The 150th annual Open Championship at the Old Course at St. Andrews is now in the record books. It was a feel-good week of major championship golf that was made memorable with the former champions tourney on Monday and the St. Andrews-Jack Nicklaus ceremony on Tuesday. As the Thursday start to the Open drew closer, it was apparent that weather would not be a factor. With Europe suffering through an unheard of heat wave, the northerly locale of the Kingdom of Fife in northeastern Scotland had pleasant temperatures with benign winds.
Cameron Smith of Australia won the 150th Open and Claret Jug by channeling his inner Johnny Miller. Miller shot a final-round 63 at the 1973 U.S. Open to romp to victory. This time around, Cam Smith shot a brilliant 64 on Sunday at the Open with a six-birdie 30 on the inward nine. He started the fourth round in third place, four shots behind fan favorite Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland and Denmark’s Viktor Hovland, the former 2018 U.S. Amateur champion at Pebble Beach. Hovland would struggle during the fourth round and fail to be a factor on the back nine. His 74 would drop him into a tie for fourth place. McIlroy would play a near perfect round of golf on Sunday by hitting all 18 greens in regulation. However, his putter turned cold as he two-putted every green. Not a single one-putt. His two birdies were the result of hitting the par-5 fifth hole in two and by driving the par-4 10th hole with his tee shot. He ended up carding a 2-under-par 70 to fall into third place. Normally a 2-under-par 70 during the fourth round of a major championship combined with a four-stroke lead would be more than good enough to get one’s name engraved on the Claret Jug. This time around it wasn’t enough.
While McIlroy and Hovland would turn out to be the only golfers to shoot 70 and above among those contestants who finished in the top 10, everyone around them was going low. Very low. Simply put, you cannot play defense in golf. McIlroy’s 70 wouldn’t be enough when Cam Smith and eventual runner-up Cameron Young were posting scores of 64 and 65, respectively. Englishman Tommy Fleetwood shot 67 to tie Hovland for fourth place. Brian Harman shot 66 to finish tied for sixth place alongside Dustin Johnson’s 69. A trio of golfers were tied for eighth place. Patrick Cantlay shot 68 as did Jordan Spieth while Bryson DeChambeau joined them with a 66. Sunday at the Old Course was the ultimate birdie-fest.
That old-time golf vernacular of “drive for show and putt for dough” was very much the mantra for the British Open on Sunday. Standing on the 11th tee with eight holes to go, Rory McIlroy was 18-under-par for the Open while Smith, Young, and Hovland were a distant three shots back. Then Cameron Smith turned up the heat, most noticeably with his putter.
Cam Smith won the prestigious Players Championship last March because of his putter. He made a bundle of par saves and tough birdies to take home what many professional golfers consider the “fifth major.” Smith and his putter repeated the feat at the Open Championship and his final-nine performance was the stuff of legends. He birdied the relatively short par-4 10th hole. He carded a birdie-two on the difficult par-3 11th hole. Cam made back-to-back birdies on the par-4 12th and 13th holes. He was now tied with Rory McIlroy, who would turn out to be on the par train throughout the rest of the back nine. Smith would register his fifth birdie in a row on the par-5 14th hole and suddenly he was in the lead.
Yet even though Cameron Smith was one clear of the field, he still had to deal with golf’s toughest par, namely the 495-yard, par-4 Road Hole. It’s the 17th at St. Andrews and it has been the site of many a blowup with the rightward road and wall and the left-sided Road Hole bunker. You hit your tee shot over a hotel and the hole is really long. Smith’s second shot was just short of the treacherous Road Hole bunker. He took out his putter from some 30 yards away, successfully maneuvered around the bunker, and left himself a 12-foot putt for par. Just like he did at the Players, he made the par putt at 17. He was still one ahead of Rory.
With the driveable par-4 18th hole still to play, a birdie would be a necessity for Cam Smith. After all, McIlroy is the PGA Tour’s top driver and he just might eagle the final hole to win or get into a playoff. Smith once again used his putter from off the green to navigate the Valley of Sin on 18, leaving him with a 3-foot putt for birdie. He made the putt to get to 20-under-par. His playing partner, rookie Cameron Young, actually drove the 18th green and proceeded to make his 15-footer for eagle. Young would finish at 19-under-par and may have secured the honor as PGA Tour rookie of the year for 2021-22. Rory would par the 18th and end up in third place at 18-under-par. While he was the people’s favorite, the fact that Rory had seven more putts during the final round in comparison to Smith was what eventually doomed him.
Great putters have often found a way to defeat the betting favorites on golf’s center stage, whether we’re talking about Henry Cotton in the 1930s, Bobby Locke in the 1950s, Billy Casper in the 1960s or Ben Crenshaw in the 1980s. It is now pretty easy to include Cameron Smith on that list for this decade. His putting stroke is silky smooth and he is a classic “die-putter” who can usually dial in the right distance. He is also an outstanding mid-range putter, and his 12-foot par putt on the 17th hole was indicative of his ability to find the bottom of the cup at crucial moments. He was ranked second in putting all week while McIlroy was 59th.
The Old Course at St. Andrews definitely took a beating from the game’s top performers, yet that had more to do with the weather than anything else. Zach Johnson was 15-under-par at St. Andrews in 2015 while Louis Oosthuizen was 16-under-par in 2010. In 2005 Tiger was the winner at 14-under-par. It doesn’t really matter how difficult the R&A sets the pins at St. Andrews, the course is still “get-able” in today’s world of advanced equipment.
The 150th Open Championship at the Old Course at St. Andrews is now part of golf history. Cameron Smith shot 67-64-73-64 to win by one stroke over Cameron Young. The Open will return to St. Andrews in the next five to eight years and we can anticipate that that Open will probably be the swan song for Tiger Woods, who missed the cut this time around. While the Old Course had a difficult time dealing with the power game of today’s players, it will always be a part of the Open rotation because it is the birthplace of golf. Cam Smith joins the likes of Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Seve Ballesteros and Nick Faldo as St. Andrews’ Open champions.
