Psychological warfare in the British Open. Nervous attack. Doubts. Those who are at the top in the classification are torn between being conservative and maintaining a position of honor or daring and attacking to reach the goal first. The aspirants live in the same inner dilemma. If they don’t make a lot of noise, at least they’ll still be in the noble zone. If they roll the dice, they have as much to gain as to lose. It goes in everyone’s DNA. Thus, in the hands and heads of the players, this Open is decided in which, with 18 holes remaining, South African Louis Oosthuizen leads with -12, by -11 by Collin Morikawa and -9 by Jordan Spieth. He watches the trio closely, with cards still to be played, Jon Rahm with -7, while Sergio García, in the pair, has taken off the hook.
Rahm has it clear. To die killing. The Basque golfer is not one of those who are content to be comfortably seated on the sofa. He prefers to be the protagonist of the film rather than a spectator, or better, write his own script. If he wanted to give himself options for that happy ending he dreams of (double US Open-British Open, like Tiger Woods, Seve’s British relay, add his second big just after the first), he had to shake the tree very soon. Of course, instead of fruit, a stone may also fall. The first result was a bogey on the first hole that left him badly bodied because he had a short putt to save par. Curves came in a round in which the Royal Saint George’s seemed like a museum course, perfect conditions, without wind or rain, ideal for players to get their purest golf.
Finally the Basque hit a long shot, on par three of the third hole, which he claimed after discovering after Thursday’s bad round that his club had a graduation defect. Thus his round was animated, between comings and goings, without accelerations and without sudden braking, rather a rattle, a little step forward, another back, now two forward … The birdie of six was followed by the bogey of seven. At the beginning of the second nine holes, another lap on the Ferris wheel: par, bogey, birdie, par, birdie, par … How such a hectic trip ended would depend on your mood at the end of the day and your options today: fight for the Silver Jug or for his first place in the top 10 in an Open. With three discounted strokes, on 12, 14 and 17, and a long putt that he shot with firmness and pulse to save par at 18, he gave himself a night in which to still think about a feat.
“From 8 to 18 they have been good holes. In general I have played very well. To see if tomorrow [hoy] from one to five I can start off on the right foot, playing under par and stealing a couple of shots to the field. If you start well and then continue in the middle of the lap well, you give yourself options to have a very good day ”, explained Rahm to the Efe agency; “I’m going to need my best game.”
Five strokes up sends Oosthuizen, the 38-year-old South African, 2010 Open winner, the boy with the cute face and wide teeth who worked as a farmer alongside his father. Man is a little ant that gradually piles up food for the winter. Without a spectacular game, yes solid, reliable, with few scares, spearhead of the three South Africans (also Frittelli and Harding) who dance among the top 10. After Oosthuizen, Morikawa, a rookie in an Open, resisted and Jordan Spieth dropped two steps at the end. The winner of the Masters and the US Open 2015 and the Open 2017, the Boy Wonder who kicks like the angels, gave up the shared lead with two bogeys on holes 17 and 18. It seemed that the last one failed almost before throwing it, more with head than with hands, disconnected. At 27, and after several courses far from his best version, the American is in a hurry to win again. Always aggressive, a show for a very aesthetic game, he promises to go on the attack for the throne of Oosthuizen.
The battle will be seen from a distance by Sergio Garcia after three hits up on the day, even in total. The Castellón, who has resigned from the Games to focus on qualifying for the Ryder, twisted the gesture: “It is the day that I have hit the ball the best but I have not kicked well. When the ball does not want to enter … “.
Classification of the British Open.
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