Live from the Open at Turnberry-July 19
Golf writer Andy Reistetter is on site at the Open at Turnberry and is providing daily reports covering both inside and outside the ropes. Here are his notes from the final round and playoff on Sunday 7/19/09.
Well, that was one heck of an Open!
Congratulations to Stewart Cink, your win was truly well-deserved.
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
You are a true champion.
For Cink to shoot 66-72-71-69 and to birdie the 72nd hole to finish at two-under was a brilliant performance.
His endurance in the playoff was brilliant as well.
He stuck to his game plan and played conservatively on the difficult par-four fifth hole in the playoff. His four-iron approach shot scurried across the short right front of the massive green ending up in the right bunker.
A long recovery shot and an uphill 10-footer gave him a one-stroke lead over 59-year-old five-time Open champion Watson.
Watson, who was hitting second, also bunkered his approach shot, but his shot went into the leftside bunker. Near the face, he was forced to play out conservatively. After two putts from 60 feet, he recorded a bogey and lost the lead in the Open for good.
Despite being terrible in the playoff, Watson made a magnificent recovery shot from nowhere on the long par-three sixth and holed a difficult downhill left-to-right 10-footer for par.
Cink then converted his second consecutive par by calmly sinking a tricky four-footer, helping him maintain a slight advantage.
If pars win Opens, they certainly win Open playoffs.
The outcome of the playoff came down to the difficult tee shots on the easy par-five
17th hole. Cink hit three-wood right down the pretty fairway. The right play in this quasi-match play format based on cumulative strokes over four playoff holes.
Watson hit his drive left into the cabbage,
Sadly, he never recovered, making a double bogey.
Cink does what a champion does, recording a two-putt birdie on No. 17 and then birdying the 18th again for good measure to win his first Major Championship.
Despite disappearing from the media's Open coverage after his opening 66 on Thursday, Stewart Cink did not forget about himself nor his abilities and his desire of becoming a Major champion.
Two days later and over 3,000 miles from Turnberry, I am still overwhelmed after attending my first Open Championship.
It will take a while "to sort it out" as my friends in Scotland would say.
First of all, the people in Scotland are very friendly and accommodating.
I went there with no accommodations, and they put me up. Not only that, they also put up with me.
Turnberry is simply a masterpiece of God's natural design.
With the openness of the links course and the Firth of Clyde, the Irish Sea, and the Ailsa Craig to the west, one could not help but be inspired.
I always wanted to experience an Open championship, especially the large grandstands at the 18th green and the orangish-yellow scoreboards. Now, I have, and I'll never be the same as a result of the experience.
How about that picture of me at the 18th green during the awards ceremony?
That's one for the ages!
Sunday morning marked the sixth day in a row I went down to the bus stop and never got on the bus. This morning's ride came from John a member at Prestwick.
I left my luggage with Jackie and Ray, the dynamic security duo at the entrance to the TV compound. Before I could pass, Jackie had already found me a bus ride from the golf course to Ayr so that I could begin my journey home later in the evening.
I really didn't want to leave, but I knew this was the last day of the golf tournament.
My asQignment was Game No. 27 off the first tee at 12:35 p.m., about two hours before the leaders teed off.
As usual, this was perfect timing. I would have the distinct pleasure of walking the links before heading back to the grandstands at No. 15. Then I could follow the last group and, presumably, the leaders right up to those grandstands and the orangish-yellow scoreboards surrounding the 18th green.
Game No. 27 was Branden Grace, a South African who became eligible for the Open through the International Final qualifying in Europe, and American golfing icon John Daly.
Both started the day at plus-2, six shots behind the leader Tom Watson.
Daly looked great. Slim and trim from his Lap-Band surgery five months ago, he had the old bounce in his step.
Looking somewhat formal and conservative with his black and white razzle-dazzle Oakmont houndstooth pants on, Daly could have brought his third Major championship home to Arkansas with a 5-under 65.
Word had it he was striking the ball well; he just wasn't making the putts.
After missing a makeable 13-footer on the first hole and taking four strokes to get it in the hole from just off the green on No. 3, it seemed like it wasn't going to be his day on the links.
After another double-bogey at the par-four eighth due to a poor drive, the nickname "Double Daly" seemed appropriate.
With no Mojo going in this pairing until Daly's late eagle at No. 17, periodic appearances of his girlfriend in a matching skirt kept the galleries interested.
Daly would finish the same distance from the leaders as he started—six strokes out of the playoff, and he finished T27.
Grace would score three strokes worse and finish T43.
I hustled off to the grandstands at the 15th for some of the most scenic golf watching in the world.
With the ABC broadcast in my ear and the BBC broadcast visible on a JumboTron not far away, I was in grandstand potato heaven!
The last four twosomes paraded through while Cink caught my attention by making a six-footer for deuce on No. 15 after bogeying the difficult 14th hole.
In the next group, both Jim Furyk and Retief Goosen put it in the back right bunker. Not on the fly mind you, links golf likes to titillate you by rolling the ball across the green nearly hitting the flagstick before barely rolling down the swale into the bunker.
It takes Goosen two to get out of the bunker, and "the goose is cooked."
Lee Westwood, who was in the next-to-last group with soon-to-be Papa Ross Fisher, nearly holed his tee shot, though he faced a difficult bunker shot, which resulted in a bogey he could not afford.
Watson came along and calmly two-putted from 30 feet for a par while playing partner Mathew Goggin recorded the common bunker bogey.
I thought of Steve Marino's ill-fated triple bogey here at the 15th on Saturday from down the hill on the golfer's right. Fisher's "snowman" on the par-four fifth hole earlier that afternoon while leading by two strokes early in the day came to mind as well.
Certainly, this Open had its drama.
I took in one last 360-degree view from the top of the grandstand—the clubhouse in the distance to the south on the hillside, the links course strewn out below along the coast of the First of Clyde, the Irish Sea beyond the Ailsa Craig, and right here in front of me, the iconic Lighthouse of Turnberry.
Like everyone else, I hoped for the most dramatic finish of all—59-year-old Tom Watson winning his sixth Open Championship to tie Harry Vardon for the most ever.
As I left the grandstand, Westwood and Watson lead at two-under. Goggin, Cink, and Chris Wood are at one-under. Wood is the clubhouse leader of the Open after earning the Silver Medal as low amateur last year.
Westwood bogeyed No. 16.
Cink failed to birdie the easy par-five 17th.
Tom Lehman watched Watson two-putt for a par on the 16th green from the 17th. Goggin bogeyed No. 16 to fall to par.
Cink birdies No. 18 to become the new clubhouse leader at two-under.
Watson stood at the 17th tee needing a birdie-par finish to win the Open.
Watson drove right into the first cut of rough then ran it through the green with a hybrid from there. A solid 30-foot chip with his putter left the tap-in for the needed birdie.
Westwood three-putted No. 18 to finish at 1-under with Chris Wood.
Watson's drive was perfect on the 461-yard par-four 18th hole—on the right side of the fairway about 180 yards to the flagstick.
If only he had hit a nine-iron instead of an eight-iron?
We will never know. He hit the 9-iron though the green and failed to make par and win the Open outright.
Cink beat him convincingly in the four-hole playoff.
Congratulations to Stewart Cink, a true champion of the Open.
If you have the opportunity and we all do, go to the Open at St. Andrews next year.
Andy Reistetter is a freelance golf writer. He follows the PGA TOUR volunteering for the tournaments and working part-time for NBC Sports, CBS Sports, and The Golf Channel. He resides in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, near the PGA TOUR headquarters and home of The PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach. He enjoys pursuing his passion for the game of golf and everything associated with it. He can be reached through his website www.MrHickoryGolf.net or by e-mailing him to Andy@MrHickoryGolf.net
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
