The admirably unflappable Francesco Molinari emerged from the usual final round chaos at of an Open Championship at Carnoustie to become Italy’s first major champion as he ground down the great course and the opposition to claim the Claret Jug.
The 35-year-old from Turin – although long domiciled in London – simply refused to be distracted by toughening playing conditions, by the quickening course and most of all by the debris of damaged goods around him at the top of the leaderboard.
He put together a dogged round reminiscent of Nick Faldo’s famous 18 pars to win at Muirfield in 1987, only this time it was 16 pars – 13 in a row to start his final round – and two birdies, at the 14th and the clincher at the 18th.
His final round of 69 to add to his Saturday 65 – he did not drop a stroke after a double bogey at the 17th on Friday – meant he finished with an eight-under total of 276, in the end two strokes ahead of young American Xander Schauffele, Justin Rose, Rory McIlroy and the leader for three rounds, Kevin Kisner, who all shared second.
Tiger Woods, with Molinari as his playing partner, briefly ascended the lead on his own but a double bogey at the 11th was to prove his undoing, and he couldn’t pressure Molinari into any errors the rest of the way. He eventually settled for a share of sixth, three behind the Italian.
Maybe three days of relative ease, birdies galore and all those irons off the tee with 60-70 yard run outs down rock hard fairways had lulled most into a false sense that Carnoustie might no longer be capable of being the big angry monster of legend, but Molinari wasn’t fooled.
He saw the forecast for stronger winds, he knew the set-up would be tougher for the final day, and he realised exactly what was going to be needed.
“It’s not going to be a day to be aggressive,” he said on Saturday night. “It’s more a day to make as many pars as possible.”
So the player in the best form of anyone in the world over the last two months with two wins and two second place sin his last five starts, retained his respect for the great course and wasn’t going to take any liberties.
It maybe helped him that Woods made such a thrilling start, looking every bit as imperious as his prime as he strutted out, landed birdies at the fourth and sixth – where the easy strokes gained on the first three days evaporated to nothing with the change in wind direction.
The pair of course had some history – Molinari beat Woods with the famous concession on the final hole of the 2012 Ryder Cup at Medinah, the completion of Europe’s famous comeback victory over the USA. And just last month Molinari was the winner of the Quicken Loans event on the PGA Tour that Woods hosted.
Naturally all the attention was focused on Tiger, and then when he made two terrible mistakes on the 11th it fell on Jordan Spieth and Schauffele as they at first looked solid and then unravelled, and then on Kevin Kisner and Kevin Chappell before they faltered.
Then it fell on Rose who nearly had an albatross at 14 and finished at six-under, and then on Rory McIlroy as he roared back into view with a 30-foot putt for an eagle three on the 14th, a bomb that exploded in cheers all over the course and gave the Northern Irishman a share of the lead.
But meanwhile, Molinari was just grinding it out – even with Woods’ followers racing away noisily, as is their custom, when their favourite holed out but the Italian was still to finish off. He faced one par putt after another, and not a single one even wobbled around the edge as it dropped.
A few were maybe a little longer than was altogether good for the nerves, such as at 7, and then at 12, where Tiger dropped another shot. But when Molinari holed another tester having gone over the back of the green at the short 13th, it was time to break the run of pars.
His second shot to the Spectacles 14th was 30 feet behind the flag, and he rolled it up to four feet and made it to go to seven-under at last. That broke a tie of five players at six-under, the whole field having come back to him during his relentless run of pars.
Schauffele, who seemed to be unravelling completely when he went 5-6-6 to drop four strokes in three holes from fifth, rallied impressively with birdies at the tenth and 14th. But that last one came after an eagle putt from 20 feet skirted the hole at the Spectacles and was maybe a hint that it wasn’t going to him who won his first major on this Sunday.
A bold shot at 17 didn’t bring birdie for the Italian as he tried to close it out, but at the 18th he closed the door on Schauffele and the rest with his second birdie, hitting into four feet and making the putt with a fist-pump.
The best tribute to his fortitude came from the man who was closest to it all day.
“Francesco played really solidly today,” said Woods. “It definitely was his short game, he chipped it beautifully.
“I know he made a couple of putts here and there for par, but to get it to where it was basically kick in from some of the spots he put himself, that was impressive.
“It was great touch. He hit a couple with cut spin, a couple of draw spin. You know, he was working the ball around the greens, and that was so cool to see.”