As the final round got underway in the most benign conditions of the week, it was supposed to be a procession, an American inauguration, all that was open to question was whether it would be Spieth, three-shots–ahead of Kuchar, with U.S. Open Champion Brooks Koepka and Canadian rookie Austin Connelly possibly having walk-on parts three shots further back.
Having made its Open Championship debut in 1954, and as it prepares this month for its 10th staging of the world’s oldest ‘Major,’ Royal Birkdale on the West Coast of England has the reputation for serving up intriguing and interesting as opposed to epic championships and this year’s 146th staging of the event is no different.
But whoever had written the script had hugely oversimplified the story line; first, teeing-off well into an English Sunday afternoon to suit U.S. TV, the two main dramatis personae looked anything but assured, fluffing their lines big time in a flurry of bogeys - for Spieth, two from Kuchar, a couple of birdies for the latter and a solitary one-under from the pre-round hot favourite hardly compensating for what was, in anyone’s language, rank poor play.
Kuchar, out in 34 to his rival’s 37, the Ryder Cup teammates had cancelled each other out; meanwhile, hours earlier, potential history was being written by 21-year-old Chinese protégé Li Haotong, the kid who held the hopes of a nation 1,000km and eight-hours to the east, winner of his ‘home’ Volvo China Open in 2016.
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