Johannesburg - Zach Johnson won The Open and all credit to him but, prior to the little American beating Louis Oosthuizen and Marc Leishman in the four-hole play-off and lifting the cherished Claret Jug, all the hype at St Andrews was about Jordan Spieth and whether he could make it three Major victories on the trot.
In fact, there was so much interest surrounding the young gun - who turns 22 on Monday - that in five media conferences over six days, the second-ranked Spieth was asked 64 questions about his own golf and also, opponent-wise, who he was wary of.
Well, the records reveal that only once did he mention world No1 Rory McIlroy’s name. And this was a casual reference to a list of players he conceded could hit the ball a little further than him.
The point is that Spieth doesn’t fear McIlroy, or any other golfer. It is firmly imprinted on his mind that he’s the best and that’s all there is to it. Okay, he didn’t win The Open although he came pretty close, and had he not four-putted at the par-3 eighth hole in the final round he may well have made it three Majors on the trot.
“There’s just no fear,” said Spieth, referring to his own attitude to the game, as well as the new generation of golfers around about his age, who have benefited from junior and collegiate circuits in America that give players access to quality courses, keen competition, expert coaching and sports psychologists.
Positive thoughts are drummed in to these young players to the point where they reckon anything is possible.
Spieth actually believes an amateur will win a Major “in the next decade or so” and points to how well the amateurs played at St Andrews.
Another Jordan - fellow American Jordan Niebrugge - tied for sixth on 277 (just four shots shy of the 15-under-par 273 the leaders posted), while compatriot Oliver Schniederjans (who turned 22 in June) closed with a superb 67 for 279 to share 12th place with England amateur Ashley Chesters.
Schniederjans joined the paid ranks the day after The Open and made his pro debut in this week’s Canadian Open on the PGA Tour.
And then there was Irish amateur Paul Dunne, who is at college in the US and who actually led The Open at one stage but faded with a final-round 78 to tie for 30th. Still, he contended for 54 holes and maybe Spieth is dead right - the real young guns are about to take over.
We’ll have to see but Oosthuizen certainly won’t be thinking like that. He’s 32 and after finishing joint second in the last two Majors he says he’ll take a lot out of those performances as the year’s final Major, the US PGA Championship, looms in mid-August at Whistling Straits on the shores of Lake Michigan.
A final word on Spieth’s four-putt at the eighth. Surely, it could be argued, any player who four-putts shouldn’t even be a professional golfer. Well, on those massive greens (some nearly as big as football fields) at St Andrews with their subtle slopes, a regulation two-putt can never be taken for granted.
You can get 100-foot putts and even more on the Old Course. Spieth’s four-putt was, he estimated, from “40 yards” (over 120 feet) in the foulest of weather conditions and his first putt went off the green. Oosthuizen had four three-putts in the final round, and Spieth five three putts in the second round.
Spieth believes his “biggest advantage over anybody in the world” is his first putt proximity - his ability to hit long putts close to the hole.
It didn’t go exactly to plan at St Andrews but watch this guy at Whistling Straits as he bids to join Ben Hogan in 1953 and Tiger Woods in 2000 as the only players to have won three Majors in a season.
Saturday Star