Redmond: Cam Smith Caps an Amazing Week at St. Andrews

Cameron Smith shot a back nine for the ages coming in at an astounding 30 strokes and stealing the Claret Jug from Rory McIlroy, who could not hole a putt to save his life.

Watching the final nine from a massive screen near the 17^th hole, the crowd of thousands were ready to explode if McIlroy could just make a putt, but alas, it wasn’t to be. At least Cameron Smith is a great guy and worthy champion, so the Jug is in good hands . . . unless he goes to the LIV Tour as is rumored.

The Scottish people are very polite but have a Braveheart-like toughness to them. You wouldn’t believe the number of people in t-shirts when it’s 62 degrees and windy. They also have a great sense of humor. Greenskeeper in a golf cart trying to navigate huge crowds but going in the opposite direction kept chanting a loud, constant “beep, beep, beep” as he drove through. When Justin Thomas showed up to the first round in a hoodie and joggers, one fan yelled out, “he looks like me daughter when she goes to the mall.”

There seems to be no general societal agreement about which side of a walkway you should walk on. While in America, you always walk to the right, I asked several Scotsmen, and they said there is no general rule. So you can run into a big mish-mash of people trying to pass one another and making a big mess of things. Maybe it’s a European culture clash as there are people from 20 different countries here, and they are all following their own directives. Henceforth let’s all walk to the right.

Ernie Els is playing a yellow ball. No golfer has ever won a major playing a colored ball. Jerry Pate won the 1982 Players Championship playing an orange ball, and Ray Floyd occasionally played an orange ball in the early 80s but never won a major with one. Ernie started well and got to 5 under but faltered and ended up not making the cut. Make of this what you will.

Scotland does have its share of creepy old men. You can see where Jethro Tull got the idea for Aqualung when you walk around the town. Sitting on a park bench…

The fans on Friday were in a festive mood, and the beers were flowing. Later in the day, some fans were so drunk they thought every golfer they saw was Rory McIlroy, even though he had played through about an hour before. Min Woo Lee had to have been surprised after hitting a great shot into the 9^th hole and hearing chants of “Rory! Rory!”. . .

South African golfer Thriston Lawrence probably gets tired of telling people, “it’s Thriston, not Thurston!” I wonder if he calls his wife “Lovey darling.”

St. Andrews really is the greatest place in the world to stage a golf tournament. The course is right in the center of town on a plot of land surrounded by the beautiful St. Andrews Bay. You walk out the back gate, and it’s a bunch of bars where people are drinking and having fun. Reminiscent of Wrigley Field. Just heaven for a golf fan.

I don’t know much about Japanese golfer Yuto Katsuragawa, but Rashomon is one of the greatest films ever made.

After Dustin Johnson’s phenomenal round of 67 on Friday in the press conference, I was going to ask him, with finishing so early in the day, whether he was going to use the time to take a trip to Edinburgh and take a tour of the castle…probably best they didn’t call on me. He was peppered with questions about jumping ship from the PGA Tour to LIV golf and whether the criticism bothered him. The response was perfect, DJ, “everyone has an opinion, and I have one, and mine’s the only one I care about.” Hard to argue with that.

On Thursday, it took Matt Fitzpatrick’s group a full hour to play the 15^th hole.

The topic came up when I was speaking to a French broadcaster- why in the hell doesn’t France have any good golfers? Victor Perez, currently ranked 107^th in the world, is the highest-ranked French golfer. This is a large, first-world country with great weather and great sports overall. They have over 700 golf courses, more than double Ireland, and have much better weather. It’s a conundrum. French Pro Michael Lorenzo-Vera says it’s because France considers golf only for rich, spoiled kids, and the education system points out negative things instead of pushing hard on positive things. That’s one explanation but doesn’t make much sense to me. Golf is for rich, spoiled kids in America, and we turn out hordes of great players.

“If you’re going to be a player people will remember, you have to win the Open at St. Andrews.” That’s a Jack Nicklaus line from 1978 that is shown all over this town. Sort of an intemperate comment when you think about it. Jack had already won twice here, so it was easy for him to say that. Are you telling me Tom Watson, who won 5 Open Championships but never at St. Andrews, isn’t a golfer people remember?

Matthew Fitzpatrick is a golfer you totally look at differently since he’s won a major championship. I used to see him as a scrawny kid with the wild swing who sort of choked in the Ryder Cup. Now, after that clutch bunker shot on the 18^th hole at Brookline, he’s a badass. That’s why you have to win a major in golf.

Credit to UK golf fans- they don’t wear jerseys. The only three jerseys I’ve seen out here at St. Andrews are Americans wearing Kevin Looney Golden St. Warriors (strange), Joe Thornton San Jose Sharks (stranger), and LeSean McCoy Buffalo Bills (strangest).

Cheering in the press room is considered gauche, but when Rory holed out from the bunker on Saturday, I slapped my hands together and screamed. I got some disapproving looks, but who cares what these media types think. As a great man once said, they are the enemy. . . of the people.

So congrats to Cam Smith. Truly well deserved. I had a feeling McIlroy wouldn’t be able to close the deal. He played well, but you need to make putts and score to win on this course as it was playing easy with little wind and no rain. Just so hard to hold up under all that pressure when all the fans are desperately rooting for you. Just ask Min Woo Lee.

Dan Redmond covered the Open onsite from St. Andrews. He can be reached at Breitbart.golf@gmail.com