The Open doesn’t really do hype, it doesn’t even do two-tee starts. The nearest it gets to a bit of hoopla is to let its former champions loose for four holes. Otherwise it’s business as usual – brown, baked fairways, oversized leaderboards and four, not three, rounds of championship golf – just what we all needed after the past few months.
Many of us will never see an Open as historic as this, the 2022 Open was one for the ages and, by god, it delivered. If we’re being honest 2010 left a few wondering if every five years was too often to come back, now the next one can’t come soon enough.
It might sound trite and banal but this is the Home of Golf for a very good reason and home is where our golfing hearts are.
Rory Was The Story, Smith The Champion Golfer
The game has never needed Rory more. A year ago McIlroy was ranked 15th in the world and was seemingly being overtaken by all the young bucks and muscle men.
Now 33 years of age looks young again, now we’re all energised by Rory rather than being a bit exhausted by him. He’s carried the game and this Championship along with him and he bloody nearly pulled it off.
“How can you not root for Rory?” – Masters champ Scottie Scheffler remarked on Saturday night.
Rory’s popularity has somehow gone up several notches after this week. In among one of the greatest leaderboards in recent Major times his light shone the brightest for much of it.
In the end he was outdone by another supreme ball striker, Cam Smith, who deserves a Major as much as anyone. His touch around the greens is like nothing else and he finished the week on a record-equalling 20-under par. Until this week he would likely have been the best player without a Major, now he has one. Good luck to him.
The Course Held Firm
The winning scores since Rory last won at Hoylake have been 17, 15, 20, 12, 8, 15 and 15 under par. Par, basically, is an irrelevance. Had they turned the golfing world on its head and made the Old Course a par 70 (make the 9th and 18th par 3s? Anyone? No..) then you could add eight shots on to…
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