The Open Championship, Best Player in the World, And Much More: Bob Long vs. Kevin McClernand

Bob: The Open Championship from Muirfield in Scotland concluded on Sunday with an impressive and eventually decisive victory from Phil Mickelson, who earned his 5th major across 3 of the 4 major championships (Masters, Open Championship, PGA).

This win unleashed a lot of demons for Phil, who has long been thought of (and has even admitted to have thought of himself) as a guy who could not play the type of links-style golf at the highest level necessary to win this particular championship.

Let’s check in with Kevin McClernand on this one, who I know had his eyes peeled all weekend on Muirfield and has some thoughts on the year’s third major.

Kevin: Well sadly I didn’t have to chance to watch the first two rounds of The Open (Some of us work, Bob), but with so many players around the top, and no dominant presence in golf right now, anything can happen at these majors.

Bob: Yeah, like Shiv Kapur shooting 68 on the first day then shooting a combined +18 in the next two days…Boiler UP!

Kevin: Or Mark O’Meara shooting a 78 in the second round and still making the cut.

I told myself Tiger had it going into the weekend, but he just can’t seem to pull through.

Bob: Well we’ll get into Tiger in a bit, but here are some early weekend storylines. How about our boy The Mechanic leading after 2 days, and Rafael Cabrera-Bello there early as well. Spain was well represented. And yes, Mark O’Meara trying to reignite the flames of that magical year in 1998 where he won both the Masters and the Open Championship (his only two majors)…but not nearly meant to be.

Zach Johnson leading after day 1, faltering big time in day two, then shooting par seemingly 100 times in a row to thrust himself back into it on Sunday.

Charl Schwartzel breaking his iron in half, you thought it would be from swinging at the ball while in the fescew, but no, he just launched it purposefully down the fairway.

Kevin: So many guys had their chance, but I was glad to see Phil WIN the tournament, rather than someone losing it. Phil earned the victory, and there really is no getting away from that.

Bob: Phil did win it, a guy that on Thursday walked right into the ESPN post-round interview studio and lambasted the R&A for its course maintenance and pin placement. He got over that pretty quickly.

No one likes a whiner (like when you whine that your California taxes are too high when you make over $50 million a year), and it looks like he understood that by the negative reaction he received on Thursday after that interview and his gracious comments in the following days towards the R&A.

Kevin: Yea, you’re right. I didn’t really hear the complaints after his (-5) on Sunday.

Bob: What did you think of the course Kevin?

Kevin: It was challenging. But it is a Major, that’s what they should expect.
Pin placement is just part tournament. Every golfer is shooting at the same holes, suck it up and be the best.

Did you think Phil’s comments were deserved?

Bob: I do think that the pin placements changed in difficulty after Thursday, and that was certainly for the best. The R&A heard what the players had to say and adjusted a bit. But let’s look at the numbers here. While the afternoon on Thursday was brutal, no doubt, the scoring was worse Friday and Saturday, even with the so called “fairer” pin placements. So you never can really tell; weather, wind, pin placements, they all combine for unique scoring conditions on any given day – even morning to afternoon.

The burnt out nature of the course, that was what the R&A was going for, and I think it definitely succeeded.

Tell ya what Kevin, with all this talk of how the technology is outstripping these old-time courses, like Merion for the US Open, the winning scores of the last two majors (US, Open) were both 281 (+1 on par 70, -3 on par 71)…isn’t it kudos to the USGA and R&A, respectively, that they can still make these players work? Or are they doing it in a gimmicky way?

Kevin: Not at all. We saw Schwartzel drive a Par 4. This isn’t the first time it has happened, but it just shows how technology is changing the game. Something has to change to make the game as difficult as it once was. I am not saying that it is easy at all, but of course longer holes can not happen with the limit of area for many courses.

Bob: These courses have to absolutely bend over backwards to make holes longer. Merion extended holes: the USGA pretty much moved the tee box on to the train tracks on one hole, on another it used the practice green as a tee box. Muirfield bought land from an neighboring club to extend a hole to be a par 5. You’re right, the game is getting tougher to regulate given the talent of this era’s players, and I think we should leave it at that, because this could leak as quickly into a era-vs.-era, player vs. player comparison as a ball rolling towards a fairway bunker at Muirfield.

So you wanted to talk about Tiger and Phil this weekend. Your honor, Your Honor.

Kevin: Well it was a very different weekend for the two players. Phil struggled on Friday, and made a great comeback, while Tiger was in great position coming into Saturday, and even had the lead at one point. Tiger can’t mentally get over the hump, and you have to wonder when, and even if he ever will.

Bob: Stop. Please.
Let me ask you something, what were you saying about Phil, let’s see, oh, four weeks ago?
Probably something about a hump, him not getting over it?
Or maybe a lack of an ability to make clutch shots at a course that isn’t suited to his strengths? (AKA not Augusta?)

And yet here he is, winning the tournament no one thought he could…as long as Tiger continues to put himself in positions on Sunday, it can certainly happen, and could happen a lot more than once.

Kevin: Same thing with Adam Scott before he won the Masters.

Bob: Right, and same thing with Rory after his Masters collapse…although let’s save the Rory talk for later.

Kevin: The big thing with Tiger is that he has never won a Major when he didn’t at least share the 54-hole lead.

Bob: Yea and you know why that is??
Because he was so damn good that he won some majors by 7, 8, 15! strokes
He didn’t need to come back!

I’ve never seen a more universal back-handed compliment in my life. And it’s not just you trust me I’m not picking on you, everyone does it!

Kevin: But he has had his chances in the past few years, and he doesn’t put that fear in his opponents since his loss to Y.E. Yang.

Bob: Well that’s true. I’ll have that conversation if you’d like, but I hate the 54 hole crap, that stat doesn’t tell the correct story.

Kevin: I would rather know his record when he does have the 54-hole lead. That would be more indicative of the truth. But with all the Tiger hate, they never tell you that. Listen, I am on the Tiger bandwagon. I have said many times that he will get over 20 Majors.

Bob: 14-1

Kevin: And that loss is to Yang, correct?

Bob: Yes. PGA Championship, Medinah? I believe, that course I’m not sure of offhand…but yes, just 3 months before his “Incident” which sent his world swirling for a year or so.

Kevin: Hazeltine, but good effort.
I cheated and looked it up.

And yes, with his injury and his “incident”, Tiger had a rough couple of years, and it took him a while to come back.

Bob: Damn, knew it was a midwest course, thought it was in Chi-town that year.

Is Tiger back yet though? I’ll bite my tongue and respond when you’re done.

Kevin: He isn’t the Tiger that we saw before, no. But I don’t know if we will see another player like that in our lifetime. He was just so dominant and like you said, he won his first 14 majors in which he had the lead going into Sunday. Everyone was fighting for second when Tiger had the lead, and they all knew it. I think he is the best player in the world right now, but he will never be “back”.

Bob: Generally I agree. He’s 37 years old for one, he’s changed his swing 4 times, he’s already won 4 times on Tour this year (more than anyone else by the way), and he’s been seemingly omnipresent on the front page of the leaderboard in majors recently.
He will never win a major by 15 strokes again.
He might not even win 5 more majors (I still think he can). But right now there are only 3-4 golfers that have been as consistent as Tiger in the past year, even if he can’t “finish” or whatever the heck people decide to say about Tiger when they think he should win every tournament he starts.
…and those 3-4 golfers are:
Phil Mickelson
Adam Scott
Lee Westwood

And if you want to throw someone in there just based upon Majors, Jason Day is creeping back into people’s mindsets.

Kevin: Yes! I have been waiting for the name Lee Westwood to come up. Let’s go!

Bob: Let’s…you seem more excited than I though so why don’t you tee off first on this one as well.

Kevin: Even when Westwood was up 3 strokes on Sunday, I didn’t think he was going to win. I always have the opinion if a golfer is up there consistently, then he will eventually break through. I am done with Westwood though. He has left that ship of mine, and I am prepared to say that Lee Westwood will never win a Major.

Bob: o yea…I’m 100% NOT there with you on that one. Do you know what that guy’s been up to off the course recently?
He’s hired Sean Foley to be his new swing coach, which has him leaning more forward over the ball and seems to be improving that aspect of his game, ball-striking, which by the way, he was already the best there was in the game.

And he’s consulted with Ian Baker-Finch to analyze his putting form…he’s loosened the grip on the putter and relaxed his hands, and Kevin let me tell you, I’ve never seen that man putt that well. He was the best putter all weekend until Sunday, when Phil took that honor.

Kevin: Do you know how many times Westwood has finished in the top 3 of a major?

Bob: At least once in every major and multiple times in at least one of the four.

Kevin: With his 3rd place finish yesterday, Westwood had 8 top-3 finishes in Majors.

Bob: But that doesn’t seem to be quite the appropriate comeback to what I had said…something like “Well the putting techniques won’t last, he’ll soon regress to what he was before on the greens” or “Even with the new putting, he’s still not good enough in the other aspects of his game.”

Well then I suppose we simply disagree on what those top 3’s represent. I see it as a representation that he is darn close, and has the game to compete in every major or any type of golf course…and that’s not easy to come by, don’t just shoo that attribute away.

Kevin: Well yea, I was going to start with his short game, he has a lot of work to do. But so does Adam Scott when he stops cheating with his putter, but that is a completely different conversation.

Bob: Haha, I’d direct our readers to our recent podcast about that, “Should Anchored Putting be Banned From Golf?”, where we discussed the new anchored putting rules set to be enacted in 2016. A great listen.

Lee Westwood is a GREAT, not good, great golfer. He is one of the all-time greats, he is one of if not the best golfer to have never won a major…but I don’t think he ends his career with that label, because he’ll win one.

Kevin: Well only time will tell. I think that once Tiger gets going, and Rory can become consistent, it will be very tough for these other golfers to win the majors, and when they do they will have to play almost perfect golf.

Bob: Rory, Rory, Rory….what in the world is going on in that man’s head right now?
Kevin, you know, I’ve been his biggest supporter well before he won his US Open by 8 strokes, and then the PGA by 8 strokes the year later.
I’ve said that people just didn’t understand how difficult it is to be consistent, and just to give this young kid a chance to blossom into his own self and use his unbelievable talent.

But now, now I just don’t know about Rory…emphasis on right now

Kevin: The kid has talent. No denying that.

Bob: Nick Faldo came out before the Open Championship and publicly said that Rory should be playing more tournaments, should be more focused on his game and less on outside distractions (yeah he’s talking to you Caroline).

Rory responded that he is very comfortable doing what he’s doing and is working plenty hard enough (even compared his 12 hour day to what Faldo recommended, an 8 hour day).

154 strokes later over 2 days, he says he needs to take a look at himself, see a sports psychologist, and see what’s going on in his head and why he can’t put it together. He said that he thinks he’s underthinking things on the course. Listen, I’m not there with him in practice and on the course, but with everything he’s going through, everyone he’s listening to, and the fact that he is analyzing himself so much that he thinks he needs a shrink, I don’t think he’s under- but instead over-thinking things.

He’s double-crossing himself…but mentally – not off the tee.

Kevin: Everyone wants to compare him to Tiger. “Tiger did this at his age…” But Rory is his own player. He isn’t Tiger, and that’s probably not such a bad thing. But Rory needs to become more consistent, and become more like Tiger in the fact that Tiger made basically every cut.

Bob: He’s good enough to do so, there’s no doubt.

Kevin: Obviously he won’t be in the Top 10 in every tournament, but making it to Saturday consistently is what makes you a good player.

Bob: He’s still the third ranked golfer in the world by a decent margin, and a win at the PGA would undoubtedly put him into second, but come on, he’s not playing anywhere near the 3rd best player in the world

Kevin: Well we don’t have to talk about the flaws in rankings in Golf and Tennis.

Bob: By why though is the question Kevin? Yes he’s not in the top 10 in recent tournaments, but why? What’s changed?

How can a player that talented by playing this poorly and be this torn apart mentally from tournament to tournament?

Kevin: It is difficult to say. It is definitely him. Sometimes other players are just playing better, but when you are tied with John Huh and Gareth Maybin at a Major, there is a big problem.

Bob: Huh?

Kevin: Yea, exactly. It is easy to say it is mental, but maybe he just needs to get on the course more.

Bob: So Sir Nick Faldo is right? Come on Kevin, you know we can’t have that here.

Kevin: Rory may have just got on a high. Imagine a kid winning two majors in two years. And this was after he choked in the previous major. He proved everyone wrong, and he demolished his competition.

Bob: …got a hot girlfriend, dumped his girl from teenage years…I’m with ya.

Not that his old girlfriend wasn’t hot of course, seemed like a great girl (the email’s bob@boblongsports.com btw)

Kevin: Yea, not going to address those comments.

Bob: Well it was for her not you so I’d appreciate you not standing in our way Kevin.

Kevin: I’m actually sitting down at the moment. So we’re good.

Bob: And he has time to mature. This won’t be the last time we talk about him, but I’ll leave it with this thought. I’ve said double digit majors many times with Rory (that puts him third all-time) and I have no desire whatsoever to back away from those comments right now.

Kevin: Yea, I have never agreed with you with Rory, and I said 5 Majors I believe.

Bob: He can get cut one major, then win the next by 8 strokes…even with Tiger in the field…he’s that good, watch out Oak Hill? I guess we’ll find out in three weeks.

But Phil…Phil, Phil, Phil, how do you do what you do? You play the most frustrating type of game imaginable, put yourself in incredibly difficult, sometimes just silly situations, yet recently you’ve been right at the top of the leaderboard in most majors. This time you finished it off, how?

Kevin: The Par 5s on Sunday.

Bob: So why not Dustin then?

Kevin: Phil birdied all 3 Par 5s on Sunday.

Dustin was Even on the Par 5s by the way.

Bob: -8 for the tournament, just have to throw it out there, but yes.

Kevin: We always see Phil hitting it in those fairway bunkers and struggling to get it on those greens, but he found ways to birdie them here, and he did it consistently.

Bob: Well I think it was all putting. He said he putted the best he ever has in his career, and if there’s anything that was the weakness in his game more than long off the tee, it was his putting.

He’s the best wedge and the best sand player that has ever played the game, and is just as good a shot maker as Seve (he better be for as bad as he is off the tee), but the days of the 5 footers missing wide must be a little less fresh in his head after what he did all weekend on the greens.

Kevin: Yea, it seemed like he made every putt on the back 9 on Sunday.

Bob: I’m gonna scour and find my tweet I sent out Thursday morning quickly if I can, might shed light on my thoughts better than I could describe even now…

Bob Long @boblongsports 18 Jul
“Tell ya what, if Phil can really keep putting like this, not sure if anyone in the world can beat him, combination of wedge play and putting”

And that little nugget came at 5:30am on Thursday morning.

Kevin: Somebody was excited to watch golf.

But Phil definitely got the monkey off of his back, and if he can continue to putt like that he will be in the hunt for more Majors.

Bob: …now I continued to say that I didn’t think he could putt like that. He proved a lot of very smart people wrong who didn’t think he could putt well enough or play links-style golf well enough.

So, let’s be real here Kevin. I don’t want to toot my own horn, but following Phil the last year, that is the ONLY thing that has kept him from winning almost anything he’s wanted. As much as I’d like to say the trouble he gets into off the tee is the problem, he is SUCH a good shot-maker that it doesn’t freakin matter (and as a golf purist it makes me sick!)

(Not really, I don’t have a problem with Phil)

Kevin: But even though Phil has had his difficulties lately, he looked so good on Sunday. And he has won the last two tournaments that he has entered. Is he the best player right now? I still think it is Tiger, but winning Majors is what we all care about, and Tiger hasn’t won one.

Bob: Here’s the thing, I don’t really think they are difficulties that Phil has faced, I just think he’s a piece or two away from being the best, and not by a little bit.

But that’s the thing about golf, is that the peak of one’s game is so hard to find, and so fleeting when one gets there.

Tiger, Phil, Rory, Adam, all four of them have incredible talent (others do, too)…but Phil is closest right now to the top of his game that I think he’s the go-to-guy at Oak Hill in mid-August.

Rory is the furthest from his peak, but he and/or Tiger can climb the ranks the quickest from what I’ve seen.

Kevin: Yea, I would say Rory is the most dangerous. We have seen his struggles lately, but that this point he has the highest potential at any major. If he can point it together he can blow away the competition, but consistency is a huge part of the sport, and he isn’t the best player if he isn’t consistent. Phil has his game going, and I would love to seen a Phil-Tiger dual on a Sunday during a major.

Bob: So let’s get out of here on these two questions:Top 5 golfers in the world?

Who’s winning at Oak Hill in the PGA Championship?

Kevin: Top 5 are Tiger, Phil, Westwood, Zach Johnson, Hunter Mahan

I think Zach Johnson is winning at Oak Hill.

Bob: Here’s my top 5 – as if I’m picking someone to win next weekend
1. Phil Mickelson
2. Tiger Woods
3. Adam Scott
4. Lee Westwood
5. Brandt Snedeker

Why don’t you give me Lee Westwood to win the PGA.

BTW I know you like the Snedeker pick.

Kevin: Fair enough. Not sure if you really think he is going to win, or if you are just trying to prove a point.

I do like Snedeker. And he was the next guy on my list.

Bob: Nah, I think he’s going to win. He was my 2nd pick to win this weekend, behind Dustin (close man, he really just fell off Sunday).

And really, so not an Adam Scott guy huh?

Kevin: Dustin is going to be a multiple time Major winner.

Adam Scott is at 7 for me, and then Schwartzel is 8.

Bob: Schwartzel can throw a club with the best of them though.

Kevin: I like any player who likes to throw things on fairways.

Bob: I hear Kevin McClernand has been known to throw a thing or two on the fairway, no wonder you’re a fan

Kevin: I must be thinking of someone else… But Adam Scott has a heck of Caddy.

I was a big fan of the pairing and situation that went on on Sunday.

But the fact that our Top 5 players differs just shows the lack of dominance in the sport right now.

Bob: That’s why it’s fun, and that’s why the sport is in as good a position as it has been in a while. What do you say, reconvene in three weeks to talk some more golf? I don’t think the parity is going away soon.

Kevin: Yea, and we will most likely be talking how somebody else is in a slump, and another golfer broke through his barrier. I can’t wait.

My name is Bob Long (Twitter: @boblongsports), and I am the Founder and President of Bob Long Sports. I am the primary writer, reporter, and Radio Show Host for boblongsports.com. I began this sports website in December of 2009, and have been running it ever since. Bob Long Sports features Opinion Articles, News Stories, a Live Radio Show, Top 25 rankings for both College Basketball and College Football, and much more. I have experience covering every type of sports event or story, including: College Basketball, College Football, MLB, NFL, NHL, NBA, and much more. If you love sports and are seeking interesting opinions about the hottest current sports issues, you will enjoy this website. The site’s contents are tailored to any type of sports fan, and I hope you enjoy reading.

One response to “The Open Championship, Best Player in the World, And Much More: Bob Long vs. Kevin McClernand”

  1. domain

    Awesome article.

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