Kids are my legacy not my Open win, says Johnson

Open champions are about as far removed from golfing tourists as Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are from Sunday league amateurs.

Johnson and Spieth were clearly unhappy at having to go out first thing in flagpole-bending conditions.

Kicking the door playfully, yet firmly, it popped open.

Willett had a day off but Lawrie – 16 years after winning The Open at Carnoustie in such dramatic fashion – showed his liking for the terrain and his character to drop no shots after the restart. “I will have to play more aggressively tomorrow”, said Spieth, one of the more outspoken in his displeasure at the decision to start on time.

As a result, Zach Johnson took home the win at the British Open, which is his second major championship and comes eight years after he won The Masters in 2007. Golf has a new superstar in the 21-year-old, and nothing that happened in what became the longest Open championship ever changes that. Judging from recent history, there’s no reason to think he won’t get it done. Jang, the leader after each of the first three rounds, shot a 68. Not when he’s so coolly confident that he’s embracing the idea of what might be instead of worrying about the magnitude of what it would be. “He’d go out and hit balls and we’d chase them around and shag for him”, Green said in a 2012 interview.

“But the last three days I got off to a steady start and settled into the round and today I had a couple shots that I hadn’t seen in any practice or any range sessions I’ve had”.

“I’d like to be one of those people to have that happen”.

Tiger Woods, Ian Poulter, Bubba Watson and the 2011 champion, Darren Clarke, were among those to miss the halfway cut, which was belatedly confirmed at even par. That’s more than $4 million more than any other player. Look closer, and he burns with the fire that only the greats can somehow find a way to channel.

Jordan Spieth, aiming to win his third straight major and keep alive his hopes of a grand slam, was heard to say on the course: “We never should have started”.

“I made a lot of the right decisions down the stretch and certainly closed plenty of tournaments out, and this just wasn’t one of those”, he said.

“Yeah, it’s surreal I’m leading The Open”, said the slender kid from Greystones, Ireland, who just graduated the University of Alabama/Birmingham.

Spieth came to grief with a bogey at the 17th as his Triple Crown dream died, but Leishman held firm at 15-under and they were joined in the playoff by Oosthuizen, who sunk a six-footer at the last for a birdie.

Woods used to do the same kind of thing when he needed to refocus. Marc Leishman flirted with a record-tying 63 until he made par on the closing hole. We gave it a really good run but that was some phenomenal golf by those guys.

” I can’t play any better than what I did”. I did both times.

“There’s no reason why I can’t have another good one”, said Leishman, who tied for fifth a year ago at Royal Liverpool.

That isn’t even mentioning Justin Rose and Sergio Garcia and Retief Goosen and Zach Johnson, who are all only three strokes off the pace.

He addressed the question of whether he believed what was happening to him in the same calm quiet way as he had manhandled the Old Course hours earlier on Sunday.

“I’ve still got one more year left at Oklahoma State”, added the American, who came through final qualifying at Hillside Golf Club in Southport.

STATELINE, Nev. (AP) – Mark Mulder won the American Century Championship, holding off fellow former major league pitcher Eric Gagne by a point in the celebrity event.