Amazing finish to the British Open, after three heavily sedated rounds (Saturday was miserable) yesterday had the drama expected in a major championship. Carnoustie is a fantastic venue for competitive golf; I'd nominate its final 9 holes for best 9 in the world. The final nine at Carnoustie has a rhythmic quality that perfectly framed the competition. 10-12 are difficult (10 essentially being a parkland hole), followed by 13/14, which provide opportunities to gain strokes to par, and the challenging 15-18, where every player was cognizant of the Van De Velde collapse, and some (Harrington/Romero) were apt to repeat it. The only reason it might not be the best is 17 is a bland home, but Sunday's pin position was excellent.
Yesterday's golf was a great mix of explicit and implicit events that built suspense until the final putt dropped. There were the 2x4 to the face moments of Romero pulling 2I on 17 from the rough, and knowing something terrible was bound to happen, to the more subtle lip-out for par on 18 that ultimately kept him out of the playoff. At no point during the round was I sure if Sergio was going to make/miss a putt.
I am convinced Paul McGinley was icing Sergio on 18, to the advantage of his countryman, Harrington. Sergio had to wait for almost 10 minutes in the middle of the fairway, while McGinley double read both his approach and final putt (from 18 inches). It was classic. After a raking of the bunker, Sergio promptly dumped his approach and coudn't get up and down.
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