Sport360 analyse the real winners and losers at this weekend’s eventful Open.
WINNERS:
Zach Johnson
He may not have been a hugely popular winner – for whatever reason, it is hard to convincingly argue that his success captured the wider imagination – but, that aside, winning the Open is a hugely significant step for the 39-year-old.
In winning The Masters at Augusta National and now The Open at St Andrews, Johnson joins an elite class of just six players to triumph at the two greatest venues in golf, all of whom are unequivocally greats of the game: Nicklaus, Woods, Faldo, Ballesteros, Snead.
He moves from being a one-time major champion alongside the likes of Shaun Micheel and Ben Curtis, to a two-time major winner alongside someone of the class Greg Norman.
Memories of #TheOpen: Zach Johnson’s classy sportmanship at the finish. Jason Day’s heartbreaking look of agony at failing to make P.Off.
— The Golf Paper (@TheGolfPaper) July 21, 2015
He becomes the envy of all but the most elite of his contemporaries, something all the more remarkable when you consider he is one of the shortest hitters of his time.
Building his success on short-game precision and putting brilliance, Johnson’s game is perhaps better suited to majors than regular tour events. To come through such a stacked leaderboard on Monday only underlines the quality he has.
“I’m just a guy from Iowa that has been blessed with a talent,” Johnson said in his winner’s conference. “And this game provides great opportunity.
“It’s a feat just to be invited to those tournaments. To win at Augusta and to win The Open Championship at St. Andrews, it’s hard to put it into words. I’m blessed. I’m humbled.”
Congratulations to Zach #Johnson for winning #TheOpen yesterday after a tense three-man play-off. Class act. #Golf pic.twitter.com/RrlaDyaWAc
— bwin (@bwin) July 21, 2015
Overlooked and perhaps disrespected for so long even after his Masters win in 2007, this latest triumph means Johnson can no longer be ignored. His achievements demand respect and admiration, and he will not be dismissed so lightly again.
Jordan Spieth
Some will argue that Spieth emerges from this week a loser simply because he failed to continue his grand slam bid, despite having a very good chance to do so with just two holes to play. That would be extremely unfair; considering the circumstances and pressures that positioned themselves against him this week, it is a credit to the Texan that he even managed to drag himself into that position in the first place.
Since Ben Hogan – who was as experienced as they come at the time – won the first three majors of the year he competed in back in 1954, no player has gone as close to repeating the feat as Spieth did on Monday – and that includes Tiger Woods.
The 21-year-old showed remarkable depths of character and stamina to deal with everything thrown at him: Arriving in Scotland late, reacting to all the complications the weather threw at him, and still play his way into contention – even if he ultimately missed out on the playoff by a shot.
#Golf News – Jordan Spieth has been confirmed to make a return to defend his Australian Open title in November pic.twitter.com/3YLtLbuSmO
— Betfred (@Betfred) July 21, 2015
You can make a case that he was brutally unlucky, considering the 8th and 17th holes – where his challenge ultimately unrivalled – were both at their hardest at the exact moment he played them. The wind and rain seemed to arrive at the worst possible time for him, perhaps fate’s way of saying that it was not his turn to make history.
“I don’t know how many guys have done three majors in a year,” he added. “I know Tiger [Woods] has done it. So that would be the next goal as far as the history goes. Sights set on the PGA Championship.”
It will be interesting to see how he goes.
Jordan Niebrugge
He was not the low Jordan in the field, or the low player with a difficult-to-pronounce-surname (that honour goes to Louis Oosthuizen). But he was the low amateur, after overcoming Paul Dunne – and fending off challenges from Ollie Schniederjans and Ashley Chesters – to claim the silver medal with a record score for an amateur of 277.
It was a brilliant tournament for the amateur game, with Niebrugge playing some laudable golf to emerge victorious among them. On Monday he was paired with Sergio Garcia for the final round, and briefly led the Spaniard before both men ultimately finished at 11-under par—four shots out of the playoff.
Tall, rail-thin but with a languid swing that produces a pure sound when ball meets clubface, Niebrugge looked every inch a star in the making. He insisted after his final round that he will stay an amateur for at least another year, but it would be no surprise if that plan is accelerated after this assured display.
Brooks Koepka
All in all it was a very successful week for the 25-year-old American, who improved his score every day (shooting 71-70-69-68) to notch his second top ten finish in a major championship – and his first outside his native land.
Having learned his trade as a professional out on the European Tour, he has now returned to America it is beginning to make huge strides on the PGA Tour and consequently his profile. He looks certain to become a major contender very soon, visibly growing in confidence and stature as this tournament went on.
Champion Golfer of the Year Zach Johnson at The R&A Clubhouse with Silver Medal winner Jordan Niebrugge. pic.twitter.com/11lHaXBX3p
— The Open (@TheOpen) July 20, 2015
He was never close to actually winning, but he did have a big influence on theevent—with his refusal to continue playing in the harsh winds of Saturday morning playing a pivotal role in the eventual suspension of play.
It may not have been a popular decision with spectators, but the players appreciated it and it spoke of a man increasingly at ease with his own decisions. Keep a close eye on Koepka in future.
LOSERS
Dustin Johnson
What can you say about the American’s performance this week at St Andrews? Leading after 36-holes following rounds of 65 and 69, the polarizing Johnson proceeded to shoot successive rounds of 75 to drop out of contention like a stone.
He looked far and away the best player in the field over the first two days, with his booming drives threatening to tear the Old Course apart limb-from-storied-limb. But his chipping utterly deserted him once crunch-time arrived, and he ended up finishing 11 shots behind the other, winning Johnson—despite reaching the halfway point three shots ahead of his namesake.
Having insisted all week that the traumatic manner of his eventual loss in last month’s US Open had not actually had any lingering impact on his psyche, his performance over the second half of this week gave plenty of evidence to the contrary.
Dustin clearly has the game required to win a major, but the mental acuity certainly still seems to elude him – and with every conspicuous failure such as this the criticism and questioning of him will only grow and grow.
Tiger Woods
It was a sorry, sorry week for Tiger Woods—who missed a second successive cut in a major championship for the very first time in his career.
As his playing partners over the opening two rounds thrived—Jason Day and Louis Oosthuizen would both still be in contention come the 72nd hole—Woods was an utter disaster, putting his second shot of the tournament in the water and never really recovering from there.
From the golf beat, U.S. Ryder Cup pts list after Open: Speith, Zach & Dustin Johnson, Fowler, Phil, Kisner, JB Holmes, Haas. Tiger is 33rd
— Jerry Zgoda (@JerryZgoda) July 21, 2015
Rounds of 76 and 75 saw Woods miss the cut by a full seven shots, and beat just seven of the 156 players in the field. This was rock bottom, especially for a player who knows this course well and won twice around it before.
“The course wasn’t playing that hard,” Woods, who insisted he was not “done and buried” prior to the tournament, said after missing the cut. “I just didn’t get much out of it any of the two rounds.”
He added: “I felt like I was playing well enough to win this event. I had my opportunities, I just didn’t get the ball close enough. And then when I did, I didn’t make them.”
According to those inside the ropes this week, Woods was flushing the ball on the range—barely missing a shot in some of his sessions. That would suggest his biggest problem, like Dustin Johnson’s, is in the mind, with his swing looking horribly jerky and unstable under the pressure of live competition.
He will be back in action soon, at the Quicken Loans National, although only he knows if that is only because it is “his” tournament and he has obligations to his charity. We probably should not expect him to play well, however, and August’s US PGA Championship might well see a third missed cut in a major.
As clear as it is that Woods’ remaining ambitions focus on winning at least one more major championship, so it appears that self-applied pressure is only creating deeper issues for him. That may take far longer to address than any technical faults.
Rory McIlroy
When all was said and done, it was still difficult not to imagine what might have happened had the world No.1 been available to play.
With St Andrews playing very soft for much of the week, the Northern Irishman’s combination of prodigious driving (like Dustin Johnson) and deft short-game (much like Jordan Spieth) would seem like a sure-fire combination for success this week, and it would have certainly been thrilling to also throw his name into the mix during what was an enthralling final round of play.
So, do you think Tiger Woods would have been greenside to hug @ZachJohnsonPGA if Woods had fallen short of Grand Slam? #uhno
— Kevin Manahan (@KevinCManahan) July 20, 2015
Unfortunately, we will never know how McIlroy might have done, and will now have five years to wonder if a football cost him the best chance he might ever have to win a major at St Andrews. Assuming the R&A’s thought process remains the same, the Open is likely to return to the Old Course in 2020—when McIlroy will be 31.
It will be interesting to see where he, and Spieth, and any number of other players, are by then.
The R&A
The R&A will probably feel like winners after they look at their bank balance after this event, their coffers doubtless swelled by a extra day’s play and the resulting additional ticket sales (even at a very reasonable £10) and food and drink that was sold around the course.
But it was a more testing tournament from an organisational standpoint, with the weather creating a series of headaches that organisers struggled to solve satisfactorily.
Is it just me, or could Eugene Amano and Jason Day pass for brothers?
— Ben Briley (@BenBriley) July 21, 2015
Certainly the decision to push the players out in high winds on Saturday morning seemed one driven more by commercial factors than sporting ones (already behind schedule, the R&A clearly wanted to preserve a Sunday finish if at all possible), and the resulting carnage as balls were blown off greens led to plenty of stinging criticism.
Jason Day in particular might have cause to moan, having dropped shots during that farcical 30 minutes of play and ending up a shot out of a playoff.
After that circus the R&A did seem to regain a sense of their priorities, keeping the players off the course until it was definitely playable, and then biting the bullet and arranging an unprecedented Monday finish, but there will surely be a detailed post-mortem into what went wrong on Saturday and how such troubles can be avoided in future.
