Cameron Smith denied Rory McIlroy from winning his fourth major at The Open
St. Andrews and the R&A combined to deliver a thrilling championship worthy of the occasion of the 150 th British Open. While it is fair to say the majority of fans wanted to see Rory McIlroy win the Championship, they were treated to a brilliant display of golf from Cameron Smith and Cameron Young, who were paired together in the penultimate group. Smith shot a stunning 64 while Young nearly matched him with a 65.
The pair started the final round four behind McIlroy and Viktor Hovland. McIlroy took the lead by himself early in the final round but Smith shot 30 on the back nine to race past McIlroy, and everyone else finishing at 20-under with Young a shot behind and McIlroy two back.
Here are our top three takeaways from the 150th British Open:
Cameron Smith’s record breaking putting performance
The 28 year old Brisbane, Australia born Cameron Smith, though not the household name you would expect to go down in history as the 150th Open Champion, proved a worthy winner. Smith has already won twice on the PGA Tour this year – at the Tournament of Champions in Hawaii where he shot a record 34 under par score and at The Players Championship, where he beat Anirban Lahiri by one stroke.
At the Augusta Masters, he finished 2nd in 2020 3rd this year. He is known to be a sublime putter – perhaps the world’s best this year.
After leading the field at the halfway stage of The Open through a stellar putting display , he cooled off with a 73 on Saturday which left him 4 shots behind the leaders – Rory McIlroy and Norway’s Viktor Hovland. But five birdies in a row on the final day from the 10th to the 14th and a superb final two putt birdie on the 18th gave him a back nine total of 30 which goes down as the lowest back 9 by a winner in Open History.
Overall Smith had 19 fewer putts than Mcilroy in the tournament, and finished two shots ahead of him.
‘Oh my goodness’
Cam Smith with nerves of steel 👏#The150thOpen pic.twitter.com/DQ3atZKXTY
— The Open (@TheOpen) July 17, 2022
Perhaps the most crucial putt Smith made was the 12 footer for par on the 17 th . Smith led by one at that point but either mishit or misjudged his second shot and found himself with the notorious road hole bunker between his ball and the hole. Despite the pressure Smith calmly putted up past the right side of the bunker It was arguably the best two-putt par of the week under the circumstances which added to the two putt birdies he made on the par 5, 14th and par 4, 18th, just put him in a class of his own.
In the process he set or matched a number of records. His back nine of 30 was the lowest ever by an Open winner. His winning total of 20- under is the lowest ever at St. Andrews, beating Tiger Woods’s mark of 19-under set in 2000. Smith also matched the lowest ever score to win the British Open and the lowest ever score in a Major tournament in relation to par.
In other words, he deserves to be called The Champion Golfer of the Year.
Rory’s wait for another major title continues
Somehow McIlroy hit all 18 greens in regulation and still failed to win, making him the only 54- hole leader in a major to do that and not lift the trophy, according to a tweet by Jason Roy of Twenty First Group, a sports intelligence firm.
PGA Tour rookie, American Cameron Young knocked in a 15-footer for eagle on the last to finish second, one shot behind Smith, and one ahead of McIlroy. It was the kind of putt the fans had been waiting all day for McIlroy to make.
Instead, it was another occasion of what-might-have-been; one that will likely give McIlroy a few sleepless nights. He had the lead going into the back nine of the Open Championship but came up empty once again.
Rory at the majors in 2022:
Masters Tournament – 2nd; PGA Championship – 8th; U.S. Open – T-5th; British Open – 3rd;
In fact, since his last Major win in 2014, McIlroy has finished in the top-10 in 17 of 31 major championships. The questions remains – when will he win one ?
Given McIlroy’s talent, his continuing dry spell in the majors is one of the most inexplicable things in golf.
The sport is officially split into two opposing camps
Events at the British Open made it clear that the sport is increasingly being split into two camps: those who have moved to the Saudi-backed LIV series and those who have chosen to stay with the PGA and DP World Tours. At the Open, the R&A did not schedule any pre-tournament press conferences for the LIV players and gave them less than favourable pairings over the first two days. Martin Slumbers, the chief of the R&A, also had some stinging criticism for the LIV players, and mentioned that the Open would take a look at its qualification process, presumably to make it harder for LIV players to qualify next year.
“Everybody, it feels like it is against us, and that’s okay,” said Talor Gooch, who left the PGA for the LIV tour.
On Sunday, Sergio Garcia, who has also moved to LIV, was asked if he enjoyed his week. “Not very much. I enjoyed the crowd, but that was about it,” he said.
The Open is the last time this year players from both camps are likely to play in the same event. While the PGA Tour gets into its stretch run with the FedEx playoffs starting in August, the big question for the LIV players remains their eligibility to receive world ranking points – currently they get none. But there is talk of them playing Asian Tour events and earning points that way.
If they are able to work that out, it could be a long time before the sport is whole again.
Credits:-
Photo – Golf Channel