As gusts of wind blew through the Scottish highlands, the Open Championship narrative fell apart, and we ended up with one of the most exciting, unpredictable finishes in recent memory.
Gone with the wind
How bad was the wind at the birthplace of golf? Basic human functions, like drinking water, became impossible.
ESPN’s gripping wind coverage
With their daylong coverage of the Open Championship on indefinite hold, ESPN delved into great detail to show us viewers at home just how crazily the wind was blowing. This included gripping reenactments of what happens to golf balls sitting on shortly-cropped grass when it’s just too darn windy outside.
http://cdn2.streamable.com/video/5d007f102eda11e5bb29250b8002cff9.webm
Phil hits the hotel
After three rounds in the 70s, Phil Mickelson made a late Monday charge, and was -6 on the day and -10 for the championship heading to the road hole. Could this be a Cinderella story for Lefty, a last-minute storming of the castle to win his second Open Championship in three years?
Not exactly. Mickelson hooked his tee shot at 17 onto a balcony at the hotel that lines the course, posted a triple bogey 7.
That other Johnson
After Dustin Johnson faded from the leaderboard with consecutive 75s, Zach Johnson birdied seven of the first 12 holes to get all the way to -16. But after bogies at 13 and 17, he needed birdie at the last to be the first man in the clubhouse at -15. Then he had to wait for six groups behind him to finish, hoping it might hold up.
(AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
AP Photo/David J. Phillip
Aussie, oi
The strong contingent of Australian competitors continues to shine in golf’s major events. But it was not 2013 Masters champ Adam Scott, nor three-time major runner-up Jason Day who first joined Johnson at -15. Instead it was Marc Leishman, the 27th-ranked golfer on tour who actually held a one-shot lead before surrendering it with the lone bogey on his card, at the 16th.
(AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
AP Photo/David J. Phillip
Not Spieth’s day, nor Day’s
As the final two groups made their way up the final hole, a playoff with as many as five players was still a possibility. Both Spieth and Day hit wedges to puttable, but not close distances. Spieth’s attempt missed just left of the cup, while Day inexplicably left a putt on a good-looking line two feet short.
(AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
AP Photo/David J. Phillip
Louis Louis
For a while, it appeared that former Open Champion Louis Oosthuizen’s most memorable appearance at this year’s event would be lining up in vain to putt a ball as it squirreled away from him in the wind. But where Spieth and Day couldn’t convert, the South African did, birdying 18 to throw his hat into the playoff ring.
(AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
72 holes not enough
Three men from former British colonies battled through a four-hole Open Championship playoff, one American, one Australian and one South African. In the end, the American prevailed above the rest of the field, as Johnson’s one under aggregate score bested Oosthuizen by a stroke.
(AP Photo/Alastair Grant)
WASHINGTON — By the time the winds came roaring onto the Scottish highlands delaying Saturday’s third round at the Open Championship, a familiar script already appeared to be writing itself. Dustin Johnson, he of the impossibly long drives and top-six finishes in each of the first two majors of the year, was off and running with the lead, wunderkind Jordan Spieth nipping at his heels.
And then, as gusts blew strong enough to render gravity’s standard force inadequate for both the game of golf and normal, everyday functions, something funny happened. The narrative fell apart, and we ended up with one of the most exciting, unpredictable finishes in modern major history.
Flip through the slides to see the bizarre twists and turns that turned the weekend (plus Monday) at St. Andrews one to remember.
