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The 2010 Open Championship

St Andrews

July 15^th – 18^th 

This is the 150^th Anniversary Open Championship and it is being played at St Andrews for the 28^th time since it was first played there in 1873.

The winner then was a local man, Tom Kidd and leading up to that October day,   the course had been buffeted by wind and a lot of rain, not unlike this year.  In those days however, it was a 1 stroke penalty to remove your ball from casual water, so at least this year’s contestants will not have that local rule to contend with.

Defending Champion is Stewart Cink who, gentleman though he is, cruelly snatched the trophy from the hands of Tom Watson in last year’s playoff.

Day 1   After atrocious weather on the Wednesday, the first day dawned on Thursday with flat calm seas and no wind and Paul Lawrie, the 1999 Open Champion when played up the road at Carnoustie, must have been counting his lucky stars at being given such an awful 6.30am starting time.  He and playing partner Steve Marino took advantage and shot opening 69’s, 3 under par.

The afternoon brought winds and the odd burst of rain but more than half the field bettered the par of 72 and there were 16 players on 67 and under.  Quite a start!

The leader was a young lad from Northern Ireland who has already had an amazing start to his golfing career, Rory McIlroy.  At 21 and already No. 9 in the world rankings, he shot a fantastic 63 and joined a very elite list of players to shoot the lowest round in a Major.

One of the few leaders to be out 3 hours or so after McIlroy when the weather was turning, was Louis Oosthuizen from South Africa who shot 65 to be 2^nd on his own and it was great to see John Daly just a shot further back, who was revelling in his return to the scene of his Open triumph at St Andrews in 1995.

On 67 came a group of players and included Tiger Woods, Lee Westwood and Y E Yang.

Day 2   The weather always plays its part on links courses and today it again threatened to spoil things.  Benign in the morning, the winds were so bad in the afternoon that play was suspended for an hour.

Those out late yesterday were up early and out in the small ours this morning and how thankful they must have felt.

Second place Oosthuizen had a fabulous early morning 67 to finish on 12 under and 1989 winner Mark Calcavecchia on 7 under found himself in second place as the afternoon progressed and players started dropping shots and slipping down the leaderboard.  At the end of the day’s play there were still 30 players out on the course and they will have to come back at 6.30 in the morning to complete their round.

Paul Casey, Lee Westwood and Steven Tiley were all on 6 under, though Tiley still has 8 holes left to play.

Poor Rory McIlroy, he could do no wrong yesterday but today he could do nothing right and took 17 more shots for 80.

9 players are on 5 under and include US Open Champion Graeme McDowell (68) and Amateur Champion Jin Jeong from Korea who is at 1 under for the day after 17 holes.

Tiger Woods, who was also caught up in the wind delay and was out in the worst of the weather, shot a 1 over 73 and is on 4 under.

Tomorrow is going to be a long day...

Day 3  Off at 6.30am to finish his second round, poor Steven Tiley on 6 under and amongst the leaders, proceeded to drop 7 shots on the final 8 holes of his second round to card a 79 and ended up avoiding the cut by just 1 shot.  Out again at 10.50 for his 3^rd round, a much steadier 73 completed “one of the longest days of my life!”

The third round usually sees some big moves from fancied players, but Louis Oosterhuizen was coolness personified.  Starting the day at 4.40 in the afternoon 5 shots ahead of the field, his lead was reduced in the late afternoon and early evening but he was never caught up.  After 3 putting the first and holing testing putts for pars on the 3^rd and 4^th, birdies at 7 and 9 gave him a two stroke lead and with a smile on his face he looked like he was enjoying himself as he turned for home.

A 45ft birdie putt on the 16^th and a brave par on the infamous Road Hole followed by a 2 putt birdie on 18, saw him home in 69, a truly great third round especially considering the difficult circumstances.  That put him on 15 under.

Calcavecchia, his playing partner, had a miserable day and shot 77 and Tiger’s charge never happened and he took a second 73.

Henrik Stenson from Sweden, with Fanny Sunesson on his bag who caddied for Nick Faldo when he won at St Andrews 20 years ago, was in great form and shot 67 for 7 under, but surely far too far back?

Martin Kaymer from Germany hit a great 68 and was on 8 under, but it was left to Paul Casey to provide the nearest worry to Oosterhuizen and he got to the turn in 31 shots, 5 under par for the day.  But 9 straight pars followed and a 67 put him on 11 under, just 4 behind.

A word about Rory McIlroy.  After his disastrous day on Friday, he played like the Champion in waiting that he is and forgot his woes and shot 69.  Well recovered. 

The leading American was Dustin Johnson whose 69 put him on 6 under.  Remember, Dustin was 3 shots ahead at the U S Open with 1 round to go and fell apart on the last day....Could the same happen again to the leader, tomorrow?

Day 4  With a 4 shot lead, the final day needed something dramatic to happen to prevent it from becoming a one horse plod, but nobody produced anything dramatic.  You have to hand it to Oosterhuizen, he drove beautifully and played with such smoothness and control, you would have thought he’d been leading Majors for the past 10 years.

On the par 4 9^th, there was a hint of a possible surge from Casey as he drove the green, but so did Louis and it was he who holed the fantastic 40 ft putt for eagle and you felt that the Claret jug was not going to be wrenched from the South African’s grip.

A 7 at 12 and a bogey at15 put Casey at 8 under and he was out of it, finishing with 75 for 280 in joint third alongside McIlroy (68) and Stenson (71).

Lee Westwood finished with a 70 for outright second on 279, but it was Louis Oosterhuizen with a final 1 under par 71 for 272 who became a very worthy winner of the 150^th Open Championship by an amazing 7 shots.

Now 28 years old, Louis was a terrific amateur golfer representing South Africa at Boys, Youth and senior level.  Growing up under the wing of Ernie Els who took him as a teenager into his golf academy, he won the Open de Andalucia in March and at Malaga airport was forced to leave the Trophy behind as the airline refused to accept it as hand luggage as it was deemed a “dangerous object”!  In The Masters this year, he won the par 3 competition, but his long game is also brilliant – his driving averaged 311 yards off the tee this week and his accuracy meant that he only once was bunkered. 

Author

Martin Dawson

www.effortless-golf-swing.com