Zach Johnson `humbled` to be Open champion at St Andrews

Jordan Spieth headed home from a grueling week at the British Open with history on his mind and another major in his future. He would also have had a chance at golf’s first-ever modern day grand slam at the upcoming US PGA Championship.

“I did not expect three guys to get to 15-under in those conditions“, Spieth said. “But I don’t want to make it more than it is”.

Zach Johnson, who won the event in a three-man playoff, got a post-tournament hug from Spieth, who stuck around St. Andrews for about an hour after finishing his final round to watch the playoff. Johnson also has one major championship in his trophy room, winning the 2007 Masters.

“I have 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”. “It was the hardest rain and the hardest wind at the same time of the day”.

‘He was the guy most people probably wanted to have won and I get that too.

A missed 8-footer on the treacherous 17th hole helped seal Spieth’s fate on the Old Course.

By the final hole. For him to be there on No. 18 after the playoff.

He bagged his share of birdies and was well in the hunt until a double bogey at the par three eighth looked to have punctured his hopes.

It was some recovery, given that Oosthuizen had seemed to let his opportunity slip after blowing the overnight tied lead with a couple of bogeys midway through his final round.

Johnson opened the four-hole playoff with two birdies.

Leishman, who considered giving up golf in April when his wife almost died of a rare respiratory illness, made one bad swing in the closing holes that cost him a bogey on the 16th hole to fall into a share of the lead with Johnson.

Zach Johnson won the British Open on Monday, emerging victorious from a gripping four-hole playoff against Louis Oosthuizen and Marc Leishman.

“I’m grateful. I’m humbled”. “That’s a hell of a major”, Spieth said.

The Australian bogeyed the hole while his two rivals birdied, meaning he was virtually out of the running from that point on, but Leishman took the misfortune with good grace. And he felt the same about Spieth. “It takes me back to when I turned professional”. However, it was great to see camaraderie in the game at its highest level from its best player right now, in Spieth. Truthfully, he could be hitting here.

“Today was a really tough day”, he said.

“The putt on 18 was a little left the whole way”, Spieth said, adding that he knew better and just didn’t hit it well.

Johnson was a rookie to the ways of links golf when he played in his first British Open in 2004. I feel like God gave me the ability to play a game.

Phil Mickelson, the 2013 champion, said earlier in the week that a little luck is necessary to win the Open, moreso than the other majors and it’s true. It was Spieth’s kind words, however, that he returned to. It will come to him slowly because the 39-year-old from Iowa City is the tour’s self-effacement leader.

” I don’t like Whistling Straits”.