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John Reitman

By John Reitman

Open Championship made for entertaining theater

Sunday's final round of the Open Championship was a like sitting front and center for a Broadway performance.

From the highs like Francesco Molinari's bogey-free day (and weekend), to lows like 54-hole co-leader and defending champion Jordan Spieth giving back five shots to the field, and everything in between, the final day of the 147th Open was tremendous theater.

If only all major championship golf could be this way - where realistic conditions and a great set up allowed for difficult and well-placed hole locations that truly tested the mettle of the world's best players without the sideshow that typically accompanies these tournaments.

You know what I'm talking about.

Molinari's two-stroke win over Justin Rose, Rory McIlroy, Kevin Kisner and Xander Schauffele was the first major championship for an Italian golfer and the closest any have come since Constantino Rocca finished as runner-up to John Daly after a four-hole playoff in brutally windy conditions at the 1995 Open at St. Andrews.

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As players moved on and back off the leaderboard throughout Sunday's final round, Molinari was the constant. He shot 70-72 with seven bogeys and a double in his first two rounds, then went bogey-free over the weekend at 65-69. 

On Sunday, he carded 16 pars and two birdies on the back nine, including a four-footer on 18 forcing Schauffele, playing behind him, to make eagle on the last for any chance at a playoff.

That followed a similar third-round performance on Saturday in which Molinari registered 12 pars and six birdies - three on the front and three on the back. His last bogey in the tournament was a double on the par-4 17th in Friday's second round.

Just as dramatic as Molinari's final round, during which he had to scramble early on a few times to save par, was how so many other players moved in and back out of contention throughout the day.

McIlroy, Spieth and Tiger Woods, all past champions, held at least a share of the lead Sunday and Rose at one point was the clubhouse leader.

As the eventual champion walked off the 14th green, nine players were within two strokes of the lead.

It's the stuff the final round of majors is made of.

Not many remember Greg Norman's six-hole playoff win over Larry Mize in the 1986 Kemper Open at Congressional. But several still can recall Mize's chip in a year later to beat Norman and Seve Ballesteros on the second extra hole of the 1987 Masters.

The chance to see something memorable, maybe even historic, like Jack Nicklaus winning the 1986 Masters at age 46, or Tom Watson's chip in on No. 17 at Pebble Beach to edge Nicklaus in the 1982 U.S. Open stand out as examples of can't-miss major championship drama.

So too does Jean Van de Velde's self-destruction on the 72nd hole of the 1999 Open at Carnoustie when the Frenchman took a three-shot lead over Justin Leonard and eventual winner Paul Lawrie to the 18th tee before making triple-bogey in an epic collapse.

It seemed as though something equally dramatic could be in store this time, when Woods, who hasn't won a major since the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, was in sole command of the lead at the turn. His chances at a 15th major unraveled with a double-bogey at 11 and a bogey at 12.

All sorts of drama wandered to the first tee with Spieth, who shared the 54-hole lead with Kisner and Schauffele. 

After a bogey-free 6-under 65 on Saturday, Spieth was pursuing his second straight Claret Jug and what would have been his fourth major title before his 25th birthday this week. The last player to win consecutive Open Championships was Padraig Harrington in 2007-08. The only other 54-hole leader to win in seven Opens contested at Carnoustie was Ben Hogan in 1953. Spieth's chances at joining both of them fell apart early with a bogey on 5 and a double on 6 to go along with two bogeys on the back nine.

It was refreshing to see the world's best players second-guess club selection, find most every pot bunker and bush on the course, flirt with the Barry Burn and grind on every putt thanks to slower-than-average conditions that allowed for well-placed hole locations, before walking off the 18th green confounded and confused. 

But Carnoustie is no run-of-the-mill golf course.

While the world's best players were battling Carnoustie, the PGA Tour's B-team had little trouble with the tour's official event, the Barbasol Championship in Kentucky, where 72 of the 73 players who made the cut finished under par, 49 finished 10-under-par or better and 6 shot 20-under or better, including winner Troy Merritt (-23).

No thanks.

Nearly 4,000 miles away, the surly side of Carnoustie was on full display for Sunday's final round when benign conditions on Saturday gave way to winds streaming in off the North Sea. A total of 52 of 79 players who made the cut shot over par on Sunday, 13 shot even-par 71 and only 14 were in red figures.

Carnoustie is generally regarded as the toughest test of golf on the Open Championship circuit if not anywhere in the world. Watson, who won the first of his five Open Championships there, has called the course "unfair". It didn't earn the nickname "Carnastie" for nothing.

Edited by John Reitman






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