British Open 2015: Separating Contenders from Pretenders Before Monday's Round
At St. Andrews, Scotland, we've come to the final round, a day whose competitors are defined by big-stage experience, major-championship disappointment and plain old beginner's luck.
In that mix is a small handful of true contenders to win the British Open's famed Claret Jug—players within a long-iron shot of ending the Grand Slam aspirations of Jordan Spieth, who is also within striking distance of remarkable history.
Some have been there before and won. Others have been there before and folded. And one—a 22-year-old Irishman who played his college golf in Alabama—is nothing if not an unlikely story.
With 18 holes to play, anyone can still win. Taking a look at those players closest to the top of the leaderboard through 54 holes—and in the final four pairings for Monday—we assessed which are legitimate threats to walk away with top honors and which are more likely to have the also-ran status attached to their scorelines.
Click through to take a look and leave your own thoughts in the comments section.
Paul Dunne
1 of 8
The knee-jerk reaction from all but the hardest of hardcore golf fans is predictable.
Who is this guy? And what is he doing where he is after three rounds?
Statistically, 22-year-old Paul Dunne is the third amateur player to hold at least a share of the British Open lead after 54 holes, following 1927 champion Bobby Jones and 1892 runner-up John Ball. And after flying under the radar with consecutive three-under 69s to begin the tournament, he made the transition to better-known quantity on Sunday thanks to a six-under 66.
Still, though he shares the advantage with former Open champion Louis Oosthuizen and perennial major contender Jason Day, we have to assume that if the spotlight is too much for someone, it'll be Dunne.
Verdict: Pretender
Louis Oosthuizen
2 of 8
Maybe Louis Oosthuizen needs to play with Tiger Woods more often.
He was part of a trio with Woods and Rickie Fowler to begin the U.S. Open last month and shot an awful opening round before stringing together three good ones to wind up tied for second. He played with Tiger again to begin matters at St. Andrews this week and skipped the first-day struggles this time, immediately getting to work with a 67-70 start before firing another 67 Sunday to grab a share of the lead.
The South African seized the Claret Jug the last time the tournament was played at the Old Course (in 2010) and had top-10 major finishes two other times prior to last month, at the 2011 U.S. Open (tie for ninth) and the 2012 Masters (second).
Given that spotlight pedigree, you have to think he'll have a real chance on Monday.
Verdict: Contender
Jason Day
3 of 8
He's played 19 major events in his career and finished in the top 10 eight times. He held a share of the 54-hole lead at the U.S. last month while struggling with the dizzying impacts of vertigo.
So it's hardly a stunner to see Jason Day in a prime spot yet again this weekend.
He shot 66 to begin the tournament on Thursday, made it through the second-round weather chaos with a one-under 71 and surged back to the top with a five-under 67 on Sunday.
Nevertheless, because the sight of him collapsing (literally) on the Chambers Bay course last month is still so fresh, it's open for debate whether he's ready for the final day of what's become a five-day grind in the wind, rain and bluster of seaside Scotland.
An error-free final round and a win wouldn't be shocking, but somehow another near-miss seems most probable.
Verdict: Pretender
Jordan Spieth
4 of 8
After Masters and U.S. Open champion Jordan Spieth shot 72 in the second round and found himself five shots off the pace, it seemed his Grand Slam quest had taken a painful gut shot.
But maybe this 21-year-old really is as special as he seems.
He's certainly convinced many respected members of golf community, with distinguished caddie Jim "Bones" Mackay saying, via ESPN's Ian O'Connor, "I think he's gifted between the ears. When I say gifted, I mean like Jack Nicklaus-gifted. Jordan is going to do amazing things because he's such a killer between the ears."
Fittingly, Spieth made the British Open's most talked-about "Moving Day" move, shooting six-under 66 to get within a shot of the three-way tournament lead and making sure Monday morning office productivity among golf fans would take a precipitous nosedive.
Should he complete the rally and take hold of the Claret Jug, he'd become just the second player in history to win the Masters, U.S. Open and British Open in the same season. And, come next month at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin, his quest for the PGA Championship might just break the Internet.
Verdict: Contender
Marc Leishman
5 of 8
Through two rounds at the British Open, Marc Leishman was largely flying under the radar.
He had a respectable 70 and a weather-addled 73 through close of play on Saturday, but because so many players had lapped his score, there seemed little reason to consider him a legitimate threat to win.
Then came Sunday.
Not only was his eight-under 64 just a shot off the major-championship mark that Johnny Miller set in the 1973 U.S. Open, but the eight birdies were two more than Leishman had managed in his initial 36 holes and the 25 total putts were five fewer than what he'd averaged through Rounds 1 and 2.
Problem is, there's not much to prove it was anything more than one special day.
Leishman has two top-10 major finishes in 15 career starts, including a first-round lead at the 2013 Masters that wound up as a tie for fourth and a final-round 65 at last year's Open that moved him from off the leaderboard into a tie for fifth. If history is prescient, Sunday's round will be the lone blow the Aussie strikes this week.
Verdict: Pretender
Padraig Harrington
6 of 8
Want to place some blame for Tiger Woods not getting past 14 major victories?
At least some of it can go to Padraig Harrington.
Now 43 years old, Harrington was a British Open thorn in Woods' history-chasing side less than a decade ago, following Tiger's wins in 2005 and 2006 with a pair of his own in 2007 and 2008.
No player has won the same major in two straight years since Harrington's feat, and the Irishman bagged another trophy later in 2008 when he won the PGA Championship at Oakland Hills in Michigan.
He started this year's British with a pedestrian 72, but the 69 and 65 he put out there in Rounds 2 and 3 make it seem like the two-shot gap between him and the lead is hardly insurmountable.
If experience helps, he has it to spare.
Verdict: Contender
Jordan Niebrugge
7 of 8
If someone had boldly suggested a 21-year-old American named Jordan would be in final-round contention for the British Open title, most would have dismissed it as common knowledge.
Until, that is, they said the last name too.
Amateur Jordan Niebrugge, a Missouri native who played college golf at Oklahoma State and has precisely zero career victories outside of the 2011 Wisconsin State Open, nevertheless finds himself three shots off the lead at St. Andrews after rounds of 67, 73 and 67.
Part of the success, his father told Gary D'Amato of the Journal Sentinel, comes from familiarity with challenging climates.
"He is pretty comfortable in this type of course and this type of weather is not unusual for him," Rod Niebrugge said. "He plays in wind in Oklahoma State and has played in snow in Wisconsin during high school in spring season."
Maybe so, but the truth remains that a final round in Madison is a long way from a final round in Scotland.
Verdict: Pretender
Sergio Garcia
8 of 8
If Sergio Garcia is 35, then we're all getting old.
It seems like the fiery Spaniard has been around for far longer than the 16 years it's been since a memorable duel with Tiger Woods for the 1999 PGA Championship, which featured a scissor-kick in the 16th fairway and a second-place finish that promised major titles would soon come.
But they never have.
Instead, Garcia's career has been marked by precipitous ups and downs and a plethora of big-stage disappointments on the way to 19 top-10 major finishes and zero victories. He was 10th or better at the British Open six times in seven tries from 2001 to 2007, and he equaled his career-best finish with a tie for second at the 2014 event at Royal Liverpool.
This week has been a model of under-the-radar consistency in adverse conditions for him, with a first-round 70 followed by incrementally better rounds of 69 and 68 that have him three shots off the pace.
Provided nobody notices him on Monday, maybe this is finally his time to emerge.
Verdict: Contender
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