Having posed for photographs on the Swilcan Bridge, after first donning his favourite sweater from his maiden Open victory at Muirfield in 1987, he nearly produced a repeat at the last but finished with a round of 71 for a 10-over total. Van Zyl had some coffee, looked out the window and with workers trying to drain the course said, “Grateful you’re not out there playing golf”.
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Hundreds of maintenance staff, assembled from the six courses that are part of the St Andrews Links Trust, and BIGGA (The British and global Greenkeepers Association), put up brilliant show to return the golf course to playable condition so soon after a storm-front dumped 19mm water over the course in just over an hour. “I felt beat up yesterday, but that was one of the great moments of any career, making a three and walking the walk”. “That won’t get any better”. “That was the goal of the week”. The cheers will roll over him as he stands on the Swilcan Bridge waving goodbye. I knew I was going to bust out my old Pringle.
“This morning my cut was open again, so I went back to the hospital and had it glued and I didn’t know what I wanted to do”, Faldo explained.
“They said, we think you should go”.
The game of golf is in pretty good hands these days, with 20-something like Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy winning major championships and fans while being chased by any number of other good and young players. Tom Watson is as big a hero in Scotland as an American can be.
The R&A could have called play earlier but allowed him to finish.
He finished just before 10 o’clock, when it was so dark he had to ask his caddie, and son, to leave the flag in while he was putting. By the time Faldo reached the 16th the sun was out, the weather set fair for his grand finish.
“I’ll remember that”, said the 57-year-old Faldo, his eyes welling up. “But there were no tears. But what tempers that very much are the memories and the people I’ve met along the way”. “It’s been a great 40 years”.
Neither Faldo nor Watson was in the group of contenders, but they still enjoyed meaningful farewells to the British Open. “Golly, I stunk up the joint”, he joked. It was a special time.
The 65-year-old Watson moaned about his performance, calling himself “a hack” and complaining that he “stunk up the place”.
David J. Phillip/AP Australian Steven Bowditch narrowly escapes a costly penalty on Friday.
Sir Nick Faldo has insisted that he is “really happy” to have played at The Open this week, despite finishing 10-over par after the first two rounds. “I had a mind blank”. “So they really couldn’t go”.
However it did have some impact, moving the ball slightly closer to the flag.
Three putts later, Johnson had his second bogey of the week.
“I love the game over here”.
“You need an element of luck if you’re going to do well in this tournament”, Mickelson said after the first round. I know Augusta is Augusta and some of the other tournaments are tremendous, but this is just pure.
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No one cared about his score.
