British Open Results 2015: Final Standings and Leaderboard Breakdown

A golfer's legacy is often re-evaluated upon winning a second major championship. The wait between titles was over eight years, but Zach Johnson joined elite company with his triumph Monday in a three-way, four-hole playoff in The Open Championship at St. Andrews.

Johnson claimed the Claret Jug with a final-round, six-under 66 and a one-under aggregate playoff score to top Louis Oosthuizen and Marc Leishman.

The 39-year-old veteran bucked the odds, tough conditions and a leaderboard filled with past major winners and longer hitters who had a distinct advantage en route to a thrilling victory.

Golf Channel's Matt Ginella logged some of what Johnson had to say afterward, which reflected the type of perspective and class fans could have hoped for from the Champion Golfer of the Year:

Notable as Johnson's achievement to add the British Open to his Masters win in 2007 was, it's impossible to ignore what might have been for several other players.

Leishman carded rounds of 64 and 66 to vault himself into the playoff. Justin Ray of Golf Channel noted just how good those scores were:

The former PGA Tour Rookie of the Year has a lot of game, and it showed on the biggest stage. Leishman just couldn't keep up on the extra holes after his extraordinary prior 36-hole effort, carding two bogeys to fall out of the hunt.

It wound up being a two-horse race between Johnson and Oosthuizen to the finish.

The last time the British Open was contested at the Old Course, Oosthuizen blew everyone away with a seven-shot rout in 2010. Three must-have putts to close regulation gave him the chance to continue on, but his flat iron betrayed him on two misses from short range on Nos. 17 and 18 to fall to Johnson by one stroke.

Quietly, and maybe not everyone would admit to it, there was some disappointment that Jordan Spieth wasn't part of the playoff party.

Spieth had an uncharacteristically uneven putting week that resulted in his undoing, with the low point being a four-putt double bogey at No. 8 during Monday's round, per ESPN Stats & Info:

"

Jordan Spieth tied for 36th in putting at @TheOpen pic.twitter.com/rcmLg3w0us

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) July 20, 2015"

A win at St. Andrews would have fortified Spieth as the new man to beat in the game of golf. Based on how close he was despite the putting woes, perhaps he has already established himself as such.

Dealing with the weight of expectations and the unimaginably massive stakes at age 21 is nothing short of extraordinary. There hasn't ever been anyone quite like Spieth, and he may well move on to be the greatest champion this game has seen.

The American prodigy's playing partner, Jason Day, is another supreme 20-something talent who has come so close so often in recent years on the major stage without any hardware to show for it. A 20-foot left-to-right putt from above the hole wound up just short for Day, who tied for fourth with Spieth at 14 under par.

There seems to be no letup in Spieth even as he's in hot pursuit of taking over as the planet's best golfer. He still has one man to clear, though, and that happens to be PGA Championship defender Rory McIlroy.

An ankle injury prevented McIlroy from guarding the Claret Jug at a most favorable St. Andrews venue, but he'll return to Whistling Straits for the PGA, where he finished just one shot out of a playoff in 2010.

Day placed in the top 10 in that event, St. Andrews 36-hole leader Dustin Johnson had a controversial rules violation to take himself out of the playoff and Zach Johnson tied McIlroy for third.

And no need to bet against Spieth even if he isn't so familiar with a course. His game seems capable of traveling anywhere. Perhaps the golfing gods will grant us a McIlroy-Spieth showdown for the world No. 1 marbles to give one of them a clear upper hand in their burgeoning rivalry next month.