Zach Johnson Wins Open on a Wild Day at St. Andrews

In  2010 Louis Oosthuizen won the Open at St. Andrews in a runaway.  This year the leaderboard was packed with many solid golfers hoping to write their own amazing story at the Home of Golf and a runaway wasn’t in the realm of possibilities.

The story all week was Jordan Spieth’s run at the Grand Slam and little was heard about Zach Johnson who clawed his way into the lead with a clutch birdie at eighteen. 

It wasn’t Jordan’s day…it was Zach’s.  And with the death of the Grand Slam Johnson’s star rises from the ashes of the chase to what many call a Hall of Fame career.

This Open came down to a four hole playoff between Oosthuizen, who many thought had a legitimate chance of an Old Course repeat after the third round and two players that were hovering under the radar.

Marc Leishman and eventual winner Johnson sat three shots off the lead at the start of the final round and both teamed with Oosthuizen to play the four hole aggregate playoff where Johnson’s solid game gave him an unlikely victory.

Johnson’s second major championship puts him in rare company.  Only four players in the last ten seasons have more than ten PGA Tour wins which include multiple majors.  In addition to Johnson those players are Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Rory McIlroy.  That’s pretty heady company.

Here are some interesting articles celebrating the 144^th Open Championship at the Old Course.

Jaime Diaz says Johnson had a “peace about him” as he added a Claret Jug to his Green Jacket on a wild day at St. Andrew.

Ron Green of Global Golf Post says that Jordan Spieth “Made a Pipe Green Come to Life” and that “there are only two players in the game right now who seem capable of genuinely chasing the Slam-Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy.”

With his usual bang up job on the nuts and bolts of the day, Doug Ferguson gives us the real “game-story” of the Open’s final round.

Adam Schupak says it’s time to recognize Johnson,”Maybe now that Johnson has become the 14th player to win both the Masters and British Open in his career, we can begin to appreciate Johnson for all of his remarkable talent.”

The staff at Golf.com offer a debate on whether Zach Johnson is Hall of Fame worthy.

Ryan Lavner tells us that Spieth kept hope for the slam alive and he blames Spieth’s putter for falling short at St. Andrews.

Brandel Chamblee says it wasn’t Spieth’s putter that cost him the Open and the run at the Slam but rather those pesky pot bunkers. (Click on “Spieth Lost by the Thinnest of Margins”.)

Johnson’s charge to the lead came an hour before the leaders would finish and Rex Hoggard chronicles a wild day at St. Andrews.

Editor’s note: I am a day late with this post because as the leaders were heading to the Road Hole and their chance at history I was teeing it up at Bethpage Black.  The Monday finish at The Open Championship messed with plenty of schedules and not just those across the pond.  That being said I will have to admit Zach had the best day of all of us.