Parting is such sweet sorrow, as Wullie Shakespeare wrote back in ye day. For Zach Johnson, handing back the Claret Jug after 12 months in his clutches was something of a bittersweet moment.
The 40-year-old’s play-off victory over Jason Day, Louis Oosthuizen and Marc Leishman at St Andrews last year gave him one of sport’s most cherished pieces of silverware. He’s enjoyed having it around but all good things have to come to an end. All the former Masters champion has to do is win it back again at Royal Troon this week.
Johnson made his first Open appearance at Troon back in 2004. This year he has returned as the champion golfer.
“I kind of parted ways emotionally with it at home, so once I got to the formalities of it, it really wasn't that difficult but it was bittersweet,” he said. “More sweet, but the fact that you've got to give it back, you know it's coming. I guess a portion of that sweetness is that you still have an opportunity to get it back yourself.
“We are staying in a house here and a few of us had some win out of it. It is a claret decanter after all so it does serve a purpose in that regard.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here