LYTHAM ST. ANNES, England -- What began as a foregone conclusion quickly turned into much more than that as Ernie Els went one direction and Adam Scott went another at the 141st British Open at Royal Lytham & St. Annes.
Els made clutch birdies on the par-4 14th and 18th holes for a final-round 68 while the leader, Scott (75), collapsed behind him, and Els came from six strokes behind at the turn to win his second British Open and fourth major title.
Els finished seven under par for the tournament, edging Scott by one. Brandt Snedeker (74) and Tiger Woods (73) tied for third at three under, four back.
On a day when the wind finally blew at Royal Lytham & St. Annes, Scott, 32, stayed mostly steady until his four-shot lead with four holes to play vanished in less than an hour. He was 10 under par, just one over for his round, through 14 holes, but couldn't make a single par the rest of the way.
Els, 42, fired a four-under-par 32 on the back nine to win and credited, among others, his work to retrain his eyes in order to better see the line of his putts.
Still, he needed plenty of help from his Presidents Cup teammate. (Scott is Australian, Els is South African.) Scott missed a putt from inside five feet at the par-4 16th hole for his second straight bogey to drop to eight under par. His lead was two for the second time, but worse than that the short miss seemed to shake his confidence.
After finishing tied for second and tied for third in two previous Opens at Royal Lytham, Els said he had a feeling about this week, but he still needed to make some magic at the par-4 18th hole. He found the fairway with his drive, and his approach shot checked up 15 feet left of the pin. He drained the birdie putt to get to seven under, just a shot off the lead, and threw his ball into the crowd.
Scott missed the 17th green left, into the long rough, and couldn't get up and down, then knocked his drive into a pot bunker on 18. He looked finished, but he pitched out before striping his third shot to within 12 feet of the pin. It looked as if Scott might replicate his back-from-the-brink heroism from the 2004 Players Championship, his greatest victory, but the putt missed left and it was over.
After beginning the day with a four-stroke lead over playing partner Graeme McDowell (75, two under, T5), Scott faltered with a bogey at the first hole but got the stroke right back with a birdie at the second. His lead over Snedeker was only two shots after six holes, but Snedeker went away with back-to-back doubles on 7 and 8, and Scott steadied himself with pars before a birdie on the 14th hole to go 10 under.
Then came the collapse.
Woods started the day five shots behind Scott and made five straight pars before getting stuck in a pot bunker on the par-4 sixth hole and making a triple-bogey. His first shot from the sand hit the sod wall and came back at him, nearly hitting him, which would have been an automatic two-stroke penalty. Still in the bunker, he had to get on his knees to play the next shot, which ricocheted off the sod wall and onto the front of the green, nowhere near the pin. He three-putted from there, and it all added up to seven.
Although he birdied the next hole, the par-5 seventh, to get back to four under par, Woods kept chasing birdies with bogeys and never seriously threatened.
Aside from Woods, the usual bold-faced names had a tough week. Phil Mickelson shot 73-78 in benign, mostly wind-free conditions, and came nowhere near making the cut. It was his worst showing in a major in recent memory. Rory McIlroy started well enough with an opening-round 67, but fell apart with rounds of 75-73-73, and his play will be forgotten long before his generosity. After nailing a young fan in the head with his drive in the first round Thursday, McIlroy not only signed a golf glove for the kid, he paid for the stricken fan's hotel room and dinner.
"It's a 20-year career," McIlroy said after another lackluster round Sunday, the latest installment in a summer full of them. "So I'm not going to get too wound up just over a few weeks. I've got to keep working away, plugging away, working hard and working on the right things and eventually it will come around."
No comments:
Post a Comment