There’s no greater pressure than trying to convert a 54-hole lead into a major title.
On Sunday at Quail Hollow, Kevin Kisner joined illustrious company for all the wrong reasons. The 33-year-old led after 54 holes at the PGA Championship, hunting his first win on the biggest stage at his 11th attempt. Ultimately, the South Carolina native couldn’t seize his opportunity to cause an upset, slumping to a final round 74 and a T-7 finish.
He is not alone, however, in falling at the final hurdle in pursuit of joining the exclusive club of ‘Major Champion’. In 2011, for example, Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy squandered a four-stroke lead on Sunday at the Masters and with it a golden opportunity to become the youngest player to don the coveted green jacket.
Like McIlroy, Adam Scott slept on a four-stroke 54-hole advantage at the 142nd Open Championship, seeking to deliver on the promise which earned him the nickname of ‘The White Tiger’ early in his career. The Aussie’s lead remained fully intact standing on the 15th Tee. A nightmare finish followed, however, and Ernie Els pipped him by a single stroke after a closing 68.
World No 1 Dustin Johnson, too, endured his fair share of heartbreak before breaking through at the 2016 US Open. In the same event in 2010, Johnson led by three strokes with 18 holes to play at Pebble Beach.
Having won the Pebble Beach Pro-Am in 2009 and 2010, many expected the long-hitting American to close out the victory for his maiden major crown. It was not to be his year though as a closing 82 put him in a tie for eighth behind eventual winner Graeme McDowell.
Later that year, the 26-year-old was denied a shot at redemption at Whistling Straits in the PGA hampionship. Johnson held the lead by one stroke standing on the 72nd hole. In a cruel tist of fate, he was assessed a two-stroke penalty for grounding his club in an unmarked bunker to miss out on a playoff with Bubba Watson and eventual winner Martin Kaymer.
In 2015, Johnson was in the mix once more in his national championship, in a four-way tie for the lead at the start of the final round. After Jordan Spieth had set the clubhouse target at five-under par, Johnson had the chance to win the tournament in regulation with a 12′ birdie putt on the 72nd hole. He missed it. When he missed the relatively straightforward return as well, his latest major title bid was in tatters.
All of these cases beg the question: ‘Is it just a case of learning how to deal with the pressure of contesting a major late on Sunday afternoon? If the answer to the qustion is ‘Yes’, it suggests that once the proverbial monkey is off one’s back, and the first win secured, players are far more likely to close out future 54-holes leads, knowing what is required to win.
As Jordan Spieth proved so emphatically at the 2016 Masters though, nothing could be further from the truth.
Spieth showed amazing maturity to win both the Masters and US Open at the tender age of 21-years-old in 2015. On both occassions, Spieth exuded confidence in his ability to finish the job, holding at least a share of the lead in both heading into Sunday. So when the phenom from Texas found himself in familiar territory, with a five-shot shot lead with nine holes to play at Augusta National, fans and pundits alike thought it a foregone conclusion.
As the old saying goes, however, ‘The Masters begins on the back nine on Sunday’. Spieth fell foul of of the famous adage spectacularly, limping home in 41 strokes, highlighted by a disastrous six on the par-three 12th where he found the water twice en route to finishing three adrift of Danny Willet.
Nobody is ever a ‘lock’ to hold on and triumph on the Sunday of a major. With a record of 14/14 wins when holding a share of the 54-hole lead at a major, Tiger Woods came pretty close though. While it took the best part of 12 years, the golfing gods eventually got their own back.
Leading by two over YE Yang at the start of the final round at the 2009 PGA Championship, Woods looked set to take a step closer to Jack Nicklaus’ record 18 majors. A disappointing three-over par round however signalled the end of Tiger’s phenomenal run. Tellingly, Tiger demonstrated that regardless of the extreme heights a player scales, nobody is above a Sunday meltdown at a Major Championship.
There are also some players who seem destined to wonder what might have been when looking back on their careers. Phil Mickelson, for example, has had six runner-up finishes without winning his national championship. At 47-years-old, the eratic yet enthralling American is running out of time to win a title that would complete his career Grand Slam.
Colin Montgomerie, an eight-time winner of the European Tour’s Order of Merit, is widely regarded as one of the best players never to win a major. In 1994, Monty led the US Open heading into the weekend.
Rounds of 73 and 70, however, meant the Scot had to do it the hard way by trying to win an 18-hole playoff over Ernie Els and Loren Roberts. It was not be as three double-bogies in the first 11 holes derailed his hopes as Els went on to capture the title.
Arguably Montgomerie’s closest brush with major glory came at the 2006 edition at Winged Foot. Leading by one and in the fairway on the 72nd hole, Montgomerie chunked his approach. He failed to salvage par, taking double-bogey to hand the title to Geoff Ogilvy.
South Africa’s Ernie Els meanwhile will feel like he may have won a few more majors had he not played during Tiger Woods’ era. In 2000 at the US Open, Els was on the receiving end of a masterclass from Woods at Pebble Beach where he finished T-2 albeit a distant 15 strokes behind. Just weeks later in the Open Championship, Woods again left Els in his wake as he secured a dominant eight-stroke win.
Louis Oosthuizen too, has had a few close calls to go with his only majort title at the 2010 Open Championship. At the PGA Championship, Oosthuizen completed the career grand slam of runner-up finishes.
His closest calls since 2010 came in 2012 at the Masters where he was a playoff win away from slipping on the green jacket. In 2015 though, Oosthuizen came within a four-hole playoff of completing a St Andrews double, Zach Johnson pipping the South African and Australian Mark Leishman.
The likes of Mickelson, Els and Oosthuizen can console themselves with the fact that even a serial major winner like Nicklaus had to settle for second-place on 19 occassions.
At the end of the day, if major championships were easy to close out, they would not be regarded as golf’s toughest tests.
Photo: Alastair Grant/AP
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