The Open

This will  be remembered as one of the the best Opens of all time certainly since the Duel of the Sun in 1977 at Turnberry between Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus. By Saturday it was a two horse race between the Swede who had yet to win a major – Henrik Stensen – and Phil Mickelson who had won five.  It was a contest between the ice cold Swede who plays percentage  golf and the buccaneer Lefty who takes risk and improvises his shotmaking  to get out of trouble. I was on Lefty and genuinely thought it would be Henrik who would crack. Had Lefty obtained that eagle on the 16th all might have been different. But no one can begrudge the Swede who carded 20 under to win the tourney. Record scoring, brilliant golf, tight contest. The Royal Troon Course with its tight greens and unforgiving rough plus the ever changing climatic conditions was a stern examination of golf.

Of Jordan Spieth, Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy, Jason Day , Ricky Fowler and Adam Scott there was no sign. That is the way with the post-Tiger golf world. No one really has asserted himself as a serial major winner and the game is better for that.

As for the cricket, I was dodging between channels and eventually settled for the TMS commentary on the radio. One aspect of the Amir affaire is that punters are put off crooked heats so I never lay a wager on the cricket though sharing Douglas’ view that Pakistan would  win.

What a great day of sport!