While Xander Schauffele celebrates completing the first American shutout of the four men’s majors in 42 years, it is worth reflecting on the maddening magnificence of UK links golf at its highest level.
It is, undoubtedly, the sport in its purest and best form.
Schauffele won a classic Open at Royal Troon – a course that provided the ultimate test while the elements, for sustained periods, threw their worst at the world’s finest golfers.
Ultimately the championship was won by the right man, as the 30-year-old Olympic champion collected his second major of 2024. For all Scottie Scheffler’s recent success, Schauffele richly deserves the moniker ‘champion golfer of the year’.
This Open had everything – unlikely challengers, big-name casualties and a stunning performance to snatch the Claret Jug.
Those four days on the Ayrshire coast amounted almost to a different sport compared with the sultry heat and generous course set-up that prevailed at Valhalla in May, when Schauffele won the US PGA to land his first major title.
Troon provided the ultimate examination. The unfamiliar winds of the first two days undid the maxim that scores are made on the front nine and retained, if you are good enough, on the ultra-challenging inward half.
The traditional Troon test was turned on its head. These unexpected conditions bamboozled the likes of Rory McIlroy, and the man who dramatically beat him to last month’s US Open – Bryson DeChambeau.
Much-vaunted debutant Ludwig Aberg also took an early bath as shot-making limitations of many top stars were ruthlessly exposed.
Formulaic demands of the PGA Tour, where bomb and gouge to receptive greens is such a profitable pursuit, were not the qualities required last week.
Deep bunkers with steep faces terrorised this Open field. Shots needed shaping to use winds as cushions to land balls in correct spots.
Chips from tight links turf required absolute precision, often putters were the correct option. Keeping the ball low, imaginatively using this glorious golfing terrain was the order of the day.
Maintaining mental fortitude as cold rain drove sideways late on the Saturday afternoon was crucial to ensuring title hopes were not blown away. These are the demands of golf in its purest form.
Justin Rose and Billy Horschel – the 54-hole leader – played as if their lives depended on it – celebrating par putts that kept them prominent on the distinctive yellow leaderboards overlooking the home green.
Shane Lowry raged at the tough course set-up. The fact drivers were needed to reach the green on the long par-three 17th was irksome to the Irishman.
He did little wrong in the Saturday 77 that ultimately cost him his tilt at a second Open title. And he had a point, to an extent.
But with modern ball and club technology available to today’s superstars, it was refreshing to see them tested to the extreme. And it was his cold putter on that frigid late Saturday afternoon that did for him.
