Well, have you caught your breath yet? No? It’s hardly surprising. Some of the panting, gasping golf writers who were stretchered out of the media centre last night with their faces shrouded in oxygen masks are still hyperventilating.
The final day of an Open full of moments, magic, mistakes and madness left all and sundry flapping like Icarus trying to retrieve his perilous, plummeting situation.
Now that it’s over, we can take a look back at some of the odds and ends …
CARNOUSTIE UNDERLINES ITS MAJESTY
Fast, firm, fierce, fair? Carnoustie was all of that as it, once again, put on a captivating Open. The admission from the club captain, Bill Thompson, that the town itself may be too small to host the vast corporate circus that the modern day Open has become stoked up arguments on both sides.
The course itself, meanwhile, will never be out muscled by those who do battle with its abundant rigours. Amid all the debates around infrastructure, inconvenience and input, Martin Slumbers, the R&A’s chief executive, made the telling statement.
“At the heart of every Open, there has to be a classic links golf course,” he said. Now, if we could only sort out Turnberry eh?
TO RE-ADMIT OR NOT TO RE-ADMIT?
With a big blue fence snaking round its outskirts and the railway line essentially cutting the course off from the town, Carnoustie almost had the kind of fortifications that would have repelled a major military offensive.
The only way you got in was in the wooden horse of Troy. Oh, and with the relevant lanyard. But getting out? No chance.
The R&A’s no readmission policy continues to cause contention. The Open’s spectator village may be pricey – a gourmet sausage roll anyone? – but it is a pretty impressive set-up.
The R&A insist that the no readmission approach is to protect those who bought “unofficial” hospitality packages. But how many average golf fans are buying hospitality?
And if “official” hospitality is made up of the kind of loutish oafs who shouted at Tiger Woods from a unit at the top of his backswing on the 18th then you’ve got even more problems.
In 2021, the Open returns to St Andrews. Can you see a once you’re in, you’re in policy being adopted in the R&A’s own backyard and in a town where golfing history lurks on every corner? I doubt it.
TIGER KEEPS US THINKING THE UNTHINKABLE
The attendance at the Open was, according to the R&A, 172,000. Thank goodness George and Doreen from Friockheim came through the gates to make it a nice even number eh?
It was a record for a Carnoustie Open and no doubt aided by the Tiger factor. Great throngs followed his every move and for an enchanting period of time midway through his final round you genuinely thought, ‘he’s going to do this’.
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Amid the furore, Jordan Spieth’s caddie mentioned to his toiling boss as the pressure mounted that Woods, “hasn’t been in this position for years.” From a leading position, Woods slipped back, an outcome unthinkable in his impenetrable pomp.
Of course, this is a different Woods and he needs to learn how to win again. Tiger continues to tease and he keeps us believing. And as long as he does that, then he will keep a golfing world entranced.
BOX OFFICE HIT BUT MASSES MISS OUT
The way things are going, the old television set will soon be perched in the same corner of the museum that houses shards of ancient flint and a stuffed Dodo.
The Open on the BBC used to be a gateway to the masses. You just wonder how Sunday’s showdown would have gone down had it been available to a wider audience with no subscription to Sky.
The times they are a-changing. Next month’s US PGA Championship, the final men’s major of the season, will be streamed purely online and for free.
Golf on TV in years to come? The future’s not ours to see ...
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