Talk about raining on the parade. When the klaxon sounded to halt play at the abrdn Scottish Open due to the menace of a storm brewing above The Renaissance, the outpouring of resigned harrumphing from all and sundry could have whipped up a tsunami in the Firth of Forth.
There was a charter flight waiting to whisk players off to The Open, Matt Fitzpatrick had a ticket for the Euro 2020 final at Wembley and the golf writers were wanting to get cracking on the long, long drive to Sandwich.
A crotchety Mother Nature flung a considerable spanner in all those works but we got a winner eventually as the bold Min Woo Lee triumphed in a three-hole play-off which followed the delay of an hour-and-a-half.
In a field peppered with some global stars, it was the world No 240 who came up trumps. Lee is a mighty talent, though, and this victory underlined his qualities as the championship was decided in a sudden-death shoot-out for the third year in a row.
His sparkling seven-under 64, which included a thrilling run of six birdies in a row from the third, ultimately left him tied at the top with Fitzpatrick and Belgium’s Thomas Detry on 18-under and the 22-year-old finished the job in fine style with a wonderful birdie on the first extra-hole.
After watching a birdie putt on the last in regulation rear up just a roll short of the hole, Lee made no mistake when opportunity knocked again in the play-off.
A beautifully flighted approach dropped to within 10-feet and Lee trundled the putt home with total authority to land his second European Tour title, a first prize of £956,000 and a place in The Open. It was not a bad plunder.
“It was an awesome day,” said Lee after becoming the fifth Austrlaina to win the Scottish Open and the first since Wayne Riley in 1995. “That putt on 18 was just a roll short but we regrouped for the play-off. It’s crazy. I was dreaming of this.”
There was a nice family footnote to affairs too. His sister, Minjee, had been runner-up in the Women’s Scottish Open at neighbouring Gullane back in 2018.
On a final day of twists, turns, ups and downs, the close quarters combat was so tightly packed, you half expected the players to take PCR tests in between shots as a precaution. At one stage, six players were sharing the lead with a raft of others hovering and jockeying.
Given the general congestion on the leaderboard, there were plenty who threw caution to the wind in a late bid to barge their way into the reckoning.
Ian Poulter certainly got going with a charging eight-under 63 that could have been played out on horseback. The 45-year-old Ryder Cup stalwart, who was seeking a first win since he landed the Houston Open in 2018, made purposeful early strides with four birdies on his opening seven holes before accelerating to the finishing line with four more birdies on the closing five holes. It was a first class delivery from the man known as The Postman as he got in the clubhouse at 17-under.
“That's what you hope for on a Sunday, to be in a position to run up the board and that’s what I did,” said Poulter, whose playing partner Justin Thomas closed with a 65 for a 15-under aggregate.
Ryan Palmer joined Poulter at 17-under with a 64 as things continued to get more jam-packed than Wembley Way.
The sound of the hooter at least gave folk the chance to catch their breath. It didn’t come at a good time for Detry, mind you. Just as he was putting for a par on the 14th, having taken the outright lead with a birdie on the previous hole, the klaxon sounded in the background and he was left to rue a costly bogey.
Jon Rahm, the world No 1, had been lurking ominously with a round to play but the reigning US Open champion had to settle for seventh on 16-under. The Spaniard had started his round with a spluttering bogey, rallied with a quartet of birdies but couldn’t make any further advances in a 68.
On a good day for the Australian’s, Wade Ormsby won 204 bottles of whisky – one for each yard of the hole – with a hole-in-one on the 12th.
Lee may have helped him celebrate.
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