In four days 50 hours of golf watched – time for the par-10th Francesco Molinari wins the Open Championship in Carnoustie and thus ensures Italy’s first major victory. Tiger Woods is leading, Jordan Spieth is getting an expensive haircut and Eddie Pepperell seems to know how to prepare properly.
It could have been a good week for Martin Kaymer. On Thursday at 6.35 a.m. local time the German entered the first group at all and could have taken advantage of the good scoring conditions. But although Kaymer was in between two under par, at the end of the day he “only” came into the clubhouse with a 71. Too little.
There followed a 75 on Friday, where Kaymer was victim of Carnousties brutal finish as in round 1 (bogeys at 16 and 17). He missed the cut by one stroke and, as in the weeks before at the Open de France and the Scottish Open, had the weekend off involuntarily.
However, the trend with the top 10 results at the BMW International and Italian Open this summer was already quite positive. But Kaymer lacks consistency. Moreover, he is currently in a kind of vicious circle. The double burden of tournaments in Europe and the USA seems too much, he admits, the body is tired.
But he can’t afford to take a break now either. He urgently needs to get good results on the PGA Tour, otherwise the tour map is in danger there. So he will play at the RBC Canadian Open again this week and will (have to) continue for a few weeks afterwards.
What more can one say about Bernhard Langer? The man turns 61 in a month and still has it in him. And not only on the senior citizen tour, but also in the weeks in which he still shows many younger people how it works. Langer finished the Open Championship in 24th place and was one under one of only 27 players under par.
His highlight of the week was probably the Eagle on 14 on the way to his 68 on moving day, but also his par on 17 on the final day, when he had to play driver-driver (!) in a fierce headwind, was great cinema. This week the Senior Open takes place on the Old Course in St. Andrews. Anybody wanna bet against Bernie? I don’t think so.
Conor Moore is genius. When the Irish comedian imitates the best golfers in the world, it is hard to decide who he has done best. Also before the Open Championship Moore presented interviews with Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Ian Poulter or Sergio Garcia.
But the highlight for the Par-10 is Emotionsbombe DJ. “Other Golf, Links Golf. Different climate. Other languages to learn. I’m totally happy to be here.”
If you want to understand why Jordan Spieth is one of the most casual athletes on the planet, you just have to read the following anecdote. Spieth is in a great race at half-time and has a late tea time on Saturday. He only has one “problem”: His hair needs to be cut again. So what does Spieth do? Of course, on Saturday morning he walks downtown Carnoustie and goes to the hairdresser.
The price: 9 pounds. O-Ton Spieth: “I gave him 20, with tips. I don’t think he recognized me. But he cut it a little short.” The problem was already solved. If only Spieths putting problem were so easy to solve… That we even call Jordan Spieth and putting problems in one sentence is hard to believe. Spieth is known to be a genius with a putter in his hand. Normally. But now it’s a fight.
Spieth is currently ranked 177th on the PGA Tour in the Strokes Gained Putting statistics, and the putter is the main reason why Spieth’s year 2018 has so far been so mixed by his standards. In Carnoustie it now seemed to turn around, Spieth had the divided lead after a spectacular 65 on Saturday. The successful title defense of Claret Jug was near.
But Spieth experienced a horror final day (76), on which he did not manage a single birdie. The putter simply disobeyed. And even though Spieth looked ahead again, spoke of his putting stroke being back and he has great golf ahead of him (“even better than 2015”), it remains to be seen when we will see the old Spieth on the greens again.
Vegas wanted to be in Carnoustie a week before the tournament, but then arrived 45 minutes (!) before his tea time. Seriously! When Vegas wanted to fly out of the USA, he suddenly realized that his UK visa expired on that day of all days. But it doesn’t matter, a new visa should only last 24 hours. So Vegas filled out the application and waited. But nothing came. It wasn’t until Monday that he learned that he had got the wrong form. Well, anyway, still enough to be there Wednesday morning to at least play a practice round.
But again it did not go as desired. A problem at the post office caused Vegas to wait seven hours in his car outside the Houston consulate on Tuesday for his visa, but absolutely nothing happened. It wasn’t until Wednesday that he actually held it in his hands. There you go, then. Houston-Toronto-Glasgow, then by helicopter to Carnoustie. So he’d be there two hours before tea time.
But, of course, something went wrong again. Exactly one piece of luggage had not made it from Toronto to Glasgow… the rackets of Vegas… you don’t believe it! Hectically, Vegas called his caddie, who had been in Scotland since Saturday and who now had the task of finding any clubs. When Veags arrived, a bag with clubs was ready, he quickly hit 20 balls on the range and then he actually started into the open. After rounds of 76 and 74 strokes, Vegas failed on the cut, not surprisingly after the story, but always he had made it to Carnoustie.
10-6: The 9-pound haircut and the incredible story of Jhonny Vegas
5-1: Harry Kane, Eddie’s preparation and Phil’s circus (don’t copy it, kids!)