ST. ANDREWS, SCOTLAND | There are few greater stages than the 17th green at the Old Course on Open Championship Sunday, and that’s where Cameron Smith found himself, the Claret Jug practically dangling before him in the gray Scottish air as he leaned over a 10-foot par putt.
Until an hour earlier, the day, the week and most of the wishes of the world had rested with Rory McIlroy as he chased his first major-championship victory in eight years.
Even McIlroy imagined winning, opening the curtains in his hotel room every morning to see his name atop the big yellow scoreboard near the first and 18th holes.
Excitement had turned to anxiety among the McIlroy faithful Sunday afternoon as Smith birdied the 10th, then the 11th, the 12th, the 13th and the 14th holes, swooping in like a phantom to steal the plot, riding a putting stroke that’s like a gift from the gods to flip the script.
One clear of McIlroy, who was playing behind him, and two ahead of irrepressible playing competitor Cameron Young, Smith was one putt away from averting disaster and putting one hand on the Claret Jug.
With a weak, toe-heavy 9-iron approach shot into a gentle breeze blowing in and off the left, Smith narrowly missed the infamous Road Hole bunker and then putted his third shot up a slope and down a ridge to within 10 feet of the hole.
Had Smith looked up from studying the line of his putt on the 17th green, he would have seen St. Andrews and the Old Course in all of its glory, its grandstands stuffed, its narrow street filled and felt the ghosts and spirits that inhabit the place as surely as the seagulls floating above him.
“I love the mullet-and-mustache combo,” a fan said as Smith went through his routine.
What Smith lacks in chattiness, he more than makes up for with his unique personal stylings, his big-eyed look tucked under his flat-bill cap. What distinguishes him as a golfer is a short game that’s as good as any and a putting stroke that Ben Crenshaw might covet.
Smith rolled in the par putt, acted as if it were no big deal and walked the few steps to the 18th tee to finish off his first major-championship victory.
Twenty-four hours earlier, Smith was bothered by his third-round 73 that left him four strokes behind co-leaders McIlroy and Viktor Hovland, and he couldn’t rest until he soothed his mind. He hadn’t played poorly and could blame most of his Saturday on the fickle nature of links golf, but Smith is accustomed to looking up and seeing putts go in, not burn edges.
He spent five minutes on the practice green after his round and fell asleep believing Sunday would be better.
“I just wanted to see a few go in before I went to sleep,” said Smith, who one-putted 25 times in 72 holes.
It was enough to make a person wonder what McIlroy saw as he tried to drift away Sunday night. Staked to a four-stroke lead over Smith, McIlroy hit 18 greens in regulation Sunday and had 18 two-putts.
“I’ll be OK,” McIlroy said later, “but it’s one I felt I let slip away.”
“I got beaten by a better player this week.”
RORY McILROY
Jack Nicklaus, for all of his brilliance, understood that hanging around was part of the trick to winning major championships because eventually players will fall away. That was McIlroy on Sunday.
Smith went out and posted his second 64 of the Open Championship, and he needed every bit of it to beat Young, who has flirted with two majors in his rookie season and whose 72nd-hole eagle forced Smith to make one final birdie to win.
“I would have signed up for 65 this morning,” Young said. “To watch Cameron shoot what he did was pretty amazing.”
McIlroy was standing on the 18th tee as Smith and Young were on the 18th green about 350 yards away. Young, who swings his driver the way a country-strong guy swings a sledgehammer, had jumped McIlroy on the leaderboard with his closing deuce. When Smith tapped in for his birdie, the winning number was 20-under-par 268.
McIlroy, knowing he needed his own 2 to force a playoff, pulled a tee from his right pocket after Smith holed his final putt, ripped a tee shot that didn’t reach the green and, a few moments later, was explaining how another major title slipped his grasp.
“I got beaten by a better player this week,” McIlroy said.
In places, there is an almost prehistoric look to the Old Course. With its fairways and mounds baked to the color of a good latte, it played firm and fast, doing its best to hold off the modern game. Still, Smith’s 268 total was one better than Tiger Woods’ record score here in 2000.
The Old Course asked different questions and demanded imagination, especially from just off the massive greens. It is not the toughest test in major-championship golf, but it found a way to do what great courses do: identify the right champion.
When Smith won the Players Championship in March, handling the wicked weather twists and arguably the best field in golf, it validated his place among the elite. Winning at the Old Course where another Australian, Kel Nagle, won the 100th Open and where the ashes of another Aussie, five-time Open champion Peter Thomson, were quietly scattered Sunday morning, Smith ascended further.
“He doesn’t have that ‘wow factor’ when you look at him, but he has an unbelievable ability to get the ball in the hole,” Hovland said.
When it was over, after he had been presented as the “champion golfer of the year” and said a few words to the thousands ringing the Old Course’s 18th green, Smith sat at a table with the Claret Jug near his left hand.
A gentle personality, Smith bristled when asked about rumors he is considering jumping to LIV Golf.
“I just won the British Open, and you’re asking about that?” Smith said.
Pushed again to answer the question, Smith was less than definitive.
“I don't know, mate. My team around me worries about all that stuff. I'm here to win golf tournaments,” Smith said.
On a lighter subject, Smith was asked how many beers it might take to fill the Claret Jug.
He guessed two.
How many might Smith have Sunday evening?
“I’ll probably have about 20 Claret Jugs,” Smith said.
Cheers to the champion golfer of the year.
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