British Open

Skydivers are scared of their parachute not opening. The best man at the wedding is scared of losing the bride's ring. Spelling bee competitors are scared of silent vowels. Strip club owners are scared of "Pacman" Jones and his crew and now we have a new phobia. Golfers with the lead are scared of the 18th hole at Carnousite.
Eight years ago, the hapless Frenchman Jean Van de Velde gave us the perfect demonstration of how to choke the title away on the 72nd hole of the British Open, or the Open Championship as those lovely blokes across the pond like to call it, by hitting the ball off the grandstand, into the water then into the bunker. All with a three stroke lead.
Now in 2007, the blasted hole makes two more men place both their hands around their throats and squeeze. Sergio Garcia had basically led the tournament from wire-to-wire. He slipped at first on Sunday but quickly recovered to take the lead back, which he held to until 18.
But he wasn't the only one to fall down the stretch. Andres Romero had been sinking birdie after birdie before he collapsed on 17. We almost had a little Argentinean déjà vu after Angel’s win at in the U.S. Open.
Then Padraig Harrington seemingly blew his chance to really put the pressure on Sergio by double dipping in the Barry Burn.
Now with his chance to walk in for the title, Sergio plays way to conservative on his tee shot making his second shot much too difficult that he finds his way into the bunker all before lipping out from 10 feet to blow it. And Rick Reilly’s Golf Gods laugh as the Scottish links claim another victim.
So on to the playoff where Harrington grabs a two stroke lead right out of the gate as Sergio is recovering from his missed put. They played even over the next two holes before both handle 18 a little bit better the second time around. But alas, Sergio lips out again and Harrington rolls in to hoist the Claret Jug.
Garcia has now been the next “it” thing for the past 10 or so years. He’ll get his major eventually. He is just now hitting age 30, the consensus point in a golfer’s career that he begins to hit his peak. We all seem to forget that since Tiger is only 31 and already has 12 majors. That Woods character sure has the ability to make everybody forget what was normal.
So the Irishman wins and GDP of the country increased by 25% as the pint consumption hit a five year high when the national football team made it to the Round of 16 at 2002 World Cup. A nation celebrated a hero’s victory and a continent celebrated that there weren’t any stinking American’s taking the trophy home.
But it’s the moment after the winning golfer throws his hat and putter into the air that I enjoy the most. When the kiddos run onto the green to give dad a hug. The Mickelson children perfected the act and little Patrick did a fine job on Sunday. He went running out there looking all cute in his little sweater to go jump into his old man’s arms. The only thing that’s greater that experiencing a great victory is sharing that victory with loved ones.
Harrington deserved to share the victory with his family. I don’t buy the argument that Sergio lost it. He definitely stumbled when he had a great chance but you can’t say he lost it. Harrington and lost it just as much as he did on hole 72. It was a tough course, if you go by that argument, then everybody lost it. But the fact of the matter was that after the dust settled and the playoff began, Harrington put himself in position to win on the first hole, played solid on 16 and 17 and knew exactly what to do and did it on 18. He was given another chance and he capitalized. It’s hard to ask for much more.