Americans come out of obscurity to rattle rankings at The Open Championship – Part 1
The American rampage was kept in check by another roaring Northern Irishman Darren Clarke, who romped to his first major victory in 20 colossal attempts. Seasoned American veterans of the likes of Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson managed to stay in contention
throughout the weekend and if it wasn’t for the disastrous consecutive bogeys at the back nine, Mickelson would have gone all the way to win the title, which would have brought an end to the long American drought of major victories.
Clarke won the third major of the event by a lead of three shots despite of the two late bogeys he had to encounter in his back nine, adding another feather in the hat of recent Irish wins in the sport.
Mickelson, who opened up his round with an eye-popping four birdies and a stunning eagle at par-five, 7th, appeared to have run away with the title until he dropped no fewer than four shots in the back nine to fall behind Clarke on a difficult
day at Royal St. George’s.
“It was a fun day. When I saw Darren wasn't going to make a mistake and he played some great golf, when he didn't make any mistakes there throughout the round, I had to start trying to make birdies, and that's when I ended up making a couple bogeys,” said
Mickelson, who has never won The Open Championship and his best result came in 2004 when he finished tied for third.
“Well, the putt at 11 was just a stupid mistake. There was nothing to it. It was just a dumb mental error. I just lost focus there, and it hurts to throw shots away like that when I'm behind,” he added.
Golf critics, during the build up to the Open, saw little hope in an otherwise sloppy performing American brigade and were of the opinion that none of the US golfers would be anywhere in the top-ten in the results. Not only did Mickelson and Johnson finish
for a joint second, another four American players finished in the top-ten, defying all odds of the treacherous Links Golf.
European contingent on the field was among the favourites for the summit, but an early departure of Luke Donald, Lee Westwood and Graeme McDowell signaled a possible comeback of the Americans in the event and the analysts had to redo their calculations on
Friday after the leading European trio failed to make the cut.
Chad Campbell, Rickie Fowler and Anthony Kim finished for a joint fifth, pulling in final rounds of 69, 72 and 70 respectively, and trailing the leader by five shots. Campbell, who opened up his Open bid with glistering rounds of 69 and 68, fell in for a
lopsided performance on the third day, carding a four-over, 74 which ultimately made him suffer in the aggregate scores. Steve Stricker and Lucas Glover finished up for a joint 12th.
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