148th Open Championship Thread

I’m watching for the scenery.

 

You could say that about any major, really. Circumstances have to be right to ramp up the drama.

 

It’s more than a bit of a stretch to say that he started out with 4 straight bogeys because he was upset about the slow round to come.

 

This ain't no Djokovic-Federer.

 

Holmes is gonna finish above 80 today. That'd take a lot of time even if he was a quick player.

 

Although when some favored players win in this fashion its often called ‘historic’ ‘overwhelming’ breathtaking, astounding,crushing. And the sycophants play up the dominance as a sign of greatness and hitherto undreamt of mastery.

 

To be fair, with the players you're thinking about they typically already have a couple of majors under their belt and a dominating win like this serves as proof of greatness and an ascension to a higher level of the sport. If Koepka had won like this, that probably would have been the storyline considering how he's been playing the last couple of years.
Lowry's been a pro for 10 years and he'd won a total of four tournaments -- the last in 2015 -- and no majors prior to this. So it's an impressive performance, certainly, and a great story, but it still comes across as a solid player who got really hot for a week rather than someone emerging as golf's next big thing.

 

Point well made.

 

The more I think about where golf is right now, the more I'm impressed with what Koepka has done recently. The field is just so damn deep. To win multiple majors and contend in basically every one that he hasn't won over the last two years is remarkable.

One thing that gets underplayed in golf right now, I think: The change from Q School being for the PGA Tour to being for the Web.com, er, Korn Ferry Tour is producing seasoned talent that is ready to compete in big moments right from the get go. You can't just fluke your way onto the Tour with one magical week.

 

His last 10 majors, going back to his win at the 2017 U.S. Open, Koepka has had seven top-four finishes and finished sixth one other time. He didn't play in the 2018 Masters.
It'll be interesting to see how long he can keep this up. We've seen some guys put together great runs like that before and drop back to the pack just as quickly. McIlroy and Spieth are two that come to mind, as well as some others who only won one major but were regular contenders for a while. Hell, even Tiger in his prime had a stretch where he struggled in the majors for a couple of years before he went on another tear.
Golf is so damn fickle, you never know when it's going to come and when it's going to go.