Old Lady playing below par

AS always after an Open Championship, especially one at St Andrews, there are many talking points.

However, the victory of a virtually unknown South African by seven strokes supersedes everything.

The odds of 200/1 alongside Louis Oosthuizen before the event were fully justified, given his Tour record. But the past achievements counted for little as he joined the list of shock winners like Ben Curtis at Royal St Georges in 2002 and Todd Hamilton at Troon two years later to have captured the Claret Jug.

The margin of his victory was amazing and it has moved him up 39 places in the world rankings to 15th. How any player, with the exception of Tiger Woods, could run away with an Open or any other major as he did at the weekend is impossible to explain. And yet, the last three championships at St Andrews have been won well before the finishing post – Woods having five and eight stroke leads to his credit in 2000 and 2005 and many believe that such a statistic poses questions about whether the Old Course should continue to stage the event every five years.

While it may sound heresy to question the merits of the golf course, you have to wonder if it hasn’t finally gone past its sell-by date. Any course on which at least three of the par four greens are driveable – the 9th, 10th and 18th – and quite often the 12th as well – rates as quirky at best and ridiculous at worst. Shane Lowry became the first to land his tee shot in the heart of the final green on Thursday and after that there was a procession of players repeating the feat. Tom Lehman, in fact, nearly had a hole in one there on Sunday and there were five other eagle twos.

Of course it makes for great entertainment and excitement for the thousands watching from the giant grandstands and on the neighbouring road but is it the kind of hole on which an Open Championship should be decided? I think not.

Then there’s the inability of the links to withstand the onslaught of the top players when there’s little or no wind – witness Rory McIlroy’s 63 on Thursday and Oosthuizen’s opening rounds of 65 and 67. Major championships are not supposed to yield such low scores on a regular basis. True, the “Old Lady” had her revenge in horrendous weather conditions on Friday but what happened to those out late that day was unfair. Unlike their counterparts at the USGA who have two tee starts at their Open Championship the R & A refuse to follow suit.

It means they start proceedings on Thursday and Friday at 6.30am with the last match off at 4. 20pm.The potential for a drastic change in the weather in that time frame is apparent and the point was well made on Friday when Oosthuizen took full advantage. Had he been at the other end of the draw, it is inconceivable he would now be Open champion.

All that said, however, the new holder of the Claret Jug is regarded by all as a serious talent and a nice guy. Surprisingly, given his calm demeanour throughout the championship, Oosthuizen was once regarded as a firebrand and known to throw a tantrum or two. He claims his marriage three years ago to Nel-Mare and the arrival of little daughter Jana has mellowed him (he marks his golf balls with the initials LNJ after each member of the family). Another remarkable development was that the top three – Oosthuizen, Lee Westwood and Rory McIlroy are all part of Chubby Chandler’s International Sports Management, a fact that won’t have been lost on their great rivals over at the International Management Group (IMG).