The 150th Open at St Andrews

The Open was not about Rory. He finished 3rd.

What about Cameron Young, and the way he played for 4 days.....and made the shot of the tournament on 18, in the final round?? And finished ahead of Rory, in 2nd place, btw.

fatshot
Not sure how the stats were for this year, but heading into the Open I had read that the last four (or maybe it was 5?) winners at St Andrews all led the field in putting. I guess with greens that large, GIR is meaningless.

DonM

DonM I hear the consensus is that Rory was too conservative on his approach shots.

That, AND the fact that Smith took NINE fewer putts than Rory over 72 holes...!!

fatshot That, AND the fact that Smith took NINE fewer putts than Rory over 72 holes...!!

Which goes back to proximity to the hole.

garyt1957 Which goes back to proximity to the hole.

In some cases, but Smith wasn't kicking in birdies all day long.
He did make great first putts on 15 and 18, which sealed the deal.
Rory was nowhere close on his makeables, starting with the first hole
:/

sdandrea1 He quietly stole the 2nd place show

He had his chances too, maybe more than Rory, but his putter let him down too.

sdandrea1

I had him in my pick 10 contest I do with my buddies. Unfortunately I also picked Morikawa and his missed cut took me out of the competition. Oh well.

sdandrea1 Didn't we both pick him in the contest? Perhaps a bit of mis-spelling, but still, didn't we?

Cam Smith could not get a putt to drop in the 3rd round. He had a fair amount of good putts that did not fall. Curious as to what it looked like if some had

If ifs and buts were candy and nuts every day would be Christmas.

Scheffler surprised me; 4 (maybe 5 ..?) good looks at birdie on his first 4 (or 5) holes, missed them all and looked like he kind of lost belief after that. He started a few back and probably knew he needed a fast start; when he didn't get it ...

golf_bhoy yeah. He just could not gather momentum. Cam hammered down the whole final round.

Rory tried holing out otherwise he would have tied 2nd or odds are he would have. Meaningless to try and birdie the last when you need to eagle it. 18 wasn't the problem, it was parring the last par 5. His approach he pushed slightly to the right leaving him in a tough spot. He hits it a few yards further left and he birdies that no problem. He played really good, did exactly what he intended on doing, less parring that par 5, otherwise it's a playoff. He lipped out, what 2-3 times. Cam Smith shot -8 to win....I'd say he won it. Hard to criticize a near flawless round of golf,..but yeah he buggered the 2nd shot on the final par 5!

ode It's not about Rory, I repeat.
He finished 3rd, beaten twice. He made a mistake? I see no bogies on his scorecard, or Smith's. Did Smith make any mistakes?
Then there is Cameron Young, who had 2 huge mistakes that stand out on the scorecard....bogies. What if he had no mistakes?
Wins by 1.
Rory still finishes 3rd. Beaten twice. Outplayed by 2 players. Elementary.

Luc_Van_Daele If putting within 2" from the cup would count for only 1/2 point Rory would have won. Some days they just don't drop,

Rory's never seem to drop. Putting is as much part of the game as anything else ( obviously). These guys are pros, there misses are minimalized. They're not going to putt and not graze the hole like we do. A miss is a miss. If Rory ever becomes a good putter under pressure, watch out.

Luc_Van_Daele If putting within 2" from the cup would count for only 1/2 point Rory would have won.

Well, that was Sunday, for Rory. What about Sat., for Cameron S.? Rory would never have had the lead entering Sunday.