty good race car this weekend. We raced real hard and the car stayed together for 200 laps.Erik Jones -- a favorite to win the Xfinity title -- was the only driver to go from outside the bubble to advancing. He finished fifth and ended up moving up four spots to sixth in the standings with a six-point cushion on the cutoff.I tried to keep my mind off it all week, Jones said. I went golfing a couple of times ... and tried not to think about it. I played good, so that was a good omen for me. 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