Scottie Scheffler’s vanquished opponents at the British Open have hailed his Tiger Woods-like procession at Royal Portrush, but the increasingly dominant champion was quick to dismiss the comparisons with the great 15-time major champ as “silly.”
Such was the sense of remorseless inevitability about Scheffler’s fourth major triumph by four shots over the field on Sunday, his pursuers were reminded of the dominance of Woods.
“I don’t think we thought the golfing world would see someone as dominant as Tiger come through so soon, and here’s Scottie sort of taking that throne,” said Bryson DeChambeau, while dethroned champion Xander Schauffele smiled: “People are shy to say it, but he’s doing some Tiger-like stuff.”
But the comments left the modest 29-year-old Scheffler responding about the comparisons on Sunday night: “I still think they’re a bit silly.
“Tiger won, what, 15 majors? This is my fourth. I just got one-fourth of the way there.
“I think Tiger stands alone in the game of golf. He was inspirational for me growing up. He was a very, very talented guy, and he was a special person to be able to be as good as he was at the game of golf.
“I don’t focus on that kind of stuff. That’s not what motivates me. I’m not motivated by winning championships. I don’t look at the beginning of the year and just say, ‘hey, I want to win ‘X’ amount of tournaments, I want to win whatever it is’.
“I have dreams and aspirations that I think about, but at the end of the day I feel like what motivates me is just getting out and getting to live out my dream.
“I get to play professional golf, and I feel like I’m called to do it to the best of my ability.”
There were a few faint echoes of earlier in the week when Scheffler gave the pre-tournament news conference that reverberated beyond his sport when he said his biggest golf triumphs weren’t “fulfilling from a sense of the deepest places of your heart.”
On Sunday night, when the subject was inevitably raised again, he was adamant he hadn’t been disrespecting the game or making light of his achievements.
“It really underestimates what I was trying to communicate. Maybe I didn’t do as effective of a job as I hoped to in communicating that,” said Scheffler, who again paid tribute to the importance of his loving family.
“At the end of the day, I have a tremendous amount of gratitude towards moments like these.
“I literally worked my entire life to become good at this game and play this game for a living. It’s one of my greatest joys of my life to compete out here.
“This is amazing to win the Open Championship, but at the end of the day, having success in life, whether it be in golf, work, whatever it is, that’s not what fulfils the deepest desires of your heart.
“Am I grateful for it? Do I enjoy it? Oh, my gosh, yes, this is a cool feeling. It’s just tough to describe when you haven’t lived it….”
Meanwhile, Australian golf has endured its worst British Open golf championship in the modern era after Marc Leishman failed to spare the green ‘n gold blushes on the final day at Royal Portrush.
The 41-year-old LIV golfer, the only one of nine Australians to make the cut in a dismal display at the 153rd Championships, had a final-day struggle in almost ideal weather conditions at the Dunluce links, shooting a four-over 75.
It left the Victorian veteran tied for 52nd place at level par for the week.
Since Peter Thomson became the first Aussie champion in 1954 at Royal Birkdale, that’s the worst position for the leading Australian at the Championships in any of the subsequent 71 editions.
The same Portrush course in 2019 was the only other occasion during those years when just one Australian made the cut (out of six starters), but at least the survivor, Cameron Smith, earned a top-20 spot that day.
Over the years, it’s become fairly commonplace for an Australian to be featuring in the last-day shake-up for the Claret Jug, but in this century, the worst Open for the Aussie challenge was 2001 at Royal Lytham when Richard Green was the best-placed, tied for 42nd.
Marc Leishman. (Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images)
Then, though, there were five Australians playing the last day, while Leishman was the lone survivor this time.
He had set off just outside the top 25, hoping to shoot “something silly” in a bid for a top-four finish that would seal him a place at both next year’s Masters and the 2025 Royal Birkdale Open.
Light winds and lovely weather promised much on Sunday but Leishman started going the wrong way once he drove into a fairway bunker at the fourth, found the thick stuff at the next and another fairway sand trap at the ninth to record bogey fives.
“I just drove in a few too many fairway bunkers during the week,” he admitted. “There was a few holes where I took them on purposely, knowing that if I hit an iron, there’s still going to be one in play. If I was going to take it on, I thought I might as well take it on with the driver. A few of them didn’t come off.”
A couple of birdies straight after the turn were sandwiched by another five at the par-four 11th, before his biggest calamity occurred at the short 13th when he blasted out of one greenside trap straight into another across the other side of the dance floor. A double-bogey five was the result.
“Some days you have it, and some days you don’t,” sighed Leishman. “Today I didn’t. Disappointing day.
“You have days like that sometimes, and obviously you don’t want them to be on Sunday of a British Open.”
“So, disappointing, but take the good with the bad. Onwards and upwards from here.”
Newshttps://https://ift.tt/138hbzF enters Tiger territory after obliterating opponents at British Open as Aussies sink to 71-year low
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