MOLINARI PREVAILS
Carnoustie sees tight race
Rory McIlory spun around and let out a roar after making a 35-foot eagle putt. Justin Rose clenched his fist after taming the 18th hole for a fourth straight day. Xander Schauffele kept his composure amid the chaos of an ever-changing leaderboard.
Kevin Kisner? He stuck around like he has done all week.
In a wild finish to the British Open, what all four ended up needing was a mistake or two from Francesco Molinari down one of the toughest closing stretches in golf.
It didn’t happen. McIlroy, Rose, Schauffele and Kisner finished in a tie for second place as the world’s oldest major championship avoided a fourth straight playoff at Carnoustie to determine the Champion Golfer of the Year.
Ultimately, Molinari’s technique held up amid the fiercest pressure. He enjoyed a two-shot victory Sunday, with a six-foot birdie at the last hole earning him separation from the pack chasing him.
“One guy out of 156 is going to win,” McIlroy said, “and 155 other guys are going to leave a little disappointed.”
There were contrasting emotions for the four guys who finished closest to Molinari.
For Rose, there was pride at getting so near after needing a birdie on No. 18 on Friday to even make it to the weekend. He followed up a 64 on Saturday — the lowest round of the week — with a 69 on Sunday to post the first realistic clubhouse target at six under par.
“I hadn’t felt the energy of the crowd for a while in the Open,” said Rose, who had his best finish at his home major. “That was a real positive for me, and it renewed the love of the Open for me.”
Rose birdied the fearsome 18th hole in all four rounds, one of the more impressive feats of the week.
For McIlroy, the only regret was that he started his charge too late. He bogeyed two of his first five holes to leave him six shots off the lead, only for the long eagle putt at No. 14, which elicited one of the most striking celebrations of the tournament, to put him in a fiveway share of the lead about 1 ½ hours later.
He parred his way home for a 70, any realistic hope of winning the British Open for the second time disappearing when he pushed his wedge into 18 and failed to make the birdie putt.
“I didn’t get off to a great start, but I hung in there and I battled back,” McIlroy said. “Just sort of ran out of holes at the end.”
McIlroy remained without a major victory since winning his fourth at the PGA Championship in 2014.
With Jordan Spieth failing to make a birdie all round, the best chance of the United States having a sixth straight major champion fell to the two players with whom he shared the third-round lead — Schauffele and Kisner.
Schauffele was playing in the final pairing at a major for the first time.
“Chaotic is probably the best way to put it,” he said with a smile.
The 24-year-old from California kept playing with a smile on his face despite finding himself, as he described it, “in the strangest spots possible on the golf course” with playing partner Spieth.
Schauffele made bogeys on Nos. 5 and 6, then double bogey on No. 7 after leaving one shot in the wispy
One guy out of 156 is going to win, and 155 other guys are going to leave a little disappointed.
grass and sending his next over the green.
Another dropped shot at the 17th meant he needed to hole his approach to No. 18 for eagle to force a playoff, but it settled about 12 feet short. Molinari, sitting on a sofa and watching TV in what looked like a scoring trailer, could finally celebrate.
“It’s just going to go in the memory bank as a positive,” said Schauffele, who was playing only his second British Open. “I had a chance to win a major championship. I was in the final group. I had to face a little bit of adversity early in the round, and I still gave myself a chance.
“Anyone can look at it however they want to, but I’m going to look at it as a positive moving forward, and try to learn how to handle the situations a little better next time.”
And then there was Kisner, looking to go wire-to-wire. A doublebogey six after finding a bunker off the tee at the second hole was followed by a bogey at the next as Kisner struggled to deal with an early stiff wind.
His birdie at No. 10 got him back in a tie for the lead, but he was another victim of the 12th — the hardest hole of the week — and he never caught up with Molinari.
Tiger Woods briefly had the lead outright midway through his round. Kevin Chappell had a putt to tie the lead with Molinari at No. 16 before making double bogey on the next.
Even Eddie Pepperell, teeing off in the morning with a hangover, potentially could have made a playoff after a 67.
Ultimately, they were just three more players to be denied by the ice-cold Molinari.
Francesco Molinari didn’t get the loudest cheers for the best golf at the British Open.
He was overlooked for so much of Sunday playing alongside Tiger Woods, who caused pure pandemonium at Carnoustie by taking the lead in the final round of a major for the first time in nine years.
Molinari settled for the best cheer of them all.
The last one.
Amid so much chaos — seven players atop the leaderboard, six of them still tied on the back nine — Molinari played a steady hand by going the entire weekend without a bogey and finishing with a five-foot birdie putt that secured his place in history as Italy’s first major champion.
“Clearly, in my group, the attention wasn’t really on me, let’s put it that way,” Molinari said, the gleaming Claret Jug in front of him. “If someone was expecting a charge, they probably weren’t expecting it from me. But it’s been the same the whole of my career.”
His charge was a 2-under 69 in the strongest wind of the week, the only player from the last four groups to break par.
Woods lost the lead with one bad swing that would have been even farther left of the 11th green had it not crashed into the fans, leading to double bogey. He followed that with a bogey and never caught up. He had to settle for a 71. American Jordan Spieth, tied for the lead in his bid to go backto-back in the British Open, failed to make a single birdie and shot 76, his highest score Sunday in a major.
Kevin Chappell made two double bogeys, the last one on No. 17 that derailed his hopes. Kevin Kisner made his double bogey early.
Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy and England’s Justin Rose each made a run with eagles on the par-5 14th hole, McIlroy with a 50-foot putt, Rose with a second shot that bounced off the base of the pin. They ran out of holes. California’s Xander Schauffele, the last hope to keep alive the American streak of five straight majors, was one shot behind until he sent a long iron to the right of the 17th and failed to make a 15-foot putt for par.
Molinari clinched it with a driver that skirted the edge of a pot bunker, leaving him a lob wedge from 112 yards to within five feet.
He poured it in, raised his right fist and shook it lightly before slamming it for emphasis.
Then, he waited in the trailer to see if anyone could catch him. At one point, he went over to the practice green, but not to prepare for a playoff. “I probably would have felt sick watching on TV,” he said.
Molinari finished at 8-under 276, the lowest score in eight Opens at Carnoustie, the course where Jean Van de Velde threw away the British Open with a triple bogey on the last hole in 1999, where Padraig Harrington twice hit into the Barry Burn on the last hole to make double bogey and still win.
“Just disbelief, to be honest,” the 35-year-old said. “To go the weekend bogey-free, it’s unthinkable. Playing with Tiger was another challenge. But I felt really good this morning. I felt I was ready for the challenge.”
Woods had every reason to believe he would cap a most improbable comeback from four back surgeries.
His red shirt blazing against the yellow grass of a dry Scottish summer, Woods hit driver into the wind on the par-4 fourth to set up birdie. Into the wind on the par-5 sixth, three deep bunkers to the right and out-of-bounds to the left, he got to the front of the green with a driver and a three-wood for another birdie.
And just like the Woods of old, the players he was chasing started to collapse.
Spieth gambled with a shot to clear the burn on No. 6 and went into a gorse bush, making double bogey. Schauffele chopped up the next hole for double bogey. Woods had the lead.
And then he lost it with two bad holes. Still in range, he couldn’t get close enough for a birdie when it mattered. It was the first time since the 2007 U.S. Open that he trailed going into the final round of a major, had the lead and didn’t win. His anger over his mistakes was tempered by perspective, comparing it to Serena Williams losing in the finals at Wimbledon.
“The beginning of the year, if they’d have said, ‘You’re playing The Open Championship,’ I would have said I’d be very lucky to do that. Serena and I are good friends. I’m sure she’ll probably call me and talk to me about it because you’ve got to put things in perspective. I know that it’s going to sting for a little bit here, but given where I was to where I’m at now, blessed.”
It might sting even worse for Spieth. One day after a bogeyfree round of 65 to share the lead, he had a birdie-free round at the worst time.
His best chance was at the 14th, where he three-putted for par from about 40 feet.
“When you put yourself in position enough times, it goes your way sometimes, it doesn’t go your way sometimes,” Spieth said, who goes to the PGA Championship in three weeks for a chance at the career Grand Slam.
Adam Hadwin of Abbotsford, B.C., the lone Canadian in the field, had an even par 71 Sunday to finish the tournament at 1-over 285 in a tie for 35th.