AS A south-westerly wind and driving rain whipped in from the Irish Sea past the iconic lighthouse which points the way to glory at Turnberry, Loren Roberts won a sudden death play-off from Eduardo Romero after holing a 25-foot par putt on the first extra hole to claim the first prize of £157,800 at the Senior British Open.
Known as the 'boss of the moss', Roberts proved that a sweet putting stroke can compensate for a multitude of ball-striking sins. Coming down the 18th for the second time, the American, who pushed his tee shot, couldn't reach the green with a utility
club. After chipping on, his hopes of saving par looked slim until this majestic putter eased the ball into the hole.
Romero must have felt he had one hand on the trophy after locating the fairway and hitting a 4-iron onto the green. Some 30 feet shy of the hole with a mound to negotiate, the Argentine misread the putt and left himself with a six-footer which must have looked twice as long after Roberts holed out. Almost inevitably, Romero jabbed the ball wide.
The pair had earlier enjoyed a duel of collapsing fortunes on the Ailsa. The Argentine, 71, and the American, 75, both finished on 274, six-under-par, one shot better than journeyman pro, Dick Mast, who proved the testing conditions could be mastered with 67, the best round of the last day.
Roberts enthused: "I'm so glad that Scotland invented this game. I love links golf and it's such a pleasure to play here. The galleries are the most knowledgeable you'll find anywhere and the support I received was tremendous. I can't wait to come back next summer and play in the Open at Carnoustie as well as defend my Senior Open title at Muirfield. Sometimes my ball-striking can let me down but I've had a lot of faith in my putter for the past 25 years and it saw me through again."
While paying a generous tribute to the champion, Romero felt his mistake at the first extra hole was caused by hitting a 4-iron rather than a 5. If he'd used less club then he wouldn't have faced such a tricky first putt. "I would love to have won in Scotland again, but golf is like this, and I would take playing like this every week," he smiled.
In the absence of wind, links golf can resemble rugby played without any physical contact. It might be easier to score well, but it's not the real thing. Catching a 25mph wind off the sea, the leaders knew they were playing the Scottish game all right. Although the sky was clear until rain fell over the closing holes, the wind was sufficiently brisk to force frequent errors. Having generously given up hundreds of birdies on Thursday and Friday, the Ailsa turned mean on the Sabbath and took back most of those gifts.
In the end, only five players from a field of 144 finished the championship in the red figures which denote scores under par. "Weather like this tests you," observed Tom Watson, who didn't strike the ball well enough to add to the British Seniors titles he won here in 2003 and at Royal Aberdeen last summer."It tests everything about your game. The wind throws you off balance and makes you guess what clubs to hit."
If wind removes certainty from the art of ball-striking, it also complicates scoring. Leading by four shots when the fourth round began, Roberts might have expected to cruise to victory after Romero, who struggled on Saturday, spilled a stroke at the first.
But there was a two-shot swing on the fifth after the Argentine found the right side of the fairway and was able to land his approach in front of the green and let the ball run on towards the hole. When he eased a 25-foot putt into the centre of the cup, Romero began to gnaw away at Roberts' advantage.
More birdies at the seventh and ninth holes swept Romero to the turn in 33. When he carded 3 on the par-4 tenth, the Argentine had made up five shots in nine holes and drawn level with the American as the pair walked onto the tee at the short 11th. To his credit, Roberts responded to the challenge with an exquisite iron shot to four feet which earned a two and nudged him back in front.
The rest of the back nine, however, contained many pitfalls. Romero carded three consecutive bogeys between the 12th and 14th and would have lost touch with the lead but for the fact that Roberts made a hash of his second on the 14th and ran up a double-bogey.
Judgment of distance was the decisive factor by this stage. Left with 176 yards to the 16th green, Roberts miscalculated with a hybrid club and missed the putting surface on the left. After chipping up short, he carded his second double in three holes and was again tied for the lead with Romero.
By this stage, Mast, who began the final day nine strokes adrift of the lead, had eagled the 17th to reach five-under and was suddenly within a shot of glory. A journeyman American pro who never won in 328 starts on the PGA Tour, the 55-year-old only missed out on a spot in the play-off when a 25-foot birdie putt drifted a whisker left of the hole on the last.
A formidable competitor with no interest in becoming a ceremonial golfer, Watson didn't think the wind was as unsettling as some seemed to find it and certainly not as vicious as it was in the autumn of 1973 at the John Player Classic. That was the tournament, of course, where the tented village was decanted onto the Ailsa and Norman Mair, The Scotsman golf correspondent of the day, assumed the brace position and telephoned his copy from underneath a desk.
