A Game of Inches
The British Open has been going for a long time. Long as in the very first one started one year before the South seceded from the Union in 1860. That’s not a typo, by the way. That’s 1860, not 1960, as in the War Between The States, William Tecumseh Sherman Civil War type of long ago.
Even though they play “The Open” on funky, links courses most of the time, where the only time the course plays difficult is when the winds begin to howl, the danged R & A Golf Society has really figured out how to throw a golf tournament. The 144th playing of “The Open,” (for those doing the math, remember, they did NOT play this tournament during certain war years, the two world wars being somewhat of a distraction to the conducting of major golf tournaments) turned out to be a real treat.
First off, they played it at the venerable Old Course at St. Andrews, which always seems to result in some very memorable outcomes. Bobby Jones won there back in the Roaring Twenties. Sam Snead won there in the Forties. Ben Hogan won there in the Fifties. Nick Faldo and Seve won at St. Andrews in THEIR era. Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods have each won there twice.
St. Andrews has that potential to be the ultimate “play well and you can score well” golf course that also has its other side of the coin aspect of being a course that will make you pay for it royally if you DON’T hit it well. It also has greens that are so bumpy and sloping that you will NEVER have a putt anywhere on the course that is flat and straight, and you will also miss more putts that you thought you should have made than any other courses on the planet (except maybe U.S. Open site Chambers Bay).
St. Andrews always brings out a great leader board and this year was no exception. The 144th Open was missing the world’s #1 ranked player Rory McIlroy, but it made up for it in marquee value by having the world’s #2 ranked player Jordan Spieth making an attempt at history as he was going for the third leg of the Grand Slam, after having won both the Masters and the U.S. Open earlier this year.
Spieth played admirably in The Open. He missed out on a playoff at 15 under par by just one stroke. That’s including a double bogey in the last round, a missed short putt on the 17th hole for a bogey, a long birdie putt on 18 that missed by about an inch, and five three putts in the third round, with any stroke or two not lost from those shots that COULD have been the difference between him being the REAL talk of the sports world. He missed a lot of putts by a matter of inches.
The winner of the tournament was rock solid U.S. touring pro Zach Johnson. Johnson, a usual suspect when it comes to U.S. Ryder Cup teams, a 12 time winner on the PGA Tour, and a former Masters champion (in 2007), won The Open in a four hole playoff after holing a 25 or so foot putt on the last hole of the tournament to post a 15 under score. That became “the number” to beat, and two other players, Aussie Marc Leishman and South African Louie Oosthuizen, joined him in the playoff after they themselves survived the last few holes of St. Andrews.
Johnson defeated the two in the playoff, thanks to an early stumble by Leishman and a few makeable but missed putts by Oosthuizen on the extra holes (Oosthuizen, the sweet swinging South African should have his own “How to Swing a Golf Club” video, his swing is THAT good). Some BARELY missed putts by Louie, by the way. He easily could have made some putts down the stretch also that could have made HIM the sole winner.
And so Zach Johnson has himself a Claret Jug for being this year’s “Champion Golfer of the Year.” And Jordan Spieth has missed out on winning that third major by the narrowest of margins. And that’s what it always comes down to. A few putts made by one person in a major and a few missed putts by the other guy often turns out to be the difference between who wins the trophy and who wonders what might have been. Those not thinking golf is a game of INCHES do not understand the fine line between winning and losing.
