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Curtis steals Open as Bjorn self-destructs
by Mark Thornhill, EM Publications.
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| The stuff dreams are made
of: American Ben Curtis kisses the Claret Jug and joins the golfing elite with
his amazing win at Royal St Georges. |
Unheralded US rookie Ben Curtis has won the 132nd Open Championship
at Royal St George's.
Curtis, competing in his first-ever major, won by a single one
stroke from Vijay Singh and Thomas Bjorn, shooting a final round 69 to finish
on one-under-par. He was the only player in the field to break par for the 72
holes.
Curtis, ranked best amateur in the world in 2000 by Golfweek before
turning professional, had been at 5-under par after eleven holes. Despite frittering
away four strokes in the last seven holes, the rookie kept calm and made the shots
that counted down the stretch, including a tricky 5-footer on the 18th for his
283 total.
As many Champions have done in the past, he left it to his challengers
to make their own mistakes. Little did he know that an unprecedented series of
mistakes by four of the world's best players would see them all squander chances
to either win or at least tie.
Tiger Woods, trying to win his ninth Major title, was level par
through 16, but bogeyed the seventeeth. Woods had looked threatening all day,
but as the round drew to a close he seemed to lose some of his momentum. It will
not be lost on pundits that Woods has so far failed to win a Major title coming
from behind, his previous wins all coming from a final day lead.
Playing partner Vijay Singh sank a good clutch putt to par the
17th, and needed a birdied down the last to tie, but the Fijian, who had been
losing his irons shots to the right for much of the day, pushed his approach into
the sand could only make a par.
Davis Love III, seemingly out of it with a front nine of 39, came
back strongly with three birdies in a row from the 10th, and began to look like
he might win after all. But when he found himself with a six-foot putt on the
16th to get to one under, he could not convert, and his fate was sealed thereafter
with a bogey on the next. In all, Love had played the front nine in a wretched
5-over par for the Saturday and Sunday.
But the biggest self-destruction came from Thomas Bjorn. The Dane
had hardly put a foot wrong all day, and was leading by 3 shots going down the
15th, where he dropped a shot. The damage seemed minimal, but when he near-perfect
tee shot on the par 3 16th found the sand, alarm bells were ringing. Bjorn took
three to successfully extricate, and a double-bogey 5 left him tied with Curtis,
who by this time had completed his round.
Curtis seemed remarkably calm as everyone around him could only
look on, stunned.
"It's unbelieveable," said the 26-year-old rookie. "It's
the grandest tournament of them all and I'm very fortunate to share the title
with all the great past winners. I'm going to be up there with the elite. I feel
I belong. And I'm looking forward to it."
Bjorn was philosophical in defeat, but the double-bogey on the
16th will be hard to mentally recover from.
"Obviously I'm disappointed. I thought I did all the right
things all day long," said Bjorn. "I lost the Open on that 16th hole
but 15 was more the key because I hit it in a fairway bunker and I let a three-shot
lead go. I felt I deserved more this week but that's golf."
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