The magic and the glory, the doom and the gloom

Time to recap on some of the momentous moments, both glorious and disastrous, that the world’s best golfers gave us during The Open on the beautiful links course in Northern Ireland.  It’s rather peculiar to realise that all the Majors are now done and dusted for 2019.  The 148th Open Championship staged at Royal Portrush (18-21 July) was the last Major this year due to the rescheduling of the PGA Championship from its traditional spot in August to earlier in the season in May.  Enjoy our collection of ‘Momentous Moments’!

 

It wasn’t a pretty sight:  Rory McIlroy opened with an 8 at the first hole on day one of The Open.  His iron off the tee went out of bounds right and his three-off the tee plunged into thick rough left.  The crowds then watched in stunned silence as he also went on to miss a couple of tiddler putts on the first green.  The Irishman then added insult to injury by finishing his shocker of a round at Royal Portrush with a 7.  Out in 39, back in 40 for a 79 – a whopping 8-over par!  All credit to the former World Number One from Northern Ireland though, he managed to keep smiling and came back fighting on day two.  On the back nine, he made birdies at 10, 11, 12 and 14 to card one of the lowest rounds of the day, a 65.  But alas, Rory ended up missing the cut by a measly one stroke.  That’s golf!

 

   

 

First tee honour: Ulsterman Darren Clarke, winner of the 2011 Open at Royal St George’s, had the honour of teeing off first in the 148th Open Championship at Royal Portrush in County Antrim in Northern Ireland.  Alas, after rounds of 71 and 74, he didn’t survive the halfway cut.

 

Luck of the Irish:  Shane Lowry couldn’t believe his luck on Thursday.  He smiled all the way to the scorer’s hut and then celebrated being leader in the clubhouse on 4-under par without having had a drop of rain in his round.  Later the heavens opened on the Royal Portrush fairways, yet American JB Holmes nipped ahead of the Irishman finishing on 5-under for the day to take the overnight lead after 18 holes.

 

Early birdies:  An early leader in this year’s Open was Robert Macintyre.  Early on in Thursday’s round, the young left-handed golfer from Scotland shot to the top of the leaderboard with his score of 3-under par.  He maintained his good form throughout the Championship closing out with an impressive 68 on Sunday.  A share of 6th place in The Open, the last Major of the year, is not bad for a 22-year old in his debut.  Just feast your eyes on his scores: 68, 72, 71, 68 and his cheque: 277,950 euros.

 

Unlucky for some:  American David Duval took 14 strokes at the 7th hole on day one.  He had had such a promising start too – birdie, birdie.  The 47-year old, who has hit lean times in the last few years, suffered a quadruple bogey 8 at the 5th and then a triple bogey 7 at the final hole.  All credit to the 2001 Open Champion that his clubs didn’t end up in the ocean alongside the links at Royal Portrush!  On Friday he bettered his score by 13 strokes, by the way.  Although Duval missed the cut by miles he still received prizemoney.  His final spot of 156th earned him a cheque for 4,440 euros from the R&A.

 

Lucky for others: Emiliano Grillo made a hole in one at the par 3, 13th hole on day one.  However, his luck was short-lived.  On Friday, there wasn’t a birdie or eagle in sight for the player from Argentina and he missed the cut at 10-over.

 

Twelve seconds too late:  As a late qualifier Graeme McDowell’s dream came true to play in The Open at his home course.  Unluckily for the player from Northern Ireland, he fell foul of the new three-minute search rule.  He was 1-under par after 17 holes on day one when he his lost ball down the last.  It was found an agonising 12 seconds too late.  And so he had to go back to the tee.  Result?  A triple-bogey at 18 and a score of 73, 2-over par.  He carded a round of 70 on Friday to just scrape in on the cut-line.  After a promising third round 68, he then slipped back down the leaderboard with a bump on Sunday – a disappointing 77 for a share of 57th spot.

 

Tiger homeward bound

 

Bye, bye Portrush!  The cut came at one-over par.  So it was time to say farewell to half the field.  In all, 73 players made the cut.  Tiger Woods was not one of them.  His card was littered with 5 bogeys and just one solitary birdie on the opening day.  It cost him a 78.  He looked a new man on day two as  the Masters Champion opened with a birdie and showed more flashes of his former genius before closing out with a round of 70.  Six-over par and it was definitely ‘Bye, bye Portrush!’ for Tiger, three-times Champion Golfer of the Year.

 

 

BBC commentators over Tiger’s opening 78:

 

“A bit of a wobbly start …”

The most politely put understatement of the year from the ol’ charmer himself, Peter Alliss.

 

“Injury and old age catch up with everyone …”

Disbelief and understanding from Ken Brown.

 

 

Missing the cut by one:  Thirteen players were unlucky enough to miss the weekend by one stroke among them Jason Day (Australia), Andrew ‘Beef’ Johnson (England) and possibly the biggest shock, Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy.

 

Eagle sandwich:  American multi-Major winner Jordan Spieth was on a roll on day two.  He went birdie, birdie, eagle from the 5th to the 7th and sealed ‘the eagle sandwich’ with another birdie at the 8th to get to 6-under and become co-leader with fellow American JB Holmes.  It was but for a moment as Holmes then made another birdie to take the outright lead again.

 

Birdie machine:  Shane Lowry from Ireland got off to a blistering start on Friday: birdie, birdie, birdie to challenge the leader JB Holmes.  A further birdie at the 5th and he was joint leader with the American on 8-under.  In all, Lowry notched up six birdies in the second round.  During the whole championship his tally was 23 birdies.  His best birdie round? Well, that was round three where he made a remarkable 8 birdies and not a single bogey.

 

 

Lowry doubles his score: Shane Lowry shot a tremendous crowd-pleasing 63 on Saturday to go from 8-under for the Championship to 16-under and so lead by four strokes ahead of Tommy Fleetwood going into the final round.  Lowry’s putt on the last was within an inch of dropping for a round of 62.  Ultimately, he secured his Open victory on the Dunluce Links with a score of 269, 15-under par (67, 67, 63, 72).

 

Koepka’s cool putter:  American Brooks Koepka was intent in adding another Major to his fast-growing collection at Royal Portrush.  It was a cool putter that stood between him and the silver Claret Jug.  But all credit to the World Number One from West Palm Beach, Florida, a share of 4th place with England’s Lee Westwood is a pretty good effort.  Just to remind you of Koepka’s Majors this season: Second in the Masters, first in the PGA Championship and second in the US Open.  Naturally, he’s disappointed.  Koepka only wants to win Majors these days.

 

Too little, too late:  Defending Champion, Francesco Molinari (Italy) closed with a 66 to get to 3-under and finish just outside the top-10.  He shared 11th place with Alex Noren (Sweden), Jon Rahm (Spain), Justin Thomas (America) and last but not least, England’s Tom Lewis.  Great to see him enjoying The Open again!

 

Holland’s glory:  Joost Luiten had his best finish in seven starts at The Open despite a bogey, bogey finish on Sunday.  The six-times winner on the European Tour had rounds of 73, 69, 71 and 72 (285, 1-over) for a share of 32nd spot.

 

Six Brits in top-10:  Shane Lowry (1st), Tommy Fleetwood (2nd); Lee Westwood (T4th) and in a tie for 6th place were Tyrrell Hatton, Danny Willett and Robert Macintyre.  Americans made up the rest of the top-10: Tony Finau (3rd), Brooks Koepka (T4th), Rickie Fowler (6th) and Patrick Reed (10th).

 

 

Well done, Tommy!  Tommy Fleetwood enjoyed a terrific week finishing as runner-up to Shane Lowry.  The Englishman shot rounds of 68, 67, 66 before closing with a disappointing 74.  Second in the Majors, it’s becoming a bit of a habit for the Lancashire lad (yes, he’s still only 28 years old!).  Last year he was second in the US Open won by Brooks Koepka.  Fleetwood finished with an historical round of 63 at Shinnecock Hills to equal the lowest round ever scored in the US Open.  Oh, what he’d have given for such inspiration at Royal Portrush on Sunday!  He closed out in Northern Ireland with a 3-over par, 74 in very tricky weather conditions for a tally of 275, 6 shots behind Open Champion Lowry.  His reward?  A handsome 994, 583 euros.  Irishman Lowry picked up 1,718,320 euros for his victory.

 

Shane’s big win:  Just a reminder – Shane Lowry won The 2019 Open, his first Major, by an impressive six strokes.  The last time a player won by six strokes or more was back in 2010 when Louis Oosthuizen lifted the Claret Jug on the Old Course at St Andrews.  The South African won by a convincing seven strokes that year.  The Irishman’s best finish in a Major up until now was tie-second in the 2016 US Open.

 

Bumper crowds:  The R&A welcomed 237,000 enthusiastic golf fans during the week of The Open at Royal Portrush.

 

2020 Open:  Next year The Open heads to another Royal venue, this time in the South of England at Royal St George’s in Sandwich, Kent.

 

See you there, if not before!

 

Wendy Hoad

 

 

READ MORE about Shane Lowry’s victory HERE.

 

CHECK OUT the FINAL SCORES HERE on the Official R&A site

 

 

MAIN PHOTOGRAPH:  Open Champion Shane Lowry and his caddie of less than a year, Brian ‘Bo’ Martin.  What a team!  MINIS (l-r):  The cut: Just in from Northern Ireland – Graeme McDowell; just out from Northern Ireland – Rory McIlroy and Darren Clarke.  BELOW:  Shane Lowry and Tommy Fleetwood.