The Limerick Summary: 2018 THE OPEN

Winner: Francesco Molinari

Around the wider world of golf: David Skinns won the Pinnacle Bank Championship on the Web.com Tour; Tyler McCumber won the Osprey Valley Open on the MacKenzie Tour; Yechun “Carl” Yuan -- an amateur! -- won the Qingdao Championship on the PGA Tour China; and Eun Jeong Seong won the Danielle Downey Credit Union Classic on the Symetra Tour. The Barbasol Championship, the PGA Tour's alternate event, won't finish up until Monday morning; it's airing at 10am ET on GC.



There are so many storylines we could talk about, concerning Tiger and Rory and Jordan and Justin Rose and Xander Schauffele -- just to name a few -- but that would be disrespectfully stupid. There's really only one story.

Francesco Molinari just made history, and he did it in a way that ought to put all of his critics to shame.

Over the weekend, on two days of dramatically different course conditions, Francesco posted two bogey-free rounds of 66-69. That's seven under par... and the winning score was only one shot lower than that. He's won three times (with two runner-ups) in his last six starts, during which he posted weekend scores of 66-68 at the BMW and 65-62 at the Quicken Loans... and he had a grand total of ONE bogey in all six of those weekend rounds.

That's just freaking unbelievable!

In the process, he become the first Italian golfer to win a pro major -- ANY pro major -- and will debut at #6 in the OWGR on Monday. He and his older brother Edoardo -- who won the 2005 US Amateur -- have also won the 2009 World Cup together and were on the victorious 2010 Euro Ryder Cup team. In essence, we watched the Molinaris become Italy's First Family of Golf with Francesco's win on Sunday.

Oh, and Francesco did it while playing in the maelstrom that is a Tiger Woods pairing. Tiger himself praised Francesco's play after the round, noting how he was even working his short game shots around the greens to leave himself easier putts.

All this is to say that we can't even begin to appreciate what Francesco has done yet. But although I am at a loss for words, that won't stop me from giving him the best bilingual Limerick Summary I can come up with.

Molto bene, Francesco—you won!
Turin, Italy’s favorite son
Just took down the best
With a swing that seemed blessed,
Going bogey-free under the gun.

The photo came from this page at PGATOUR.com.

The Limerick Summary: 2017 THE OPEN

Winner: Jordan Spieth

Around the wider world of golf: In-Kyung Kim won the Marathon Classic on the LPGA; Nanna Koerstz Madsen won the Danielle Downey Credit Union Classic on the Symetra Tour; Sam Ryder won the inaugural Pinnacle Bank Championship on the Web.com Tour; and Hank Lebioda won the Mackenzie Investments Open on the MACKENZIE TOUR - PGA TOUR Canada. [UPDATE: I forgot to include Grayson Murray's win at the Barbasol Classic, the PGA Tour's alternate event.]



At least Jordan Spieth will no longer have to answer questions about the 12th at Augusta. Now his opponents will have to answer the question, "What must you do to beat him?"

It didn't look that way as the round got underway. Had it not been for his caddie, Jordan might not have held up. He said as much, confessing that the 12th at Augusta started to haunt him as it all fell apart in the first 13 holes. But as ugly as it was early on, Jordan's play was magnificent as he came down the stretch.

And it's not like Matt Kuchar has anything to apologize for. It was his first time in the final group at a major, and he met Jordan blow-for-blow throughout the round.

But what are you supposed to do when your opponent screws up and you finally take the lead, only to have him go birdie-eagle-birdie-birdie in four straight holes? As Matt noted, he went par-birdie-par-birdie on the same holes -- easily enough to finish off most contenders. But Matt found himself two down with only one to play.

There's just not much you can do at that point!

Get ready for the hype going forward. Jordan, like Rory and Phil, is now only one major from the career Grand Slam. If he wins the PGA next month, he'll be the youngest ever to run the table. (He became the youngest American to win THE OPEN Sunday.) And he only gets one chance at that record, since he'll be 25 at the 2018 PGA.

Yeah. Get ready for the hype.

Only 44 players had won three or more majors in their careers before Sunday. But only Rory could claim a Limerick Summary for each of his. Do I smell a competition brewing? Enjoy your third one, Golden Boy:

Though bad shots got under his skin,
Spieth scrambled ‘round Birkdale again.
Four holes in five-under!
He stole Kuchar’s thunder
And locked up his third major win.

The photo came from the UK Telegraph site.

My "5 to Watch" at The Open

It's time to get all links-y and make my picks for the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale.



A quick recap of the stuff you already know: Henrik Stenson is the defending champion, Padraig Harrington won the Open when it was last held at this venue, and (as usual) bad weather is expected.

With the question of who are really the top golfers in the world still up for grabs -- the group changes every week, it seems -- it can be difficult to narrow the potential winners down to a manageable number. In a futile effort to lend some logic to my choices, I've put the following restrictions on them:

• We've seen a string of first-time major winners over the last couple of years. I think that will continue, so I'm excluding previous major winners.
• Although The Open tends to skew older, I'm limiting my choices to players under 40.
• And I'm not worried about whether my choices have much experience at links golf. Rather, I'm taking players I think play well in bad weather.

Those three decisions actually limit my choices quite a bit. For example, Brooks Koepka would be a favorite but he's won a major, is well under 40 and played quite a bit of links golf during his time on the ET. And I'll end up leaving Ian Poulter off, even though I think he's got a good chance this year.

So, given these limitations, let's see what kind of mischief I can brew up.

• Let's begin with hometown favorite Tommy Fleetwood. This is a home game for him and I think that will work to his benefit. More importantly, his game is on an upswing and he's played well in bad weather.
• Hideki Matsuyama hasn't played particularly well at The Open, but his major finishes since last year -- as well as his win record around the world -- have been extremely good. In addition, I think the slower greens could help his putting tremendously. Remember, he's won a lot on the ET, and many of those courses play slower greens.
• Some of you may be surprised that I'm picking JB Holmes. It's true that JB hasn't had that great a record in The Open, but he was T3 in that unbelievably low scoring Open last year. JB is streaky, but he often streaks in bad weather.
• Rickie Fowler continues to make this list because it feels as if he is oh so close. I actually think he'll have his best chance to win if the weather is bad all four days.
• And my flier is... Brian Harman. Harman doesn't have much of a record in this event. He's only played in two -- T26 in 2014, MC in 2015. But he's played really well on tough courses lately and is coming off a T2 in wet weather at Erin Hills.

I'm going way out on a limb with this one and pick Harman to win -- although I'm not so sure this is a flimsy limb. He has played well on long courses in bad weather, and  -- with the exception of that last round at Erin Hills -- he has been remarkably accurate both off the tee and into the green. I think he could pull a major upset this week.

Bear in mind that, at least here in the US, this will be an all-nighter if you want to watch The Open live. GC's coverage begins with a late-night Morning Drive on Wednesday at midnight ET, with the coverage proper beginning at 1:30am ET.