The Claret Jug is arguably the most prized trophy in all of golf. Battles have been won and lost in pursuit of this metal chalice. Armies of young, and old, have willingly marched into the fray and charged - yard after yard - just to hold this precious cauldron if only for a moment. These campaigns have become the stuff of legend and are written on the pages of history. But history is ever unfolding and on Sunday at Hoylake history was written anew. Armies marched through the fairways and undulating greens - reeking havoc and posting brilliant scores. Commanded by the likes of McIlroy, Manassero and Garcia early skirmishes left the Europeans in control. Then came the South African Schwartzel and the French Dubuisson. Nobody was giving up ground though as Baby Draw, Show and Dough, Jowls, Strangers, Night Putting and Better Than Most were all in it until the very last. And like many epic battles of old the victor was decided by a single put. The American Ricky Fowler sank a birdie put on the last hole to claim a shared second place and gave Better Than Most (242) the Claret Jug by 2 points. Trailing Baby Draw the entire way he made his move with Fowler in the 11th hour and claimed the Open Championship. This win marks the first time in this league's storied history that a team has claimed the top 3 finishers - garnering 40 combined bonus points. Better Than Most gets his first win and first top 3 of the segment and now stands alone in 2nd for the Summer (3rd for the season).
Baby Draw (240) would claim a conciliatory 2nd place finish despite leading the field from the outset. He did all he could with Garcia, Scott and McIlroy posting outstanding scores but an untimely substitution sending Spieth to the bench would cost him. Heading into the final round he led by 6 and had matching rosters with Better Than Most except for the A group. Scott would play superb for him but garnered no bonus points leaving him just shy of his first major and segment win. After a slow start to the summer he has made headway and now stands in 6th for the summer (2nd for the season) and is nipping at Strangers' heels at just 18 points off the season lead.
Rounding out the top 3 were Night Putting and Show and Dough in a tie at 234. Shooting the best Sunday round Night Putting scored 64 points with 30 bonus and caught up to Show and Dough at the last second. What proved to be the deciding factor for Night Putting's finish would be the downfall of Show and Dough. Both had Furyk who would shoot the low round on Sunday - a 7 under 65 - claiming 20 points. But while Night Putting would start him and claim his spoils Show and Doughdecided to bench him last minute on an untimely suggestion from her trusted advisers. Still, it is Show and Dough's first top 3 finish in 16 weeks! A long time coming. On the other side of the coin Night Putting is a perfect 4 for 4 in top 3 finishes this summer. He stands at the top of the standings for the segment and looks like a favorite for the Summer Segment Championship.
Notables:
The Artist (aka Movin' On Up) may have prematurely changed his name last week as he would go on to score the worst round of the tournament and is now movin' on down the leaderboard. He looked strong through his first 3 starts but made some pretty bold picks for the Open and they didn't quite pan out. Let's hope this is just a bump in the road.
Thus ends the Grand Slam run for Buddy The Bull as he came up short by a fair amount this week. He had an outsiders chance to keep the dream alive but made a few untimely substitutions and let his personal distaste for Sergio get in the way of his quest for fantasy glory. He'll have a chance for the 3rd leg of the slam as the PGA Championship at Valhalla rolls around in 3 weeks time.
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