ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — Louis Oosthuizen stepped to the microphone stand, but no words came out. At the end of a numbingly long workday, Oosthuizen had no energy to talk over his playing competitor, Tiger Woods, who was conducting his
ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — Louis Oosthuizen stepped to the microphone stand, but no words came out. At the end of a numbingly long workday, Oosthuizen had no energy to talk over his playing competitor, Tiger Woods, who was conducting his postround post-mortem several feet away.
“I’m so tired,” Oosthuizen said Saturday night after finally finishing his second round at the British Open.
The son of a South African farmer, Oosthuizen gravitated to golf because he wished to escape the sunrise-to-sundown work grind. Negotiating six holes over 12 hours was hard labor of a different sort, but Oosthuizen, 32, did not give up. He kept grinding, fought through his frustration, pushed through the exhaustion, battled the bucking bronco of a wind and was rewarded with a 2-under-par 70 on the Old Course. At 7 under par, Oosthuizen was three strokes behind the 36-hole leader, Dustin Johnson.
“The putting was the main thing,” said Oosthuizen, whose day began with a 2-foot par attempt that became a 1-foot tap-in that turned into an 8-foot knee-knocker without Oosthuizen’s putter touching his ball.
Gale-force winds moved the ball to and fro on the 13th green, leading to a suspension of play that lasted 10 hours, 28 minutes. That is an eternity to contemplate a treacherous par putt, but when he at last got the chance, Oosthuizen stepped up and drained it.
“I made the proper putts for pars,” he said, “and you need that to keep a round going.”
Jordan Spieth stepped to the microphone stand after taking off his billed cap and wiping his forehead with his sweater sleeve. He was so tired he could hardly wait to get the decent night’s sleep that had eluded him Friday night, when he was at the course until almost 11 p.m. and back in his golf attire six hours later.
Spieth’s gallery included people who traveled more than 4,500 miles from his hometown of Dallas and stuck around all day so they could yell, “Go, Bearcats!” when he strode past them. The Bearcats, Spieth explained later, were his junior high mascots at St. Monica Catholic School.
It can be exhausting carrying the hopes of the great state of Texas and the calendar Grand Slam hopes of a sport on his shoulders, and Spieth’s energy reserves were depleted.
“I didn’t get a whole lot of sleep last night, being off the course so late, having to go get dinner and then showering, get to bed and wake up at 4:45,” he said.
Spieth had a three-putt for par on No. 14, the first of two holes he played in his first shift Saturday. When play finally resumed, he produced another three-putt, his fifth of the round, on the second hole of his second shift.
Spieth, 21, normally an excellent lag putter, considered the three-putts an affront, but he did not give up. He kept grinding, fought through his frustration, pushed through the exhaustion, battled the bucking bronco of a wind and ended up with no discernible gains on his scorecard.
All that time and toil and trouble, and Spieth was at 5 under, exactly where he started the second round.
“I guess I should have putted in the dark last night,” Spieth said, referring to his eagle putt at 14, which he chose to sleep on rather than stroke in the dark. “It would have been a better position to be in, even though I couldn’t have really read it.”
Spieth added, “I think I lost a stroke there, but I also gained a couple on guys that were ahead of me in that delay, or going out early, so I can’t complain too much about it.”
Woods, who won the tournament when it was held here in 2000 and 2005, went to the microphone stand and looked out at the sea of faces, waiting for somebody to ask him something. No matter how artfully worded, every question he fielded was essentially a variation of: Where has his A-game gone?
The 39-year-old Woods started slowly Thursday and never found a higher gear. He failed to record a birdie on the front nine, the Old Course’s more benign side so far. His slow starts threw into sharp relief the ragged state of his game, especially when you consider that the two legends taking their final bows, 65-year-old Tom Watson and Nick Faldo, who turned 58 Saturday, each managed at least one birdie on that side.
Staying over an extra night to post a score when he had no realistic chance of making the cut had to be humbling, but Woods, a 14-time major champion, did not give up. He kept grinding, fought through his frustration, pushed through the exhaustion, battled the wind and ended up with an ignominious piece of personal history to show for it . With a 75, one stroke better than his Thursday round, Woods missed the cut in a second consecutive major for the first time.
“I had my opportunities,” Woods said. “I just didn’t get the ball close enough, and then when I did, I didn’t make them.”
