The wave of emotion willing him to a truly remarkable triumph was undeniable. The quality of his ball striking and his judgment over club selection had been flawless over the four days. Even the putting demons that laid him low in the prime of his career were nowhere to be seen. And yet ... I was mulling over what had happened. Tiger Woods couldn't get fired up and missed the cut. When this happens, his rivals salivate - and perhaps try too hard to seize an opportunity that comes along all too infrequently.
Then there was the course - one of Britain's finest links with more than its fair share of doglegs. The R&A had put a lot of new bunkers in to tighten it up and as a consequence the driver only made a fleeting appearance during most rounds.
So length wasn't an issue at one of this year's four major championships - thus rendering null and void all that expensive R&D devoted to propelling the ball ever further. ‘No bad thing,' I can hear some of you mumble; ‘places the emphasis more on the old shot-making skills'.
But power is, and always has been, an essential ingredient in sport. You wouldn't ask Lewis Hamilton to drive a Fiat Uno in a Grand Prix, so why tell the likes of Angel Cabrera and Alvaro Quiros that there's no place for their ability to drive the ball more than 350 yards?
What would the crowds rather see; these guys laying up tamely at par-fours with a 5-iron or crashing the ball as far as they can? And from a trade viewpoint, drivers aren't just for show. They generate dough as well. Lots of it.
The Open was reduced to a positional war of attrition and round Turnberry there can be no better exponent than ‘Old Tom'. For starters, he knew the course far better than anyone else in the field having won the Open there as ‘Young Tom' in 1977 and played in 1986 and 1994. Add to that his two Senior Open appearances there, including his win in 2003, and you realise how familiar he is with the layout.
It's safe to say this was one sporting event when everyone will remember who came second.
Staying on course
Apart from Stewart Cink, another ‘winner' was Dave Morris of DMC CaddyAid! Dave's GPS-generated course guides have enabled top caddy Billy Foster to prepare meticulously for the last four Opens, and the exercise certainly paid off this time as Billy's ‘bag', Lee Westwood, tied for third, just a shot out of the playoff.
DMC packages were also given away to spectators so they could plot their way round Turnberry via their mobile phones. "It was our most successful Open yet with almost 2,000 downloads," says Dave, who is now concentrating on a retail offensive for the rest of the year.
Another ‘winner' at Turnberry was Chris Wood, who finished in a tie with Westwood. A year ago, he was joint fifth as an amateur at Royal Birkdale, but in between he's had his fair share of struggles, some of them chronicled vividly by my old friend Ross Biddiscombe in Golf on the Edge 2 (Constant Sports Publishing); his ‘warts and all' account of the 2008 Q School - essential reading for all wannabe European Tour pros.
New train of thought
I was recently browsing the September 2009 issue of National Club Golfer on the train, when to my amazement I came across a couple of ‘adult' chatline plugs in the trolleys' section of the Classified Ads. ‘Whatever next?' I wondered. ‘A pensioner winning the Open?'
* Many thanks to all the individuals and companies in the golf trade who supported our recent Swing for Sammy cancer charity day at Muswell Hill, either by playing or donating prizes or sponsorships. Due largely to your contribution, we raised more than £15,000 to add to the £17,000 generated by the inaugural event in 2008.
