THE OPEN: Aussie heartbreak at St.Andrews

BY BRENDAN JAMES AT ST ANDREWS

The stage was set on the final day of the 144th Open Championship for an Australian golfer to not only win a major but to do it at the Home of Golf, St. Andrews.

In doing so, he would emulate the feats of the great Peter Thomson (1955) and Kel Nagle (1960).

Sheer weight of numbers in the top-10 with a round to play put the odds in Australia’s favour. Jason Day was the 54-hole co-leader at 12 under. Fellow Queenslander Adam Scott was three shots back at nine under, alongside Marc Leishman, whose third round 64 was nothing short of brilliant.

Zach Johnson celebrates a birdie putt on the 18th green to set the clubhouse mark at 15 under. PHOTO: Photo by Jan Kruger/Getty Images.

It all seemed to be going to script with a handful of holes left in the championship with the trio, led by Leishman, occupying three of the top-four spots on the leaderboard.

But one-by-one they wrote themselves out of the thrilling climax, which ultimately saw American Zach Johnson prevail in a four-hole play-off over Leishman and South Africa’s Louis Oosthuizen.

Leishman began the Monday final round like he finished Sunday evening. His beautiful iron shots were finding their target and his putter was perhaps the warmed thing to be found on the Old Course links.

Birdies at the 1^st, 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th and 9^th had him at the turn in 31 strokes – one stroke less than mark he set en route to a 64 in the third round. Further birdies at the 10^th and 12^th holes moved him to 16 under and into the outright lead of The Open with six holes to play.

Playing three groups in front of Leishman, Scott started in similar vein. Scott, who began the week celebrating his 35^th birthday and was desperate to convert top-five finishes in the past three Opens into a victory, appeared to have the Golfing Gods smiling upon him from the start. When his second shot approach pitch bounced across the waters of the 1.5-metre wide Swilcan Burn and he rolled the putt in for an opening birdie, he had every right to believe this was going to be his day.

More birdies at the 5^th, 6^th, 7^th and 9^th holes followed and Scott was also out in 31 – a mark equaled by only one other player in the final six groups. That man was Johnson.

When Scott reached six under for his round with another birdie at the 10^th, he was 15 under and the equal leader with Johnson. But this wasn’t going to be Scott’s time at all.

He bogied the par-5 14^th but was still right in the mix at 14 under. At the next, he bogied again but this was the bogey that took the wind right of Scott’s sails as he missed a clean up par putt from two and a half feet with his ball making a sharp 90 degree turn left off the right edge of the cup. He finished with a bogey at the 17^th and a double bogey at the short par-4 18^th, where he hit his first drive out-of-bounds.

Adam Scott signals to the gallery as his drive on the 18th hole flies out of bounds. PHOTO: Andrew Redington/Getty Images.

The end result was Scott dropped five shots in his last five holes of the tournament to finish tied 10^th. Perhaps more gut wrenching in hindsight for him is that he was five shots shy of a play-off spot in addition to the thought this is the third time in four years he has lead The Open with less than nine holes to play and not won.

“I'll be disappointed the way I played the last five holes for sure,” Scott said. “I could have done a lot better than that.

“Yeah, it's a shame not to get in there and finish with a shot, that's for sure, but maybe it was too much to ask today.

“I did what I had to do the first 10. I was six under (for the round) and I tied for the lead. I kind of leveled myself with where everyone was at, and that's exactly what I had to do. And I knew from that point on, I was just going to have to play a great nine holes to have a shot at it.

“I felt that was even to one- or two-under, really, from that point. It was always going to be tough. It was playing really tough at times, straight into the wind, playing long, and I made my mistake on 14 with a poor shot in there and compounded that continuously coming in.”

A disappointed Jason Day after leaving his birdie putt short on the 18th green, which would have seen him make the play-off. PHOTO: Jan Kruger/Getty Images.

While Leishman and Scott both had hot starts, Day, playing in the penultimate group, was really grinding to keep in touch with the lead and he fought right through to the last putt.

Two birdies – at the 5^th and 6^th holes – had him moving in the right direction early and at 14 under he too was within a whisker of the lead throughout the afternoon.

But as hard as he fought the course and the elements he couldn’t get that extra birdie that would have seen him peg it up in the play-off. After ten consecutive pars, he made an incredible up-and-down to save his par at the 17^th hole when he finished short of the green and rolled a putt around the edge of the dangerous Road Hole bunker to four feet and rolled in the par-saver.

Needing a birdie at the last to reach the play-off, Day hit a good drive and a then a pitch, which nestled to a stop 18 feet beyond the hole. But for all the heroics he showed on 17, he was surprisingly timid with his putt, which finished nearly a foot short of the hole and on a good line.

Nearly 24 hours earlier Day talked about being wanting a piece of golfing “immortality” by getting his name on the Auld Claret Jug. He clearly has the game and the patience to win majors and this week he showed he can also contend in the Open, the least likely of the four majors for him to win based on his high ball flight game.

“I've been working very hard to try and accomplish my first major, and you know, it's a little frustrating with how it finished,” Day said. “But I've been in contention at major championships a lot now, and it just shows I'm doing the right things, and I can't look at it as a negative.

“I'm just a little frustrated because I just walked off the course about five minutes ago. Give it time so I can just sit down and look at what the positives were and move on from there and just try and get better.”

Marc Leishman almost holed a long bomb putt for birdie on the 17th hole in regulation play. PHOTO: Andrew Redington/Getty Images.

One aspect he has eliminated from his game, as was evident in this Open, is mistakes.

“I went bogey-free again today. I think I only had three bogies for the week,” he said.

“Today was playing very difficult coming home, and it was tough to get it close to the pins. “The biggest thing for me was just trying to stay as patient as possible and hopefully give myself an opportunity coming down the back side, but it is what it is.”

Despite having to ensure another near miss in a major championship – he has finished in the top-10 in eight of the last 11 contested – Day was trying to remain positive.

“I really did the right things to give myself the opportunity at getting into the playoff and having a shot at winning my first major, I played really good golf this week, and I can't be disappointed by it,” he said.

“It was just tough to get the ball close to the pins today. I really want to have that shot at immortality. It'll soon come my way. I've just got to be patient with it.”

Leishman was the last Aussie standing. On Friday, he birdied the last hole of the second round for a 73 and was just inside what would ultimately be the cut at even par. After having the day off on Saturday because of the 10 and half hour suspension of play because of high winds, he came out on Sunday and played his way back into contention with an eight under 64.

For 12 holes of the final round he looked to be on track to go even better.

Warrnambool’s finest golfing son was seven under for his round and leading the Open. But the task remained with the hardest holes, playing into a stiffening wind, all in front him. He looked equal to the task until the par-4 16^th when he tugged his approach left into a deep bunker. While the escape was brilliant, the putt from eight feet to claim his par slid by and Leishman was back in a share of the lead with Johnson, who was already on the practice green hitting some putts contemplating a play-off. He just didn’t know who is opponents would be.

A par on the treacherous 17^th left Leishman needing a birdie at the 18^th to win the Open. A good drive was followed by a wedge to 18 feet from the hole, and as is every golfer’s dream, a putt to win the Open. The attempt was never really on line and left him with a tap-in par, a final round 66, and a spot in the play-off.

His final 36-hole total of 130 was a new record for the 29 Open Championships contested at St. Andrews, a mark previously held by Zimbabwe’s Mark McNulty in the 1990 championship. Leishman’s rounds of 64-66 also equaled the low final 36-hole mark for all Opens – a feat achieved by Tom Watson (1977), Ian Baker-Finch (1991) and Anders Forsbrand (1994).

It is a rare thing that two final rounds of such high quality scoring don’t culminate in holding the trophy aloft.

But it happened to Leishman.

He joined Johnson and 2010 Open Champion Louis Oosthuizen in a four-hole playoff and when his opening tee shot nestled in a divot in the middle of the 1st fairway, which meant he couldn’t attack the flag just beyond the burn.

“Yeah, drove it straight into a divot, which was pretty disappointing, especially to that pin with the burn right in front I had no chance of getting near it,” Leishman said. “That's about as good as I could have done, and then three-putted it, and then obviously the three-putt on 17 was not what I was after.

“I was on the back foot as soon as I hit it in that divot and made the 5 on the 1st.”

Johnson and Oosthuizen jumped to a two-stroke lead with birdies and Leishman was effectively shut out of the event. Johnson’s birdie at the second play-off hole would eventually prove the difference as all three bogied the 17^th and parred the 18^th in extra time.

“Obviously I’m pretty disappointed at the minute, having a chance to win it and not being able to take it, but that's golf, unfortunately,” Leishman said. “There was three of us in the playoff and there could only be one winner.”

He was remarkably upbeat for someone who had just lost the Open.

“Mate, I'm happy. Don't worry about that. I've just finished second in The Open,” he smiled.

“Yeah, I could have won it, but look, my perspective is a lot – well, it's quite good at the moment. I can go home tomorrow and hug Audrey and the boys and celebrate a little bit.

“It would have been nice to have a Claret Jug to drink out of to celebrate, but I'll find something else.”

Louis Oosthuizen misses his par putt on the 17th hole in the playoff. PHOTO: Andrew Redington/Getty Images.

Johnson, on the other hand, will at some stage be drinking from the famed Auld Claret Jug whilst wearing his Green Jacket.

The 39-year-old joins an elite club to have won the Masters at Augusta and The Open at St Andrews and now stands an elite company alongside Sam Snead, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Seve Ballesteros and Nick Faldo, who have done it.

For someone who doesn’t grab too many headlines, he’s now among the modern greats Woods, Phil Mickelson and Rory McIlroy to have won more than 10 PGA Tour events and two or more majors in the past decade.

He says he’s humbled to have achieved what he has since turning professional in 1998.

“I would have said, whose am I trying on, and whose am I touching?” when added when asked if he ever dreamed of having a Claret Jug and a Green Jacket.

“It takes me back to when I turned professional. You could even go back further than that when I was playing as a youngster. These are the things you dream about. These are the things you've worked to get to.

“I'm humbled because there's a lot of individuals that have put me in this position that trust in me, and I trust in them. I'm humbled by the talent that I've been given, and I'm humbled right now because of what's in my lap (the trophy) and the names that are etched on this piece of metal that is very special.

“It's the who's who in the game. It's the guys that paved the way. It's the individuals that are historic in sports. I've said it in '07. I'm humbled, I'm honoured, and it's still beyond surreal.”

He admits he’s no golf historian, but the significance of winning at both Augusta and now at St. Andrews was not lost on him.

“It's a feat to be invited and an honour to be invited to those tournaments, and to win at Augusta and to win The Open Championship at St. Andrews,” the new Champion Golfer of the Year said.

Zach Johnson is in rare company as a winner of the Masters at Augusta and The Open at St. Andrews. PHOTO: Andrew Redington/Getty Images.

“I'm not rich in history, I can tell you that. I'm not a great historian. I know the little things that probably most know, but I do know that this is the birthplace of a great game and a place that has fantastic fans.

“The venue is just – for those that love the game, this needs to be on their bucket list and I love playing it.

“I've said it many, many, many times: This championship, now it may sound corny because look what I'm holding, but it's probably my most fun golf tournament inside the ropes. Ryder Cup is the Ryder Cup, Augusta is Augusta, I get that, but I just respect and appreciate what this tournament is all about and I could go on and on about that.”