Monday, January 21, 2013

Scott’s collapse: The worst in golf history


Scott’s collapse: The worst in golf history

Adam Scott, unable to believe that he has just lost The Open
Adam Scott has always wanted to tread in the footsteps of his boyhood hero, Greg Norman. But instead of joining his fellow Aussie in winning the Open Championship, he has instead copied his famously unfortunate habit of losing a Major championship in outrageous circumstances.
There were many cruel ironies about what happened to Scott on Sunday afternoon, as he blew a four-shot lead with four holes to go at Royal Lytham & St Annes.
There's the irony that by playing it safe on the final four holes, he opened himself up to mistakes that he would never have made had he gone for his shots.
There's a worse irony in that his demise happened to coincide with an hour and a half of inspired golf by his good friend Ernie Els, playing the best back nine of the week at Lytham in the toughest conditions of the week.
And there's the irony that Scott shares his surname with the Antarctic adventurer whose name is already a byword for failure thanks to a doomed expedition that is one the great romantic tragedies of the age of exploration.
But the cruellest irony by far is that Scott's implosion will make him, like Norman, far more famous for his failure than for his victories.
This truly was a collapse for the ages, instantly becoming one of the most astonishing stories in golf, and it's a story that was written in the space of half an hour.
It all looked so promising: Scott showed a few early nerves as he made three bogeys in his first six holes at Lytham, but two of them were sheer bad bounces and the third — a thinned bunker shot at the 6th — hardly a terrible golfing crime.
Thereafter he remained solid as a rock, and when a huge drive up the 14th was followed with a magnificent wedge to eight feet to set up a birdie, it all looked over.
That, however, was the beginning of the end for Scott. A slightly crooked shot with his conservative tee shot on the next hole left him a long way back, and his long iron found an awkward spot in a greenside bunker. The resulting escape to 10 feet was not close enough: a bogey followed but at nine under par he was still three clear.
Adam Scott's horrible stance in the bunker on the 15th hole
The 16th was worse: he played safe by hitting an iron down the fairway, but an awful wedge miles past the pin resulted in a three putt. He caught an awful lie in thick rough near the green on 17, and his par putt missed moments after Ernie Els's birdie putt on the 18th went in.
To the last then, and Scott drove a 3-wood into sand when a driver would have taken the traps out of range, and an iron would have ensured they were unreachable.
Even still, after splashing out sideways he hit a great shot to give himself a chance of par from 12ft — but ironically, his touch with his long putter deserted him just when he needed it most.
Scott's groan almost as soon as he hit the putt was clearly audible despite the thousands of fans packed around the 18th green — and the putt never went close to going in.
And, even as the ball was still running past the hole, Scott joined an elite band of men who have thrown away Majors in exquisitely horrible circumstances up the stretch.
We're not talking about the likes of Rory McIlroy at the Masters in 2011, when he imploded in the final round. Simply having a bad day at the office is just something that happens from time to time to guys leading Majors on the final day. The same happened toDustin Johnson at Pebble Beach the year before, and we'd even put Greg Norman's loss to Nick Faldo at the 1996 Masters in that same bracket.
What is much less common are the guys who appear to have beaten the nerves and taken the tournament in hand, but still somehow contrived not to win.
There was Arnold Palmer at  the 1966 US Open, who led by seven shots with nine holes left, and by five shots with four holes left. Palmer then bogeyed three holes in a row as Billy Casper made two birdies; Casper went on to win the play-off, and Palmer never won another Major.
Four years later at The Open at St Andrews, Doug Sanders outplayed the legendary Jack Nicklaus and earned himself a two-foot putt to win the Claret Jug. He missed.
That was the shortest putt ever missed to win a Major until Scott Hoch missed an 18-incher for the Masters in a play-off against Nick Faldo in 1989, but even that was trumped earlier this year when Korea's Kim In-Kyung missed a 12-inch tap in to win the Kraft-Nabisco Championship.
Missing one shot is one thing, though: a late blow-up in sight of the finishing line is of a higher order, as Thomas Bjorn showed with his three shots to escape a bunker on the 70th hole of the 2003 Open Championship while leading by two.
Even that is not as heartbreaking as Scott's disaster, however. There's only one that really compares, and that's the mother of all golfing blow-ups at the 1999 Open.
Jean van de Velde played the final hole at Carnoustie in a stunningly inept manner as he blew The Open with a lunatic high-risk strategy on the final hole, which is one of the hardest par-4s in championship golf, when 4-iron onto the fairway and two wedges would have secured him the title.
But Van de Velde became a global icon as the picture of him minus his socks standing in the Barry Burn was beamed around the world — and so it will be with Scott.
One of the photographers on the course will have snapped the perfect picture — perhaps Scott's shocked face as his three-footer for par horseshoed out at the 16th — which will freeze Scott's pain in time for all golfing eternity.
The big question is this, though: was Scott's capitulation at Lytham worse than Jean van de Velde's at Carnoustie? The sad truth is that it probably was. Van de Velde made one bad swing — off the tee — and compounded the error, and the fact that he was a journeyman who had never really been expected to contend in the first place somehow made it easier to witness. It was a bit like seeing a lottery winner accidentally drop their ticket into a shredder: harsh, but sort of funny. Easy come, easy go.
By contrast, watching Scott fail was like watching a mountaineer come within one final step of reaching the summit of Everest, only to slip all the way back down the mountain.
One thing is for certain, though: should he ever get another chance to make it to the top, he'll know exactly how to make that final move.
If he does make it, it'll be all the sweeter for the failure that went before it. And if not? Well, he's already guaranteed a prime spot in the golfing history books regardless. Right alongside his hero Greg Norman.

Woods happy to wait for Major


Woods happy to wait for Major

Tiger Woods crawled his way up to the second place in world rankings on Monday but the American, fresh from his joint third finish at the Open Championship, is unlikely to make a song and dance about that.

For a man who has spent 623 weeks at the summit, a greater craving would be to add to his already impressive list of 14 Majors.
There was no hint of impatience in his voice after the famously focused American had a final round to forget at a sunny Lytham, carding his first triple bogey at a Major since the 2003 Open.
"It's part of golf. We all go through these phases. (For) some people it lasts entire careers. (For) others ... a little bit shorter," he said when asked how it felt not to have won a Major since the 2008 US Open.
Woods kept his composure remarkably well given the setback at the sixth hole on Sunday and still came tied third after a three-over-par 73 to end four shots behind winner Ernie Els.
He now sits just one place behind world number one Luke Donald after a failed attempt to land a fourth Claret Jug.
"I finally feel like I'm really healthy. And I've got my pop back in my swing. So I'm hitting the ball distances I know I can," Woods said.
The 36-year-old has changed the face of golf with his prodigious hitting and is still the main attraction for heaving galleries having won 14 Majors in 11 years from his first in 1997.
At the Open, however, the crowd hoping to catch a glimpse of Woods bludgeoning a driver well over 300 yards down the fairway was left disappointed as the former world number one used iron after iron from the tee for position.
For his last Open triumph at Hoylake in 2006, Woods used the driver just once but his precision off the tee left spectators in awe.
At Lytham, fans sighed regularly when the iconic Tiger driver cover remained untouched, some impatiently calling him 'boring'.
Woods is not in a hurry as he seeks to first land another Major title and then perhaps dream of catching compatriot Jack Nicklaus's record of 18 Majors.
"Even the greatest players to ever play have all gone through little stretches like this. When your playing careers last 40 and 50 years, you're going to have stretches like this," was his response.
His next opportunity is at Kiawah Island for the August 9-12 US PGA Championship and while most eyes would be on London Olympics, Woods would hope to divert attention on Sunday with a long-awaited 15th Major.

Tevez caddies for Romero at Open


Tevez caddies for Romero at Open

Carlos Tevez switched from football to golf when he caddied for fellow Argentine Andres Romero in the final round of The Open at Royal Lytham.

The striker is a huge golf fan, and was frequently pictured with club in hand during his five-month exile from Manchester City last season.
However, his major caddying debut did not go to plan, as Romero shot a 12-over-par 82, one of the worst rounds of the week, leaving him dead last of all the players to make the cut.
Romero, who was already well off the pace, teed off at 8am alongside Chad Campbell, and he and Tevez quickly found trouble, dropping five shots in the first four holes.
The 31-year-old carded just a single birdie on the 11th, and double-bogeyed four times.
Tevez nonetheless declared himself delighted, saying: "I enjoyed the round. The course is beautiful. The chance to walk along the course and to be around these great players is a pleasure and something unforgettable.
"This is the dream of everybody who plays golf. It was my first major!
"It was difficult to carry the bag because it weighed so much but it was fine." Tevez said.
"I couldn't give any advice about the slopes but I just carried the bag and supported him each hole. Romero is a professional and he knows everything already. We worked together very well."
Romero, who finished third behind Padraig Harrington and Sergio Garcia in the 2007 Open at Carnoustie, added: "We all agreed Carlos would take the bag today and we really enjoyed the moment.
"He did not complain at all when I asked him if he was in any pain. I played really badly today but he was helping me with my confidence."
Tevez's trips to the golf course became infamous last season when he went AWOL from City.
On scoring against Norwich City after returning to the club in April, the 28-year-old celebrated with a golf swing.
City begin their Premier League title defence in less than four weeks.

Scott charges clear of Open field


Scott charges clear of Open field

Australian Adam Scott, chasing his first victory in a major, powered four strokes clear of the field after the third round of the Open Championship at Royal Lytham.

Australian Scott picked up three shots around the turn to surge clear of his playing partner and overnight leader Snedeker who imploded with six bogeys before a brave birdie on the last hole gave him a round of 73 and a seven-under total of 203.
"It was a pretty good, solid round today," Scott told reporters. "I think 68 pretty accurately reflects the way I played. I certainly made a couple of nice putts.
"It's fun just to get in this position. It's what I've been practising for. I don't know what to expect tomorrow. I'm sure I'm going to be nervous but it's good nerves and I'm excited."
McDowell delighted the packed galleries with three late birdies to complete a rock-solid 67, the 2010 U.S. Open champion from Northern Ireland grinning broadly as he stayed in the hunt for a second major title.
"Since I was a young boy I dreamed of coming down that last fairway on a Sunday afternoon, the last group in the Open championship," said McDowell who was also in the final group at last month's U.S. Open where he finished joint second.
"I can draw on my experiences at the Olympic Club a few weeks ago. This is special for me and it was a lot of fun out there."
Woods, bidding for his 15th major, roared back after two early bogeys to card a level-par 70 and the former world number one finished in fourth spot on 204, one stroke ahead of three-times major champion Ernie Els and American Zach Johnson.
"It was not a very good start," said Woods. "I fought back and just didn't get anything going on that back nine. But even-par is about right."
Scott started with six pars and with his belly putter on fire, birdies at the seventh and eighth gave him real momentum.
The 32-year-old moved five shots clear with another birdie on the 11th and after missing a short putt to bogey the 13th he calmly parred the last five holes, helped by a brilliant wedge to escape from a bunker by the 17th green.
Snedeker, sporting a bright pink shirt, made his first bogey of the tournament at the fifth hole and his second followed immediately when he found a Lytham bunker for the first time.
He clawed a shot back with a delicate chip to set up a birdie at the par-five seventh but Scott matched him to move ahead.
Snedeker suffered his third bogey at the eighth and the Australian sank a monster putt to sprint three clear.
Clearly rattled, the American bogeyed the ninth as well after finding another bunker and Scott calmly made par to stretch his advantage to four.
Snedeker dropped further shots on 11 and 14 but rallied superbly with a birdie on the 16th and sank a 20-foot putt on the 18th to remain in contention for his first major title.
Woods recovered from bogeys at the first and third with a clutch of birdies at six, seven and nine to go to seven under.
A return to the metronomic golf which brought him two opening rounds of 67 led to five successive pars but a careless putt on the 15th green dropped him back to six under.
Els picked up two early shots to get to five under and after bogeying the 14th he made another birdie on 17 to stay in the hunt for a second Open title and fourth major.
World number one Luke Donald made an early birdie but took two shots to escape from a bunker next to the sixth green and the ensuing double-bogey stalled his progress and the Englishman carded a 71 to finish on one under.
World number two Rory McIlroy continued to struggle on the Lytham links with a scrappy 73 to finish five over and third-ranked Lee Westwood's wait for a major title will continue after his 71 left him at four over.
India's Anirban Lahiri caused the biggest cheer of the day with a hole-in-one, the first of the tournament, sending a nine-iron 150 yards into the cup.
"Just when I thought this experience was fantastic, it gets even better," said the 25-year-old after going round in 70 for a level-par total of 210.

The Open - Woods waits for touch of magic


The Open - Woods waits for touch of magic

Tiger Woods is a patient man but he waited in vain for the touch of magic he needed to climb up the leaderboard in benign conditions in the Open third round.

The 14-times major champion recovered from two early bogeys but his expected charge on "moving day" never materialised and he bogeyed the 15th on the way to a level-par 70, finishing five shots behind leader Adam Scott.
"He always uses irons because he's boring," one fan said to another early in the American's round as the former world number one laced another pinpoint tee shot on to the fairway.
Following bogeys at the first and third holes spectators seemed deflated and Woods looked in need of inspiration from a supporter dressed as superhero Captain America near the fourth green.
"I fought back and just didn't get anything going on that back nine," the 36-year-old told reporters.
"I thought I had a couple of good looks at some putts and didn't make them and misread the putt there at 15," he said of his short missed par putt on the par-four.
Fans still flock to catch a glimpse of one of golf's greatest players who since winning his first Major at the 1997 US Masters has been in hot pursuit of Jack Nicklaus's record 18 titles.
Woods has endured four years without adding another to his haul and his expectant fans crave to see him win again on the biggest stage.
A red-hot putter on Sunday, more birdies than his solitary two on the back nine so far this week and yet more calm conditions might still do it, though pegging back Scott will be tough.
"There are plenty of opportunities out there besides the par‑5s," said Woods of the par-70 Lancashire links which has only two par-fives, four par-threes and 12 par-fours.
"I've had a bunch of 9‑irons into some of these flags and those are the holes you also have to birdie."
Woods, as he has done at the sixth hole all week, carded another birdie at the 492-yard par-four when he rolled in a magnificent 35-footer with one silky smooth stroke of his putter.
A booming drive and fizzing low iron to set up an easy birdie followed at seven and with a third birdie at the short ninth Woods was stalking Scott.
But when the Australian, whose caddie Steve Williams worked for Woods and helped him win 13 Majors, replied with birdies at seven, eight and 11 he took the upper hand and comfortably kept the American at arm's length.
"Adam is in a great spot right now, he's got a four‑shot lead and he's playing really well," Woods said. "He's going for his first Major title so he's in a very good spot."

Lahiri hits hole in one


Lahiri hits hole in one

India's Anirban Lahiri recorded a hole-in-one at the 165-yard par-three ninth hole during the Open third round.

The world number 226, making his Open debut and partnering American Ted Potter Jr, notched the first ace of the 141st championship at the furthest point of the course away from the clubhouse to excite the Lytham galleries.
Lahiri's wonder shot took him to one-under-par for the tournament, nine behind leader Brandt Snedeker of the United States, who had yet to begin his round.
Lahiri, also making his debut at a Major championship after two failed attempts to secure a berth at one of the year's big four tournaments, booked his Open ticket in March at Asian International qualifying.
The 25-year-old claimed his second Asian Tour title this year and in 2006 won silver alongside Gaganjeet Bhullar at the Asian Games in Doha.