Jordan Spieth sets sights on PGA Championship after Open setback

WORLD No2 Jordan Spieth has trained his sights on winning the US PGA Championship next month after narrowly missing out on the third leg of a Major grand slam at the Open.

Johnson’s says his playoff victory at the Old Course on Monday over Louis Oosthuizen and Marc Leishman was down to “patience and perseverance” and “making the best of opportunities”. Leishman just couldn’t keep up on the extra holes after his extraordinary prior 36-hole effort, carding two bogeys to fall out of the hunt. He shot 66. Oosthuizen saved par on the 17th with a 10-foot putt and made a 5-foot birdie on the final hole for a 69 to join the playoff.

“It’s surreal”, an emotional Johnson said after the win, adding: “I’m thankful”. It turned left of the hole, ending the latest bid at the holy grail of golf – winning all four professional majors in the same year.

This was what Johnson had to do to seize the 144th Open title away from Spieth: survive a weather-lashed, grinding five-day work week to shoot a final-round 66 and fend off seven other players who had shares of the lead, and even then the 39-year-old was not done.

Oosthuizen, who won the British Open when it last was at St. Andrews in 2010, had a 12-foot birdie putt to force sudden death play.

Oosthuizen was a runner-up for the second straight major. It was a gripping end to what had been an enthralling day that saw a packed leaderboard go hammer and tongs at grabbing enough birdies to take possession of golf’s most coveted trophy on just the second occasion in it’s 155-year-long history when it concluded on a Monday. And if the Grand Slam is no longer in play, there’s still plenty out there.

Falling just out of the playoff was the fellow that almost every American was probably rooting for, and that’s Jordan Spieth. At 21, he can only hope he gets another shot at the slam. But what a show.

His agent Jay Danzi has said Spieth has been getting all kinds of inquiries from potential sponsors since he won the Masters in April. “To have a champion like Jordan to take the time on the 18th hole to give me his best wishes speaks volumes as to what he is”.