Thirty times, the oldest major Golf Championship has been contested on the wind-swept and venerated links of the Old Course at Saint Andrews, the Scottish ancestral home of Golf and an exalted shrine to the foibles and peculiarities of Golfers through the world.
The Open Championship returned to Scotland this year to celebrate the 150th edition of the sport’s oldest Championship, dating to 1860 and was first played on the St Andrews links in 1873.
The prize for winning the Open Championship is the Silver Claret Jug, first presented at Prestwick in 1872 and containing the names of Golf’s royalty.
Add the name of Cameron Smith to that celebrated list of players claiming Champion Golfer of the Year.
And the native Australian did it in record style.
In the previous twenty-nine times the Open has been held at the Old Course, no winner has ever finished with 64, a record score on St Andrews at 268, matching the lowest score to par in any Major Championship.
Smith has become the first Aussie to win at St. Andrews since Kel Nagle in 1960 and the first Australian to win the Open since Greg Norman In 1993.
Smith also wins for the third time this year, pocketing $2.5 million in prize money, and moves to No 2 in the world rankings, a career-best.
With seasonal earnings of over $9 million this year, he also becomes a leading candidate for Player-of-the-Year honors, and it is only July.
Cameron Young finished second after briefly tieing for the lead with an eagle two on the last hole.
At the same time, Rory McIlory limped into the third spot after his putter went cold during the final round after leading the tournament on Sunday morning.
Listen to Cameron’s Championship interview here.
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