British Open: Shouting fan irks Tiger Woods on closing hole

Molinari, 35, certainly earned his Claret Jug, playing nearly flawless golf on a gusty day off the eastern Scottish coast.

Molinari settled for the best cheer of them all.

We don’t know for sure yet that Woods will indeed play there, but the odds seem pretty high he’ll commit. “But it’s been the same the whole of my career”. “I’ve shown that I’ve been there close enough with a chance to win this year”. Another missed fairway led to bogey on the 12th hole.

Ultimately he fell short after seeing his round derailed on the 11th, but finished five under for the tournament to post his lowest 72-hole total at a major since the 2012 Open.

Amazingly, all three of those players made double-bogeys over the first seven holes; Spieth, the defending champion, shot 76 to drop to a tie for ninth.

Birdies at the fourth and sixth took Woods to the turn in 34 and, with the leaders crumbling, gave the 42-year-old a one-shot lead over Molinari and Spieth, who had double-bogeyed the sixth after hitting his second shot into a gorse bush. They ran out of holes. “That’s why I went to the putting green because I probably would have felt sick watching on TV”.

“I was in my own world, to be completely honest”, he said.

The three-time British Open champion is searching for his first win of the year and his first major championship since winning the U.S. Open in 2008.

“Just disbelief, to be honest”, the 35-year-old said.

Justin Rose continued his fine form at Carnoustie over the weekend with a final round of 69 to go to the clubhouse as the early leader on six under. Playing with Tiger was another challenge.

Woods shot 71 on Sunday, including a back-nine 37, to finish in a three-way tie for sixth at 5-under 279 (71-71-66-71).

The biggest blunder belonged to Woods, his red shirt blazing against the yellow grass of dry Scottish summer. So when he rolled in a 40-foot birdie putt on No. 9, stiffed an approach inside two feet for birdie at No. 10, and almost drove onto the green to set up a tap-in birdie at No. 11, there was a feeling something special was happening.

But as his rivals felt the pressure of trying to claim one of golf’s biggest prizes, Woods looked close to his imperious best to move out in front in impressive fashion. With his right leg flexed on the turf and his left leg in the 3-foot deep ditch, he managed to get the ball out, but still made double bogey. He became the first Italian to capture a major championship.

His anger over his mistakes was tempered by perspective, comparing it to Serena Williams losing in the finals at Wimbledon.

Woods, who won back-to-back Opens himself in 2005 and 2006, is in a group of players at five-under along with the likes of Zach Johnson, Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood.

“Jordan and I got off to a weird start, feeding off each other in the worst ways possible, and we sort of kind of calmed the sails mid-round”.

“I feel fine”, Spieth said. He got within about a foot and ended up with par on the hole.

The last player to make a successful title defence was Ireland’s Padraig Harrington, who coincidentally won at Carnoustie in 2007 and again 12 months later at Royal Birkdale.

Woods played with a bit more urgency Saturday, hitting five drivers off the tee after hitting just five through the first two rounds.