Royal Troon with assistance from Mother Nature and the gods of golf put on one of the most exciting Open Championships in recent memory. Before we delve into the details of this wonderful affair, congratulations to Xander Schauffle on his brilliant victory. Xander didn’t take the lead in the tournament until Thriston Lawrence bogeyed the 12th hole on the back nine of the final round. Xander was able to keep it all together as he had all day to complete the final holes bogey free (mistake free) to claim a well deserved two shot victory.

It seems that climate change had arrived at the Open venues in the past few years at St. Andrews, Royal Liverpool where the sun beat down on mostly defenseless venues with little wind producing a birdie fest. The courses at the Open championship always present a set up which forces the long hitters to think carefully about taking on the myriad number of pot bunkers that are now positioned at the 300 yard run out. Unlike venues in the US, pot bunkers are anywhere from a 1/2 shot to a full shot penalty to the player, whereas in the US, the bunkers present little to no penalty whatsoever to the PGA professional.

Royal Troon delivered all the weather that you could imagine to the player except snow showers; however, there might have been a few pellets on the back nine on Saturday afternoon. The players had little benefit from playing their practice rounds as the weather delivered a much different challenge than they thought they were going to face. I was certainly amused by the players teeing off on the first hole with a 5 iron to avoid the bunkers that were ready to receive almost anything hit over 200 yards. Even hitting that 5 iron off the first tee, many of the players missed the fairway anyway landing in the fescue that complicated matters all over the course. I admired Lawrence who took out his driver on the first hole on Sunday only to plop it in one of the pot bunkers.  He made a terrific par with a magical shot out of that bunker. The first three rounds were a survival test of high winds, cross winds, rain, heavy rain, drizzle and general mayhem. We had players in beanies, flipped baseball caps (Horschel) to keep the rain out of their faces,  mutliple towels and gloves, which made it quite interesting for the caddies to keep it all together.

There were big time disappointments in this Open Championship. Rory McIlroy came into the event full of vim and vigor determined to be vindicated after his runner-up finish at the US Open impacted by self imposed wounds. Troon delivered some significant body blows and after taking an 8 on the fourth hole of the second day, McIlroy’s spirit was crushed and he flamed out of the event. US Open victor Bryson DeChambeau was ready to muscle it up at Troon but trying to swashbuckle through the fescue and high rough coupled with some miscalculations from his golf abacus, he too would be toast missing the cut by miles. Tiger Woods never found enough game to survive and ballooned to 14 over par to miss the cut. Other notables to miss the cut were Victor Hovland, Tommy Fleetwood, Stephan Aberg, Tony Finau and Theegaia, all who had been playing well coming into this event.

There were some final round blowups evidenced by Justin Thomas who airmailed his opening tee shot out of bounds incredibly on the right. Thomas showed some good stuff but too many drives ended up in the fescue as his play resembled a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde performance. Sam Burns and Dustin Johnson also fell victim to the vagaries of Royal Troon on Sunday.

The bottom line to victory would come down to who was going to persevere and play mistake-proof golf on the inward nine holes. Schauffle was the player that broke through a morass of competition from Billy Horschel, Justin Rose Thriston Lawrence, Shane Lowry, Daniel Brown, and Russell Henley. One by one all of these competitors made the mistake that would vault Schauffle to victory. To his credit, Schauffle’s short game was magnificent and saved him on multiple occasions. His final round was a bogey free round of 65 besting Rose and Horschel. Perhaps Schauffle’s best round was his third round of 69 on a day where Troon played as difficult as it ever had in an Open Championship.

Thriston Lawrence’s third round 65 was the best round played by anyone in the field as he continued to hit fairways in the wind and the torrential rain especially on the incoming nine holes. It was an amazing display of driving accuracy in horrible conditions. Scottie Scheffler would comment that he was concerned that his tee shot on 18 on Saturday might not even make it into the fairway. Scheffler hit some great shots but he could never dial in the appropriate distance control to convert birdie opportunities. Jon Rahm looked rather bored and lackadaisical in the first round as he hit a bunch of indifferent shots–it looked like he brought his “C” game for the event and it looked like that he too would flame out. Things turned positive for Rahm and the game was on as his second round of 70 kept him in contact with the group. He birdied the first three holes of the final round with fire in his eyes and perhaps a big run was coming, but he would only par in from there to finish seventh. Too many opportunities were squandered in the preceding three rounds. Shane Lowry looked like he was going to coast to victory with the crowd behind him. Lowry is a proven mudder and has no trouble playing in adverse conditions. On Saturday, the Postage Stamp (no. 8) would sent him on the road to oblivion with a double bogey. The Troon back nine provided the rest of the significant punishment and he would tumble off the leader board. A Sunday comeback was pretty credible but he had to come from too far back and the 11th hole bogey essentially ended his bid for a second Claret Jug.

The 11th fairway is completely blind from the tee box.

The 11th hole (The Railway) is one of the most difficult holes in all of golf and the most difficult hole in the tournament. The championship tee is 483 yards and the tee shot is completely blind and intimidating to the player. There is nothing between the tee box and the fairway but horrible gorse. The prevailing wind, which can be fierce on Troon’s back nine, is from right to left directly in line with the rail line that forms the out of bounds direction from tee to green. The only thing stopping a ball heading to the right on this hole is horrible gorse. Missing a tee shot to the left will produce a similar gorse result. If you’ve made it into the fairway, the fairway narrows as you approach to the green and any approach shot missed to the right could also find the rail line. This hole has ruined many a professional’s dream of winning a tournament and Shane Lowry’s bogey on Sunday pretty much sealed his fate.

When you assess the carnage that Royal Troon dealt to the field, Schauffle’s victory and his final round 65 have to be chronicled as some of this best golf ever played in an Open Championship.