Highlights from the final round of The Open Championship – Part 4
A three-way tie was seen for the 12th spot on the leaderboard, which included Lucas Glover, Steve Stricker and world number three Martin Kaymer.
The lowest score of the group was compiled by Stricker, who started the day at the seventh spot and wrapped it with the 12th-place finish. The winner of John Deere Classic carried his form to the links of England and proved that he was worthy
of finishing in the Top 12.
However, his performance on the front nine was nothing short of a disappointment for him. The American teed off from the front and had terrible start. He bogeyed three of the four opening holes and sealed the front nine with a score of two-over-par.
On his way to the back, Stricker bogeyed one more hole against two birdies and wrapped the day with a score of one-over-par. Commenting on his game, the player said that he was pleased with the way things ended, despite his rather below par performance.
“I’m happy with the way I hung in there. I got off to poor starts really the last two days and hung in there and played under par after the first four holes. It was just the starts that kind of killed me each day,” said Stricker.
He credited the terrible start to lack of preparation. According to the player, the practice range of Royal St George’ s faced wind in the opposite direction as compared to the opening four holes at the front nine. That made it difficult to get accustomed
to the change instantly.
“You practice for 45 minutes on the range with a left-to-right wind and the first four holes are all right-to-left, and they’re hard holes. I could not reach No. 4 both days, and we were up a tee. It’s a tough start, and I didn’t do very well on those first
few,” Stricker added.
Meanwhile, Martin Kaymer compiled a score of three-over-par on Saturday and Sunday for 12th place. The German failed to put up a strong fight against the winds and once again, proved unsuccessful in lifting a title despite being world number three.
Kaymer bogeyed four holes at the front nine, which caused the most damage to his scorecard, and wrapped the front nine with a score of four-over-par. On his way to the back, the 26-year-old tried to curb the loss by picking two birdies in the opening holes.
However, he dropped two more shots by the end of the day alongside a bogey and sealed the day with a score of three-over-par.
Article continued in Part 5…
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