Every 10-12 years, the UK weather does an about face during the British Open. Where usually the coastal conditions in northern England and Scotland are alternately sunny or cool and sideways rainy, every once in a while Championship Week starts warm and dry and ends that way. Such was the case this year.
Royal Birkdale looked, and played, like the Central City Park fields in Macon where I learned how to keep my mouthpiece in when tackled, lest you suck dust and grit for hours afterwards. The fairways
baked out, the long fescue rough was similar to a field after Jeremy Clarkson had run it through in his Lambo tractor. At least the pot bunkers were penal per usual. Oh, and so were the rules committee to fellow international harvester Bryson DeChambeau (the golf nerds will get this).
This hard and fast terrain was not kind to our former Bulldogs competing in the year’s final major. 2023 Champion Golfer of the Year Brian Harman shot rounds of 74-75 and missed the +1 cut line by 8.
Keith Mitchell, coming in pretty good form, was inside the cut line but 2 late bogeys Friday sent him to the car park. Harris English opened in 73 even with 5 birdies, and played a valiant 2nd round ultimately 1 shot too many for the weekend. And incoming frosh Mason Howell also opened with 73 and also closed with 69, his bogey on 18 Friday costing him a chance to play on.
Sepp Straka made the cut comfortably at 2 under par, but weekend rounds of 74-72 dropped him to 67th place (and $41,350 for the effort).
And how about Russell Henley. The 5th ranked player in the world ( you read that right) played steadily in Round 1 with a level par 70. Friday was a little scarier, as he bogeyed both 15 and 18 to make the cut on the number. But make it he did, and decided to play a little better since he had the VRBO for another two nights. Saturday was not spectctular, but he moved up the yellow leaderboard with birdies on half of his final 6 holes.
And Sunday looked promising, with the Idle Hour and Country Club of Columbus alumnus 6 under par through 14, and only a shot off the final day lead. But his game got sloppy and bogeys on 16 and 18 left him out of an otherwise exciting finish. He ended up in a 5 way tie for 9th (a top 10 comes with all kinds of perks) and $336,300 to sprinkle on the Fall Line Freeway.
In other news, Scottie Scheffler put a charge into the crowd but fell a couple short, Rory was never much of a factor, and Spieth continued to disappoint his delusional legions. The Sunday leaderboard was mostly topped by those with few major appearances, or many appearances but no wins or close finishes. Ultimately New Zealander Ryan Fox captured the Claret Jug with a birdie on the final hole.
It’s a great story, as Fox has only played top level tour golf for a few years, and only 2 on the PGA Tour. But he comes from good stock, as his father was a top player for the famed New Zealand All Blacks rugby team – who I believe consulted with Kirby Smart in one of the recent offseasons about culture and success.
That’s all I’ve got. The PGA Tour starts winding down in earnest, and plays next week in Minnesota for the 3M Open. Its crunch time for a few of our former ‘Dawgs to ensure they get into the exclusive FedEx Cup playoffs. Or maybe they lean towards prepping fields for bird season and planning tailgates for football season. Either way, and as always…
GO ‘DAWGS!!!
