ZACH THE LONG DISTANCE HERO
Johnson holds his nerve in play-off to win this epic test of endurance DEREK LAWRENSON
The longest Open Championship of all time proved an epic tale characterised by glorious triumph and noble failure, with a graceful nod to the legends who have journeyed this way in the past.
Spread over five days and a four-hole playoff involving three players, it was American Zach Johnson who prevailed to claim the Claret Jug and join an illustrious list of golfers who have won The Open at St Andrews and the Masters.
The gritty 39-year-old from Iowa birdied the 18th to set the clubhouse target and then birdied the first two holes of the play-off as well to outlast Australian Marc Leishman and South African Louis Oosthuizen.
Leishman mustered more bogeys in the play-off than he had in the previous 36 holes, during his bold attempt to become the first man to progress from a position as low as 50th at halfway to win a major.
As for the classy Oosthuizen, the man with the most stylish swing in the game came agonisingly close to emulating Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus by winning two Opens at the home of Golf. It was the second major in a row in which he has finished runner-up.
If only he could putt — and particularly from short length — as he missed two enticing attempts to extend the action still further.
But it was the ungainly Johnson who showed once again that a man with a lot of heart and a golden putting stroke is a match for anyone.
Only three other golfers in the past decade have won at least 10 PGA Tour titles and two majors and they just happen to go by the names of Tiger, Phil and Rory.
Only five men have won at both the sacred cathedrals of Augusta National and the Old Course: Snead, Nicklaus, Faldo, Ballesteros and Woods. The company Johnson is now keeping, therefore, simply does not get any finer.
And yet with two holes of regulation play to complete it looked as if it was the 21-yearold Texan hell-bent on conjuring up the sporting story of the century who was going to complete the third of the four legs comprising the impossible dream: the calendar Grand Slam.
On the 16th, the remarkable Jordan Spieth rolled in a 50ft putt to continue his thrilling recovery from a jaw-dropping four putt at the eighth. he was tied for the lead.
It was like Arnold Palmer here in 1960 all over again.
Like Spieth, back then Arnie was the Masters and the US Open champion and came roaring through the field as only he could during the final round. In the end, he would miss out by one. And so did Spieth, in an eerie echo of days long ago, following a missed 10ft putt for par at the 17th.
The disappointment was writ large on his face but the fans had seen enough. They rose as one to applaud this admirable attempt to become the youngest Open champion since Willie Auchterlonie in 1893.
You could tell what it meant to Spieth as he applauded those on the street beside the 18th and those in the grandstand down the first. how typical that by the time the play-off had finished, he had placed his own dejection to one side to be the first man down the clubhouse steps to congratulate the winner.
There was one man called Jordan who f i nished clutching silverware: Jordan Niebrugge, who won the Silver Medal that goes to the leading amateur. Talk about a medal well earned. The 21-year- old American finished tied sixth as three amateurs finished in the top 12 for only the second time in the last 100 years.
It wasn’t just Spieth who was left with the worst feeling in sport: what might have been. Australian Jason Day had a putt at the last to tie and committed the unforgivable act of leaving it short.
Sergio Garcia and Adam Scott did their usual down the stretch of an Open and found ways not to win. Garcia missed from 2ft at the 13th while Scott, unbelievably, did so from half that length at the 15th.
Just to put the tin lid on an horrific finish, he drove out of bounds at the 18th.
Poor Paul Dunne was a broken man after a wretched day ruined by nerves. At one point the Irish amateur struck a full sleeve of golf balls off the second tee, as one drive not only missed the intended fairway on the Old Course but the adjoining first fairway on the New as well.
But when he has had time to reflect, he can be proud of the fact the record books will show he became the first amateur since Bobby Jones in 1927 to lead after 54 holes.
Leishman will get over his disappointment quickest of all. When Spieth was winning the Masters he was by his wife Audrey’s side at hospital. In two weeks, she had gone from being a fit, healthy young woman to lying in a coma suffering from toxic shock syndrome and her husband was told she had a six per cent chance of survival.
happily, Audrey survived those horrendous odds to make a full recovery and if her husband had overcome his own impossible odds to win, the hollywood moguls would have been queuing up. As it is, the rest of us should enjoy his heartwarming recovery from utter despair to the edge of euphoria.
And so People’s Day at The Open turned out to be every bit as tense, crazy and f abulous as we’d imagined.
A day of such fine margins, where one American came within inches of continuing his pursuit of the game’s mythical holy Grail and left an indelible impression.
Where another finished his day walking down the 18th, clutching the Claret Jug with one hand and highfiving the crowd with the other.
he was posing for pictures and wearing a smile which let everyone know this was the realisation of a dream and that his joy was unconfined.