ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — The wind, little of it, finally seemed to be blowing Rory McIlroy’s way again at a major championship.
He had a four-shot lead with one round to go and although he wasn’t quite playing at home, at the home of golf, McIlroy, a Northern Irishman, must have felt as if he was playing on his terms and on his turf as he enjoying the roars of the record crowd and going his merry way along the undulating fairways and double greens of the Old Course.
McIlroy, 33, has both charisma and game, with an elastic swing that gives him the power usually associated with more muscular men and allows him to hit long shots.
But the 150th British Open would come down to deft touch, not crushing power, and while McIlroy certainly didn’t suffocate his chance to make history, he hardly seized the lapel moment and shook it for all it was worth .
That was left to Cameron Smith and his player.
Smith, an Aussie with a wispy mustache and mullet, has a retro look to him, and although blazers and ties are the rule at the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, Smith still fits right in on the Old Course, nailing birdie after birdie after birdie after birdie after birdie (yes, five in a row) on the back nine despite the pressure that comes with trying to win your first major.
Smith, 28, from Brisbane in sweltering Queensland, made eight birdies in total on Sunday, firing a brilliant closing round of 64 that moved him to 20 under par and gave him a one-stroke victory over American Cameron Young. McIlroy finished third, one stroke back, after shooting a 70 on Sunday and making par after par but no fireworks on the back nine.
“The putter just cooled off a little bit today compared to the last three days,” McIlroy said.
Smith has had no such struggles and is the first Australian to win the British Open since Greg Norman in 1993 and the first Australian to win a major since Jason Day won the 2015 PGA Championship.
Smith also maintained his nation’s tradition of winning special anniversary editions of the St Andrews Open. Australian Kell Nagle won the 100th edition here in 1960.
“That’s pretty cool; I didn’t know that,” Smith said. “I think winning the Open Championship in itself would probably be the highlight of a golfer’s career. I think it’s just amazing to do it around St. Andrews. This place it’s so cool. I love the golf course. I love the town. Hopefully we can keep this trend going every 50 years. That would be nice, wouldn’t it?”
On the face of it, the victory was also an affirming moment for the traditional tours in their increasingly contentious rivalry with the breakaway, Saudi-backed LIV Golf Series, which has used big checks and lighter loads to attract big stars like Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and Dustin Johnson, all of whom have since been banned from the PGA Tour, but are still able to play in majors for now.
The closest defector to victory on the Old Course was Johnson, who finished tied for sixth at 13 under. But Smith was hardly reassuring when asked about rumors he was considering a move to LIV. “I just won the British Open and you’re asking about this?” he said, visibly uncomfortable, saying the line of inquiry was “not that good”.
The reporter pressed, and Smith neither confirmed nor denied his interest in the new tour, which is headlined by Norman, an Australian. “I don’t know, mate,” Smith said. “My team around me worries about all these things. I’m here to win golf tournaments.”
Smith, if he jumps, is certainly in a better bargaining position after his week at St Andrews and he showed far more precision than emotion during his final round, which began on No. 10 when he made the first of his five straight birdied and began to reel in McIlroy and Viktor Hovland, who were co-leaders after the third round.
But Smith learned some hard lessons at the majors with four top-five finishes, including a tie for third at the Masters in 2022 and a tie for second there in 2020. “I’ve definitely kicked myself a few times in the last couple of years,” he said .
He won the Players Championship in March, his second PGA Tour victory this season, also making a string of birdies on the final round of the back nine. The Players, with its elite field and rich purse, is often billed as the next best thing to a major, but the Open Championship is the real deal, and while the Old Course is far from the toughest test in the rotation, it retains its power to inspire.
Smith’s 20-under-par total of 268 set a British Open record at St. Andrews, surpassing Tiger Woods’ score of 19-under when he won the Open here in 2000.
Woods, then in his prime, won by eight strokes, turning the final round into a procession. But Smith’s victory went down to the wire. He led the tournament after two rounds but then fell four shots off the lead with a one-over 73 on Saturday, a round that included a double-bogey on the par-4 13th when he took an ill-advised second shot from the edge of a bunker.
By Saturday night, McIlroy had the momentum, sharing the lead with Hovland, a former college star at Oklahoma State who taught himself the basics of the game by watching YouTube videos and trying to become the first Norwegian to win a major.
“You were born for this Rory! Come on!” shouted one Scottish fan as McIlroy headed for a 10th title on Sunday.
McIlroy won the 2014 British Open at Royal Liverpool and added a fourth major at the PGA Championship later that season. He looked poised for long-term dominance but missed the following year’s British Open, the last he would contest at St Andrews, due to injury and faced years of final-round disappointment.
Eight years later, the chase for the next major continues even though he finished in the top 10 at all four majors this season.
“I’ll regret a few missed shots, but overall it was a good week,” he said. “I can’t be too down about how this year has gone and this year. I’m playing some of the best golf I’ve played in a long time. So it’s a matter of keep knocking on the door and eventually one will open.
Instead, this one opened for Smith. “Look, I got beat by a better player this week,” McIlroy said. “Twenty under par for four rounds of golf here is a really, really impressive game, especially to go out and shoot a 64 today to do it.”
To do so, Smith had to recover from a shaky second shot on the infamous Road Hole, the par-4 17th, which was more difficult than any hole on the course this year. But Smith made a beautifully weighted putt up the green that left him with a 10-foot putt to save par. He made it and headed to the 18th hole, where Young, his playing partner, finished with an eagle that put him very briefly in a tie with Smith, at 19 under.
But Smith had already made his second shot on the par-4 18th just two feet from the hole.
“Cameron wasn’t going to miss that,” said Young, who had watched Smith drain so much tension throughout the overcast afternoon.
Young knew his man. Smith calmly positioned himself and stroked the ball into the cup to take the lead again at 20 under.
McIlroy’s last chance to force a playoff was to make eagle on 18, which Young had just proven he could manage. But McIlroy’s shot, like his round, fell short, and when he missed his second putt, Smith became the British Open champion with his name engraved – in haste – on the tee.
“All the hard work we’ve put in over the last couple of years is really starting to pay off,” Smith told his team, the trophy in his grip and the tears welling up. “And this one is definitely worth it.”
But Smith, having composed himself, made it clear that he intended to put the claret jug to good use, though not for claret at the moment.
“I’m definitely going to find out how many beers fit in that thing, that’s for sure,” he said.
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