Comments on: 2007 British Open Live Blog

By: European Domination at Royal Birkdale | The Sand Trap

European Domination at Royal Birkdale | The Sand Trap — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:59:04 +0000

[...] last year at Carnoustie. Tiger Woods outplayed him on Sunday two years ago at Royal Liverpool, and Padraig Harrington beat him in a playoff last year at Carnoustie. Garcia had a putt at the 72nd hole to win it all in 2007, but he couldn't will it in. This event [...]

By: golf snob

golf snob — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 02:19:59 +0000

Once again Carnoustie was responsible for more chokes than the Boston strangler.
Harrington played beautifully for 15 and a half holes and deservedly had one hand on the claret jug until he spectacularly choked over his short birdie putt on 16, then even more spectacularly choked on the 18th, chunking his third shot short into the burn before limping home with a double for a still respectable 67.
Romero also had his chances before gagging under pressure on 17.
Stricker started gagging very early and was never sighted.
Garcia didn't choke quite as spectacularly the others, he slowly asphyxiated throughout the entire round. You just knew he'd miss that winning putt on 18, but his mental error on the 18th tee to go with iron, leaving him 250 into the wind for his approach, was more resonsible for his bogey than the poor execution of the putt. His strategy of using irons off the tees, on a day when the course was yielding birdies and the rest of the field was shooting low numbers, was poor strategy as it placed him under pressure to make pars on holes when he could have been looking at birdies. He tried to do a Tiger and grind out a victory by protecting a lead with pars, when conditions dictated he should have been thinking more of birdies.
Garcia was bemoaning his bad luck but at the end of the day all he needed to shoot was 1 over on a day when everybody else was shooting under par. That he couldn't do it indicates he is a choker of Normanesque proportions. I think he has just leap frogged Lefty as the biggest choker in golf and will need nothing short of a major victory to shake the tag. Which I don't think he will get.

By: Shortgame85

Shortgame85 — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 17:42:28 +0000

I would have taken odds that Sergio would choke. However, in the wee hours of Sunday morning, I thought Sergio had as fine an opportunity as he would ever have and, he seemed to have matured a bit to get the job done. I played a round with friends that began with a warmup at 8:00a.m., and a tee time at 9:00a.m. We finished about 1:30 central time, had lunch and missed any chance of watching the Open live. Two thoughts on hearing the result: 1) good for Harrington! He's been a grinder for years, seems to be a good fellow and he actually won the tournament as much as Sergio lost it, and 2) while not a Sergio fan, I couldn't help but hope he wouldn't choke - that's the last thing you want to see anyone do but, given his history, you just couldn't count out the big choke and, in this respect, he didn't disapoint. Ah, the rub of the green can be so very cruel.

By: Cody Thrasher

Cody Thrasher — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 17:38:46 +0000

I've never hoped for a putt to go in so much in my time as a golf fan. Sergio definitely had his chance, and he hit a pretty decent putt. It just wasn't hit time.......for now at least.

By: Erik J. Barzeski

Erik J. Barzeski — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 16:43:14 +0000

ragontona said on July 22, 2007:

Romero's 2nd on 17 an ABC drops the ball on the most important shot of the tournament.

They're using BBC cameras, and they don't have a blimp. I can't really blame ABC for that one.

By: ragontona

ragontona — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 16:09:04 +0000

Romero's 2nd on 17 an ABC drops the ball on the most important shot of the tournament.