Things about the Open
school Short-hitting American Zach Johnson proved old school ways can still prevail on the Old Course.
matched Eight players had a piece of the lead in a wild final round.
Consistency Australian Jason Day chalked up his ninth top 10 in 20 major championships. since Stewart Cink beat Tom Watson at Turnberry in 2009, and the first involving more than two players since 2002 at Muirfield, the year Woods failed in his bid for the third leg of the slam.
Spieth showed guts over the final two hours, and class when his bid was over. He walked off the 18th green applauding the fans and giving them a thumbs-up, stayed to watch the closing playoff hole and came back on to the course to hug Johnson.
Just two weeks ago, he went to Iowa to take part in a charity event for Johnson before playing — and winning — the John Deere Classic in a playoff for his fourth win of the year.
He was questioned for not coming over to St Andrews to prepare for a rare occasion of attempting the Grand Slam, though Spieth put that notion to rest with a performance that kept him around the lead all week.
It was the first British Open to end on a Monday (local time) since 1988 because of weather delays in the previous days. But what a show. With 14 players separated by three shots — half of them major champions — no one seized control the entire day. Eight players had at least a share of the lead at one point. Most of them fell away.
Padraig Harrington drove into a gorse bush on No 6 and made double bogey. Adam Scott was tied for the lead until he found a pot bunker behind the 14th green for bogey, missed an 18-inch par putt on the next hole and hit on to the road and outof-bounds on the 18th.
Sergio Garcia couldn’t keep up with his putter. Paul Dunne, the 21-year-old Irishman bidding to be the first amateur since Bobby Jones in 1930 to win the claret jug, started bogey-bogey and closed with a 78.
Oosthuizen was a runner-up for the second straight major. He was one shot behind Spieth in the US Open at Chambers Bay.
Spieth now goes to the PGA Championship with a tiny piece of history left to chase. No one has ever swept the three American majors in the same year.