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Breaking down the British Open A look at the contenders for the season's third major. NBCSports.com

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LONG SHOTS

Paul Casey
I'd hate to assume that the honeymoon has ended with a seven-month itch, but Casey has hit the fan since his solo fifth at the Colonial. He missed the cut at Bethpage, then again at Congressional. Back up to the Memorial and he went five rounds without breaking 75, no small feat regardless of par. Casey is one of the most likeable guys in the field, and he's properly removed from his anti-U.S. comments, but Turnberry will be relentless if he can't make up and move on.

Rafa Echenique
Argentine golfers give me a heart attack. Just when we were getting warm to the aggressive style of Andres Romero, who makes Anthony Kim seem composed, Angel Cabrera tree-knocks his which-a-way to The Green Jacket, then Echenique bursts on the scene. After a nothing year, he qualified via the IFQ-Europe. Since, he double-eagled/back-nine-27'd a runner-up in Munich, then held the 54-hole lead in Paris. Naturally, he shot a final-round 77 to finish T-13. For his latest yo-yo trick, he opened with an opening 82 at Loch Lomond en route to missing the cut. Memorable name and a memorable game, but proving that he can finish literally anywhere on and well off the leaderboard.

Lucas Glover
With his U.S. Open victory, he joined Trevor Immelman as the only golfers with major championship trophies still under the age of 30. Because of the breakthrough, disregard his previous experience at the British Open. Master of a low-boring ball flight to go with distance and accuracy, Glover would seem to be a links golf natural. Time will tell if his game (and motor) can keep running all the way to Scotland.

Padraig Harrington
If it ain't broke it, don't break it. Sound advice for the three-time major winner, not that he has heeded it. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, there must come a time when, no matter how many Jugs and Wannamakers you have, conceding to success sans the urge to climb higher is one of the definitions of plateauing, which isn't in any non-retiring athlete's dictionary. What I don't understand is while Harrington stuck with his Wilson sticks because those were the tools that separated him from the pack, he tinkered with the engine that was his swing. Truly a conflict in philosophy.

Greg Norman
No backdoor T-3 this year, at least the surreptitious component anyway. Norman himself has admitted as much as well as his contentment with that fact. There might not be a golfer anywhere in the world that is in a better place in his life thanks to wife Chrissie, and has less to lose than the Shark. That makes him doubly dangerous. Winner at Turnberry in 1986, he'll have the wisdom that only winners Tom Watson (1977) and Nick Price (1994) share. Yet, now 54 and with at best a tangential relationship with competitive golf, settling for just a storyline is still a 'net' positive.