SANDWICH, England (AP) – Hey, Jim Furyk, you’ve won your first major championship. Where are you going this weekend?

Home.

The tiny, winding roads leading out of Sandwich were a little more crowded Friday, with big-name players such as Furyk, David Duval, Bernhard Langer, Justin Leonard and Jose Maria Olazabal heading away from the course.

They’ll get no more swings at Royal St. George’s. For them, the British Open is done after just 36 holes.

Furyk was probably the biggest surprise to miss the cut, melting down just five weeks after he held up the trophy as U.S. Open champion. He won’t even get a glimpse of the claret jug, doomed by a 7-over-par 78 that left him two strokes shy of the line that separated haves from have-nots.

“I got on a train wreck,” Furyk said, “and I couldn’t get off.”

Duval has been on that train for a while. Just two years ago, he claimed his first major title at Royal Lytham & St. Annes. Now his game is a mess.

Duval posted rounds of 83 and 78 for a 19-over total, sharing a place on the scoresheet with locals Philip Golding and Malcolm MacKenzie.

Only seven players who went 36 holes had a worse score. Duval couldn’t even beat the three amateurs in the field. No wonder he was a little testy when asked about his mystifying slump.

“You’re asking about the same old stuff. I played 32 holes of good golf, make three triples and a quad and I’m out of the golf tournament. So, thanks,” Duval said.

His performance wasn’t that surprising, considering he’s already missed the cut 11 others times this year. This was actually the second time he’s shot 83 in a major, posting the same score in the second round of the Masters on his way out.

Duval was in no mood to muse about possible explanations for his swift downfall.

“Let them find their own theories,” he said. “I try to explain my position and talk about it and nobody wants to put it out. I had better just stop there.”

Also out: 1999 British Open champion Paul Lawrie and 2001 PGA Championship winner David Toms.

Meanwhile, obscure players such as S.K. Ho, Hennie Otto and Marco Ruiz will be on the course this weekend, proving again that golf is the ultimate what-have-you-done-for-me-lately game.

Olazabal, who has won the Masters twice, missed a 15-footer for par at the final hole that would have pushed him through. He preferred to focus on a bogey-double bogey start.

“It was not the bogey at the last hole. It was the beginning,” he said. “I four-putted the second green. It was the disaster of the round.”

Furyk opened with a 74 – respectable on a course that has yielded only one 36-hole score below par – and he made the turn Friday at 1 over, giving him four strokes of leeway on the menacing back nine.

It wasn’t enough.

Even though he drove well, Furyk closed with six bogeys. He simply couldn’t handle the lumpy links and awkward pin placements.

“It was supposed to be a driving course, but I didn’t find it that way,” he said. “I was in absolutely good position on every hole (except 15) and still managed to shoot 7 over.”

Furyk has a couple of fourth-place finishes at the British Open, but he’s now missed the cut three years in a row.

Langer always has played well at Royal St. George’s, finishing no lower than third in the three previous Opens played on this bedeviling course.

This time, the 45-year-old German matched Furyk with a 152.

While Langer had reason for some optimism heading into his 26th British Open on a course he likes, what was Charles Challen thinking?

The Englishman, who plays on a minor-league circuit in Europe, had to enter a two-day qualifying tournament just to have a chance to play in his first Open.

Challen won a playoff for one of the final spots. But he posted scores of 87 and 86 – nine strokes behind the next lowest player in the field.

In fact, a makeshift “173” had to be constructed for the media center scoreboard, apparently because tournament officials didn’t think anyone would shoot that high.

“I’m disappointed in myself because I thought I’d make the cut,” Challen said. “But it has been a great experience. The 18th was great. Everybody claps for you no matter

what.

“There are probably a lot of people,” he added, “who would’ve swapped places with me.”

With that, he headed off to drown his sorrows.

“I’m a red wine drinker,” Challen said. “I’m going to get right into it tonight.”