Championship golf is sometimes as much about torment as it is about triumph.
So it was in the European Amateur, which was won by American Tommy Morrison after a three-man playoff, but which might easily be remembered forever as the tournament that Germany’s Tim Wiedemeyer let slip agonisingly from his grasp.
Having shared the halfway lead at The Scandinavian Golf Club near Copenhagen, Denmark, 19-year-old Wiedemeyer apparently was out of contention after eight holes of the final round before brilliantly thrashing six birdies in the next nine holes to hit the top of the leaderboard on 10-under.
Wiedemeyer, a Texas Tech University sophomore, had endured problems on the par-5s all week, carding three 6s and a 7, but worse – much worse – was to come on the very last of them, the par-5 18th in round four.
“I’m over the moon right now; couldn’t be happier. I was just happy to have another chance. I’ve been playing great golf the last couple of months and took it as a moment to show people how I’ve been playing and what I can do."
Tommy Morrison
He had made birdie there in rounds two and three, and a par would have secured the title while a bogey would have been sufficient for extra holes. Instead, he blazed two shots into a penalty area, eventually needed nine blows to complete the hole, and finished in a share of fifth on 6-under with this year’s Latin America Amateur champion, Santiago De La Fuente of Mexico, and last week’s Amateur Championship winner – and member at The Scandinavian – Dane Jacob Skov Olesen.
Scotland’s Calum Scott, a rising senior at Texas Tech and Wiedemeyer’s college teammate, was alone in fourth on 7-under, leaving Morrison tied at the top of the leaderboard after 72 holes alongside U.S. compatriot Preston Summerhays and Ireland’s Max Kennedy on 9-under 279.
The third-round leader Summerhays, a rising senior at Arizona State, needed three birdies in his final four holes to force his way into the playoff while Kennedy, who finished his senior season at Louisville, was alone among those finishing in the top 10 to play the final round bogey-free.
Morrison, a rising junior at the University of Texas who is from Dallas, very nearly echoed Wiedemeyer’s misery. He made six birdies in the 10 holes before the 72nd before signing off with a bogey-6 that handed Summerhays and Kennedy a lifeline and included missed birdie and par putts from inside 4 feet.
In the three-hole aggregate playoff, all three competitors parred the ninth, but a bogey for Summerhays at the 10th alongside birdies for his opponents effectively ruled him out.
Kennedy couldn’t break par at 18, and Morrison didn’t repeat his earlier mistake, securing a 5-foot birdie to become the first American winner of the title and earning a major-championship debut in the 152nd Open at Royal Troon later this month.
“I’m over the moon right now; couldn’t be happier,” Morrison said afterward before conceding: “I was just happy to have another chance. I’ve been playing great golf the last couple of months and took it as a moment to show people how I’ve been playing and what I can do. I did a great job, so I’m super excited.”
The 19-year-old was not alone in celebrating. The R&A’s three-event Open Amateur Series rewards the best performer across the St Andrews Links Trophy, Amateur Championship, and the European Amateur Championships with another invitation to the Open, and it was the Saltire flag-representing Scott who claimed that honour.
In addition to solo fourth in Denmark, the Nairn resident shared second in St Andrews and was a quarterfinalist at Ballyliffin in the Amateur Championship.
Morrison had made the last 16 in that latter event and made quite an impression on the car-rental staff at nearby City of Derry Airport.
On discovering the purpose of your correspondent’s visit at the end of the championship, they gasped: “One of our customers was a young American lad who was playing there. He was here with his family. About 8 feet tall, he was, with a shock of blond hair.”
In fact, he’s “only” 6 feet 9 inches.
“A big boy,” the rental man said with a bemused look, and Morrison also might have a big future.
RESULTS
Matt Cooper