A Stunning Open

Filed in archive Golf News on July 23, 2007

Courtesy: Alastair Grant/AP Photo

My, oh my. What an Open!

There are so many story lines to the British Open at Carnoustie that it's difficult to know where to begin.

Heartbreak for Sergio, without a doubt. He has tried and tried to win a major, always seeming to collapse on Sundays.

But this time, that didn't really happen. Not a collapse, at least. More like a series of small errors that eroded his 4 shot lead and forced him into a playoff with Padraig Harrington.

Carnoustie wasn't the winner. Certainly not in the same way that Oakmont was this year.

Carnoustie would only be vicious if the weather turned ugly and it never did; Oakmont was vicious, rain or shine.

No, this Open was drama filled and bursting with excitement strictly because of the mental battles being waged on the course.

Sergio struggling to hold his confidence together in the face of a shrinking lead. Harrington with the eye of the tiger bearing down on the young Spaniard. Els firing and then falling back.

Richard Green's stunning 64 - a new course record. Green, of course was the guy who got into the Open when Woody Austin decided he couldn't handle links golf and bowed out.

Hunter Mahan, first time at The Open, shoots 65 on Sunday; Ben Curtis, former Open champion, shoots 65 on Sunday. Brilliant stuff.

And what about the young unknown Andres Romero? Stunning golf. In his final 18 holes, Romero carded only 4 pars but 10 birdies, one bogey and two double bogeys.

He bogeyed 9, a hole he had trouble with the whole tournament, and came right back with back-to-back birdies. Then a double bogey on 12 and instantly four straight birdies only to stumble finally and finish double bogey, bogey.

Romero finished alone in third place, one shot behind Harrington and Garcia. To watch him moving up the leaderboard, calmly making amazing approach shots and lovely putts was a thing of wonder.

And then to watch his rookie mistake with a two iron that he shanked into the Bern on 17 when he should have used a 7 iron and laid up was gut-wrenching. But what does he do? He drops in the rough and then wails a wood onto the green within 20 feet of the pin!

Then, with Romero in retreat, Harrington roared to the top and, standing on 18, with a two shot lead on Garcia, the Irishman sprayed his driver, the ball rolling tantalizingly across one of the bridges only to hit a post and drop into the bern within two feet of the other side. I tell ya, ya couldn't make it up and have it be more exciting.

And Garcia, standing over a makeable birdie putt to win, tied with Harrington after the Irishman's double on 18, stroking it and rolling it over the edge of the cup and then slumping over, knowing his dream had vanished again. That was when Garcia finally collapsed once and for all. He could not recover from that agony to pull himself together in time for the playoff.

Yes, Carnoustie played a critical role, especially the diabolical 18th.

But the drama that developed was not really players battling the course.

It was players battling their demons - with some battles won and many lost.