ST ANDREWS, SCOTLAND | The R&A leaned into its marketing and branding of this 150th Open. Its catchy slogan spread across the bleachers backing the 18th green: Everything has led to this.
“This” seemed like a Rory McIlroy vs. Viktor Hovland showdown – all square, four clear of the rest, with 18 last holes to play on the venerable Old Course. This doesn’t get much better than that.
Not so fast, said Cameron Smith. The Australian with the short-game touch of Seve Ballesteros went all Jack Nicklaus on the back nine, shooting 30 that started with five consecutive birdies and ended with two all-world up-and-downs for par and birdie on 17 and 18 to snatch the claret jug from McIlroy and just barely edge Open debutante Cameron Young.
All the fears that the Old Course was obsolete and that modern players would shoot 59 and demean the venue proved unfounded. Smith tied the all-time major scoring record of 20-under shared by Henrik Stenson (Royal Troon), Jason Day (Whistling Straits) and Dustin Johnson (Augusta). As Jack Nicklaus said before it started: “Might shoot low. So what? … I don’t think it really makes a whole lot of difference, frankly. It’s St Andrews and it is what it is, and it will produce a good champion. It always has. That’s the way I look at it.
“It still tests the golfers at this time. It’s a magical golf course.”
It truly is, and in its 30th time hosting golf’s oldest major it produced another gem. Smith’s name joins Tiger Woods, Nick Faldo, Seve Ballesteros, Nicklaus, Peter Thomson, Sam Snead, Bobby Jones, James Braid and Jamie Anderson among others as Open champions at St Andrews.
BIRDIE: Cameron Smith. With Peter Thomson’s ashes in the back corner of the 18th green, the young Aussie put on a Sunday charge for the ages to overtake an almost idle McIlroy. “This one’s for Oz!” said the champion golfer of the year, who needs four more to catch the legendary Thomson.
BOGEY? Rory McIlroy. He’s the only player to hold a 54-hole lead in a major, hit every green in regulation in the final round and not win. He hit one bunker all week, holed the shot and lost. He made one bogey all weekend (just four all week) and lost. His cold putter on Sunday left him still searching for answers to a major drought that extends to nine years.
BIRDIE: Cameron Young. Young shot 64 to fling himself immediately into the mix and a 65 Sunday to finish runner-up. He’ll rue that four-putt on 16 Saturday. “It probably hurts a little worse to come up one shot short. If you lose by eight you don’t really care,” he said. “I would have signed up for 65 this morning. And to watch Cameron shoot what he did, it was pretty amazing.”
BOGEY: Viktor Hovland. While he may be the worst chipper of any elite golfer in the world, the Norwegian can putt and has a flair for the dramatic that few possess. He never found any groove on Sunday, however, and let an expected duel with McIlroy wither on the vine.
BIRDIE: The Road Hole. There isn’t a more reliably difficult hole in championship golf than the 17th at the Old Course. The par-4.5 never fails to take a toll. Jordan Spieth has parred it once in eight career tries. If you built it today, you’d be panned as an architect. Yet it’s as beloved as it is feared.
BOGEY: Phil Mickelson. At the other end of the icon spectrum, Lefty was asked not to participate in the 150th Open side festivities including the champions dinner, and his own dispirited slog to a MC went almost completely unnoticed or acknowledged by the galleries. Apathy is the deepest cut.
BIRDIE: Tiger Woods. The MC at 9-over was unfortunate, but the GOAT displayed humility, emotion and candor he rarely shares and absorbed the warmth of appreciative fans and peers as he acknowledged what might have been his final Open walk over the Swilcan Bridge. He’ll always have a tee time as a new honorary R&A member.
BOGEY: Collin Morikawa. After top fives in the Masters and U.S. Open this year, Morikawa became the first champion golfer of the year since Darren Clarke in 2012 to miss the cut in his Open defense.
BOGEY: Airline baggage handlers. The most common complaints in Scotland were from golfers (including pros) never reunited with their clubs, which were either being held hostage at Heathrow or Edinburgh airports or simply lost like a sock in the dryer. Inexcusable customer service, to put it bluntly.
BIRDIE: Martin Slumbers. The R&A chief executive barred Greg Norman from attending and minced no words about the disruption of LIV Golf, calling it “a free lunch.” “We believe it undermines the merit-based culture and the spirit of open competition that makes golf so special,” he said, acknowledging qualifications to play future Opens might change.
BIRDIE: LIV Golfers. After a paltry showing at the U.S. Open, 11 tour defectors made the cut at the Old Course and a few prominent names loosely contended. “We’ve caught a lot of flack for what we’ve done here recently,” said Talor Gooch. “I think one thing that cannot be questioned is the quality of players that are there.”
BOGEY: LIV attitude. While their collective games were fine, a few LIV stars like Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter and Brooks Koepka were defiant and combative that their choices have consequences. Westwood’s clichéd default was to blame the media. Garcia was terse (and frankly a jerk) and eventually “divorced” himself from the European tour.
BOUNCEBACK PAR: Gooch. The young LIV-ster owned up to his wildly off-base imaging that there’s “not a whole lot of difference” between his LIV team victory and a Ryder Cup win. He admitted he was “caught in the moment” and “rightfully so, I’ve taken a little bit of heat for it.” Lighten up, Francis.
BOGEY: Ian Poulter. The hero of many European Ryder Cups was lustily booed on the first tee at the Open, but Poults claims he’s never heard a discouraging word. His LIV money must have bought some incredible invisible noise-canceling headphones.
PAR: Si Woo Kim. Facing a potential Tommy Nakajima or David Duval situation in the Road Hole bunker Thursday, Si Woo’s second attempt from the deep pit where dreams go to die came out pure and true to save par. His explosive reaction was awesome and it spurred him into contention.
BIRDIE: Jack Nicklaus. A winner twice at St Andrews, Nicklaus returned for the first time since he waved goodbye from the Swilcan Bridge in 2015 to pick up the title of “honorary citizen of St. Andrews,” previously only bestowed upon fellow Americans Bobby Jones and Benjamin Franklin.
BOGEY: Dustin Johnson. Saturday was unkind to DJ again at St Andrews as it was in 2015. This time his hopes ended by putting into the bunker on 14 among some sloppy missed opportunities. Topping his drive on 18 nearly into the burn was a fitting end (though he still managed to make birdie there).
BIRDIE: The back door. There were a lot of back-door top-10 finishes that will look nice in Wikipedia (or LIV promos) but didn’t really feature Sunday – Tommy Fleetwood, Brian Harman, DJ, Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Cantlay and Jordan Spieth.
BIRDIE: Jennifer Sraga. The young German woman born with Achondroplasia (short stature) held her own with her golf and personality alongside Henrik Stenson, Mark O’Meara and Latin America Amateur champion Aaron Jarvis in the very cool Celebration of Champions four-hole competition.
Celebration of Champions with Mark O’Meara, Jennifer Sraga and Aaron Jarvis.
Looking forward to a memorable week @thehomeofgolf !@TheOpen #150 pic.twitter.com/Xrxsji6otu
— Henrik Stenson (@henrikstenson) July 11, 2022
BIRDIE: Major sweepers. Nine players made the cut in all four majors led by hard-luck McIlroy at cumulative 29-under. Others were Will Zalatoris (-21), Matt Fitzpatrick (-16), Justin Thomas (-3), Jon Rahm (+4), Hideki Matsuyama (+6), Joaquin Niemann (+13), Patrick Reed (+15) and Tyrrell Hatton (+19).
EAGLE: No really, an actual eagle. The gulls around town have been getting increasingly aggressive in stealing food right out of the mouths of people trying to eat, causing occasional injury. To keep them from harassing picnicking patrons, four birds of prey including an eagle, eagle/owl and two hawks (Fearnley, Sage, Enya and Nailer) were employed to police the food court.
DOUBLE EAGLE: Shane Lowry. The 2019 Open champ was languishing in the middle of the pack Saturday before consecutive pitch-in eagles from 46 and 43 yards on 9 and 10 suddenly thrust him into the top five before the top-five leaders had even teed off.
PAR: Mark Calcavecchia. He made only one birdie each day and never broke 80, but the 1989 Open champ was granted an exemption to say goodbye after not being able to play at age 60 last year.
BIRDIE: St. Andrews. With record crowds in a remote location, the Auld Gray Toon never seemed overrun by people or traffic (other than ATMs being out of cash). Reservations were hard to come by, but nobody suffered for lack of food or drink. That’s no small feat in a place like this. Kudos for pulling it off.
BIRDIE: Old Course. Sure, the scores were low. But nobody shredded the ancient links despite not getting too much cooperation from Mother Nature. The setup was frankly pitch perfect, with reasonable green speeds and beautifully brown and fiery fairways. A testament to the genius of the course.
BOGEY: Merch buyers. You simply cannot run out of the really cool logoed FootJoy hoodies on Monday and never restock them. Before Tiger waved goodbye, the Open Shop looked like the Grinch had cleared it out of anything worth getting and left only a few hats and wires on the walls.
PAR: The Oriental House (sic). When everything else is shuttered and you need a late dinner, the tiny mom-and-pop Chinese restaurant on Market Street is always open until 11 and the food is reliably good.
BIRDIE: Lucas Herbert. The Australian told Phil Mickelson he “hated him for 11 years” because Lefty was the only U.S. player to deny him an autograph on his hat at the 2011 Presidents Cups in Melbourne. After they played two rounds together, Mickelson gave Herbert a signed glove: “Lucas, 11 years late.”