Well…it’s official. The last golf major of the year is over. Although we still have plenty of golf to look forward to this season there’s definitely a sadness to not having any majors left. As most of you know, The Open is the oldest golf tournament in the world, founded in 1860, and it is rotated among just a few courses in the UK. This year the venue was Royal Troon, located in South Ayrshire, Scotland.
The course, like many others links over there, is quite challenging. Although very few trees surround the course, there are many deep bunkers, firm grounds that make it tough to softly land a shot, hills on hills on hills, and lets not forget about the weather that usually plays a factor in the UK.
And when it was all said and done, who was the last man standing holding the Claret Jug? The X man! Big congratulations to Xander Schauffele for winning his 2nd major (both this year – PGA Championship), in what was a tremendous tournament to watch from start to finish.
After day one, Daniel Brown led with Shane Lowry and Justin Thomas right behind him. JT was finally able to shake off some recent troubles and put together a great round, although struggles in round 2 and 4 put him tied for 31st in the final standings. Shane Lowry had a much better first 2 days, even building a 3 stroke lead on day 3 only for it to fall apart on the back nine. After showing a lot of resilience on Sunday he was able to finish in 6th place, a well deserved top 10 finish for the Irishman. Rounding out the top 5 was Justin Rose, Bill Horschel, Triston Lawrence, and Russell Henley, all of whom fought off the tough conditions of the European links and had a good look at being crowned champion until Xander proved too tough to beat.
As for the X man, what a Sunday he had. With his parents in attendance Xander shot a 65 on a much drier day than the previous one, to secure his second Major championship. The 30 year old American continues to shine and you cant help but feel he is only just warming up. Once he was able to break through for Major #1, one can only think he has more coming.
There were plenty of other great stories and great play throughout the weekend, so I implore you all to go check out some other outlets. With the last major in the books, we now await the Tour Championship as the last major like event of the season (not to take away from the other great upcoming tournaments). Congratulations to Xander once again! Let’s see what kind of noise he makes in Atlanta next month at the Tour Championship!
2 OFF THE TEE 