mrbojumbles

Open Championship review

Post by: Collective Authors

// July 26th, 2009 // News, Opinion

Its taken a few days for the mrbojumbles crew to gather our thoughts on last weeks Open Championship, for this we are sorry. But not as sorry as we felt for Master Watson after another sleep deprived major viewing weekend went right down to the wire. Here’s how lads saw the drama at Turberry, Scotland unfold:

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Master Mouse Patrol – Our Aussie based Kiwi Correspondent

“Free-to-air television channels in Australia tried to fool the public into thinking that there was only four shots worthy of viewing each day, shown briefly at the end of the sports round up at 6.24pm. One network didn’t even announcing big Stu’s victory on the Monday. This left a bitter taste in my mouth from what was a glorious occasion; a celebration of tradition, past champions, testing conditions and the very element that makes us all love playing the game… playing beyond anyone’s expectations, including your own.”

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TJ

“The 2009 Open left me with one overriding sentiment: “Thank God for Angel Cabrera”. If Angel hadn’t gotten up over Kenny Perry at Augusta, we would be through July in 2009 with three bland Americans as our major champs. I’ve got nothing against Glover or Cink, if nothing else they are both very good golfers. The problem is, to the average viewer they do provide nothing else. There seems barely an ounce of personality between them. After the runs of Duval and Mickelson at the US and then Watson this week, 2009 is beginning to feel like the ‘almost’ year.”

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Witters

“The Poms are still desperate for golfing success but Tom Watson has given hope for all the John Walker’s, Richard Hadlee’s and Colin Mead’s of this world to stage post grandchildren retirement comebacks. Watson stood over an eight foot put to win a major 10 weeks before he was to turn 60, yes he poked it and faded in extra time, but his achievement was outrageously incredible for someone who most probably has his wife sew leather patches on his cardigan’s worn elbows. I too like Watson faded in the ridiculous four-hole playoff … but why four? When Bob Charles triumphed in 1963 it was a 36 hole play-off! Chop it even more to sudden death for the sake of us red-eyed Kiwis. Norman now Watson, the Open Championship has become a genuine warm up for the Senior Open Championship. Next year I’m slapping a lazy fiver on Sir Bob.”

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Last but not least, Macky with complete disregard to the 150 word maximum… yes, sometimes this sport is too good to stop ranting.

Some really nice thoughts there fellas. Plenty of originality and insight. However I did notice a distinct lack of bullet points. So rather than stick with the trend, here goes….

• As upsetting as it was to see Tiger clearly grimacing in (mental) anguish, I thought it was truly intriguing that he missed the cut, for a variety of reasons. For starters, the game of golf can survive without this great man. had Tiger been present at the past two Opens, we probably would never have witnessed the Shark and T-Wat (I’m hoping ESPN will pick this up) present such compelling cases, and prove that age is no barrier. We would all be worse off had we not witnessed such play over the long weekend.
• Secondly – and this should really be part of the first bullet point but hey – yes he plays bad and still wins more tournaments than anyone, but I’m not going to be entirely convinced that Tiger is without doubt the greatest until I see him holding aloft number 19. He has been anointed as such for the past 5 years, but what happens if he picks up another injury? All bets are off, right? Shoot me down in flames for wanting to take this view but I remain unconvinced.
• Just to prove that Tiger-hating is not my agenda (and in the hope that ESPN are still reading), does a better commentary team exist anywhere on the planet? If an alien race invaded and the world’s population was decimated, I want these guys calling the shots as we fight for our survival. Just the right amount of knowledge, insight, delicacy and humor. You would be foolish to stop listening; “crushed blueberry” trousers has shot to the podium as the greatest piece of live commentary I’ve ever witnessed.