Golf Talk With Greg Holman – #38

Click play to listen to Greg’s Podcast, or read below.

It was a shootout at Sandwich on Sunday, with perfect scoring conditions in the final round of the British Open. The PGA Champion of 2020 Collin Morikawa came out on top and became the eighth man to win two major tournaments before the age of 25, Collin is only 24.

Louis Oosthuizen, the 54 hole leader and 2010 champion golfer faded with a one over par 71, Jordan Spieth played a solid round of golf Sunday, but couldn’t make up any ground on Morikawa who said he had 100% focus on his final 18 holes.

Collin fired a 66 in the final round and at one point logged 31 straight bogey free holes to earn the Claret Jug with a 15 under score. Spieth actually got within 1 stroke of Morikawa through 14, but Collin always had an answer making birdie at 14 and saving pars on 15 and 16. He had the short game of Seve Ballesteros. I kept waiting for him to make a mistake on the back 9, but he was able to get the ball up and down from everywhere, and the amazing thing was links golf was foreign to Morikawa. This was his first British Open. He said if he hadn’t played in the Scottish Open the week before he would have been lost. Apparently Morikawa is a fast learner. He knew which sides of the fairways and greens to leave the ball, and when he didn’t hit the shot that the situation called for, he was able to lob, chip, or putt from the fairway. He was also a little bit lucky avoiding the bunkers for the most part. The favorite, Jon Rahm, made a run at Collin on Sunday but was too far back to catch him, and he tied for third with Oosthuizen.

So it was an entertaining open, even if my pick Rory McIlroy didn’t contend, with a 70, 70, 69, 71 even par to tie for 46th. Look for Rory to represent Northern Ireland in the Tokyo Olympics.

So that closes the book on the Majors for 2021. Hideki Matsuyama won the Masters, Phil Mickelson at age 50 captured the PGA, Jon Rahm won the U.S. Open, and Collin Morikawa is your champion golfer of the year at the Open Championship.

The golf tips are back next week, but I’ll never give you a tip on how to bet on a winner in a pro tournament. Hit ’em straight!