Among other things I don't believe that the R&A puts anyone on the clock. I believe PGA event have 120 players where there are 156 players in the Open.
Looks like Tiger will be taking the early flight. I would love to see Rory win this since he has been the most vocal about LIV. If not him, Scheffler.
Cam Smith who uses the same putter as AJ just went out and took the Jug. It wasn't that Rory played some terrible round and gave it away, Cam just took it by playing one of the great final rounds in The Open history. Cam Young played great as well shot 65 to the Aussie's 64. He gave all.
With his mullet, surprised Jiffy Lube is not a big sponsor of Smith. He certainly put on a clinic today re putting under pressure.
When Smith gets on a streak, his putting is amazing. I don't think I've ever.seen anyone have a series of.absolutely unbelievable putts on the final 9 of a major.
Meanwhile Rory did mot make one significant putt his whole round. His iron game was very mediocre setting him up time and time again for 2 putt pars. If my memory is right his only birdies were two putt ones where his driver got him to the green early. As an aside my son Mike was having a great day on Draft Kings having both Rory and Smith on his team. When Young eagled the final hole and Rory only parred, it cost him a few grand (on a 5$ bet).
I agree with everything you said, Gip, but here is my take FWIW. Cam Smith is (obviously) a great putter...he had two days like that at the Open...he made almost everything. Rory rolled the ball (I thought) very well...nothing...just nothing found the hole. he was all around it. If anything perhaps he was too conservative in terms of not pin seeking...but he was fairways and greens the whole day and lipped out some birdie putts. No three putts. No bunkers. It really was a great (but overshadowed) round. I might argue that he was a victim of the "rub of the green". A few years ago Golf Digest took a True Roller putting device that can be set to hit the ball identically each time. They put it on a level Augusta quality green and the best they could set it to do was 70% from 12 feet. Point being, it's not a pool table.
All I know Stu is that there were 44 golfers yesterday that shot lower than Rory's great round. For Scotland the weather was really benign and a lot of that rough was not very putative. When it's like that you'd be amazed how many real hacks can break 80.
It seems like there are a.lot of players hit fairways and greens and the real discriminater is putting. I think Cam Smith missed the cut last week or the week before. It looked like Rory played just as well as Cam but his putts were close.but just didn't fall...and Cams did.
In watching Rory over the last few years it seems like he's a putter that tends to just barely miss a lot of putts. Drives the ball well and generally seems to lose tournaments with average putting. Next big event will be the FEDEX CUIP Playoffs. Lots of drama there with a bunch of young guys who are playing well.