The putt Rory McIlroy narrowly missed for birdie on the 72nd green summed up his week. It was a performance of so near, yet so far for the Northern Irishman – A familiar theme in recent Majors. Failing to make birdie on the last meant that he missed out by a shot on finishing as joint runner-up. Even if it hadn’t been for Brian Harman’s runaway victory, Rory would have come up just shy in his quest to end his ever-lengthening Major drought.
With Tommy Fleetwood’s inexplicable tee shot on the 17th leading to a triple bogey, the local lad finished three back of those sharing second spot. Harman’s heroics aside, the Hoylake faithful would have been left disappointed even if the left-hander hadn’t shown up. Both of the fans’ favourites, Rory and Tommy, would have fallen short no matter what the diminutive eventual winner had produced on Sunday.
In the end, the Georgia native produced a supremely solid round that gave the chasing pack only the slightest glimmer of hope, that was when he was two-over for the day through five holes. But he cancelled those drops out immediately with two birdies straight and never looked properly threatened from that point on.
On a soaking day in the northwest, the Hoylake fans endured a damp squib of a finale. Taking nothing away from Harman’s tremendous play and fully deserved victory, there wasn’t a huge amount for the spectators to get excited about as the leaders came down the stretch. That’s why some of the more idiotic members of the gallery resorted to booing and heckling the affable American in a desperate attempt to make him falter and create some sort of a competition.
Harman took the abuse in his stride, serene and smiling as he found fairway after fairway and holed almost every putt he had a go at… The fact he boxed 59 of 60 from inside of 10 feet is a simply incredible feat.
Rory and Tommy need to look at that putting performance and realise that it’s the key to winning the biggest tournaments. Both have the ability to go on putting streaks to win events but on the biggest stage they were found wanting with the flat stick. Neither putted poorly, they just didn’t hole enough of the important ones. Harman ranked 1st in putting for the week (unsurprisingly), Rory ranked 54th and Tommy was 38th. Of the five men who finished ahead of Rory, only Sepp Straka was outside the top 20 for putting (21st). It’s pretty clear from the stats where Rory’s Open chances went west – on the greens.
Technically both of the Hoylake fan favourites are sound with the flat stick so what they need is a change mentally – Even we lowly amateurs know that any negativity in putting will prevent it finding the cup. If you don’t truly believe you’re going to hole it, you rarely do… And, it has to be noted that Rory (in particular) doesn’t appear to be a great reader of greens. If he had someone on the bag who was, he would surely knock more of those crucial birdie chances in and Harman might have felt some pressure over the weekend at Hoylake. Time for a change of bag man? I think it could be.
As it was, Harman was able to cruise to the finish line without ever really coming close to a collapse. A tiny wobble is about the most you could say on those couple of pulled iron shots early in Sunday’s round. Harman may have been a disappointing champion in the eyes of the majority of those who had braved the elements to watch live on Sunday but he wasn’t a surprising one for anyone who follows golf.
He was World Number 26 heading into the week, he’s now number 10, he was runner-up in the 2017 US Open. His worst finish in his last three starts was a tie for 12th in the Scottish Open. He’s been supremely consistent on the PGA Tour for years now, making the FedEx Cup playoffs for 12 straight years. The 36-year-old is an experienced competitor – he’s no Todd Hamilton or Ben Curtis. He’s also renowned as a brilliant putter and that, in the end, is what did it for him, and did for the others at Royal Liverpool. The boss of the moss prevailed as the home favourites faltered.
