2018 Open – Francesco Molinari looks at Woods, Spieth and Car-Nasty in final Sunday

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This was the box office sport. The wind had risen, changing direction and often leaving players in the purgatory equivalent of golf, while they were trying to make informed estimates about club selection. It was a carnage at times, going against the tradition of golf. "Golf is very slow, you're not supposed to get too chaotic," said Xander Schauffele. He was in the middle of the madness and witnessed the shot that was the catalyst for the heckling of the afternoon.

It was about three past three o'clock on Sunday afternoon when Jordan Spieth sent his second shot on the 6th in a jagged bush.

Marshall David Dawson knows that every blade of grbad on this course has been a long time member of Carnoustie, but even he has not ventured that way before. Spieth strode toward the banks, tightening the channel, and then his situation became clear. He called all hands on the deck to help him find his well hidden ball. The marshals, the media and the clbad officials snuck between the brambles, Spieth having called his jumper to protect his hands, but he always came out with a cut finger. After a nervous wait, Dawson took a step in the bush, and there was Spieth's ball.

"Come on guys, give me five minutes of respect," Spieth shouted to the boiling crowd, then pulled the photographers away. He then dubbed the hole after missing a routine bogey putt

This was just an isolated incident and out of the ordinary, while the golf theater was playing everywhere, with roars coming from the Tiger Woods group while he was in charge. As Spieth left the 6th green, he glanced at the rankings. "I looked up, and I saw Tiger at No. 1, and he was leading solo, and I went to Michael [Greller, his caddie]," Dammit, I looked at the board , man. "I was frustrated to myself:" He has not held this position for ten years, and you've been here for how many times in the last three years? I felt good, that's what I've been doing. is good, that's what you're dreaming of anyway. "

But unlike Royal Birkdale last year, when a long trip around the training ground to the 13th the 6th was just one of the setbacks of a defeated round of the reigning champion and overnight leader.

Spieth played in the last group alongside Schauffele, who was playing. beautifully among the most illustrious names. At one point, on the 6th, another said to his friend, "Who is this guy in the pink? "He is the head of the course," replied his friend. "Oh …"

But Schauffele's own setback was to make a hole later on the 7th, when he found the rough, he finished at the top of his recovery shot and spawned a way to double bogey. "Jordan and I made a strange start feeding each other in the worst possible way, and we sort of calmed the sails half way," Schauffele said afterwards. "We were just in the strangest possible places on the golf course, you know, where we did not think we would be." The campaigns collapsed around less stressful holes, but he continued to plug in until he had a chance of birdie on the 16th, to bogey then on the 17th and finish at 6 under. a four-way tie for the second. Those who stand around the course now know that Xander Schauffele is more than just a game won in Scrabble

Rory McIlroy did a trick of incoherence at this point – three birdies, two bogeys. But then came an eagle throbbing on the 14th. He celebrated by jumping to face the podium and hitting the air, and for the next holes, the rebound was back in his footsteps. His confidence running, McIlroy suddenly seemed the best placed to take the Claret Jug but he was unable to follow with birdies, finishing at six cents.

"It was great, just to be part of it and hear the roars," McIlroy said. "Tiger is back in the mix, you know, there are a lot of big names out there, it was good to be part of it … For a moment, I thought that Tiger was going to win. and spoil the party here. "

It was the most extravagant experience nge that occurred during the course of the drama. The claustrophobic layout meant that you were still peeking around as cheers rose, floating on the breeze from the Angus coast. And the Tiger effect loomed over the burnt plains. While he was sneaking to the top of the rankings, nostalgia was overflowing. Woods out there in the red top, looting the course for every possible shot, only 455 days removed from the back surgery.

"I did it [competed] in many different ways, he did not feel different," said afterwards, but eventually he was left sixth tied with Englishman Eddie Pepperell. Pepperell was another Sunday loader, leaving before noon and pulling a 67, only to admit later that he was not feeling exactly his best. "I was a little hangover," Pepperell said. "I will not lie, I drank too much last night."

Sandwich between Woods and the group of Francesco Molinari and the closing couple of Spieth and Schauffele were the American duo Kevin Kisner, tied for leader, and Kevin Chappell. Francesco Molinari posted the only free round of the final round at Carnoustie while playing alongside a Tiger Woods in charge. WILL OLIVER / EPA

All the while, the forgotten man in Woods' group was chaining a bogey-free round, the only one of the 79 players who played Sunday to handle this feat. It was not until the rounds of McIlroy and Woods failed to tip the seven-under mark that Molinari suddenly emerged as the man most likely to win the victory. "Clearly, in my group, the attention was not really on me, let's say it like that," says Molinari.

The practice of the green here at Carnoustie is just a few steps from the madness of the 18th green. The groans and the acclamations of the galleries are inevitable. When Molinari finished with a 69 under two, he attempted to maintain concentration by hiding at the sight on the putting green, saying that it was a way to relieve nervous nausea. The crowds began to gather around him, aware that his companions were closing with bogeys and pars, they were attending a potential champion. Molinari momentarily remembered that he was reserved for the 21h flight.

The last decisive moment came when Schauffele's approach to the 17th green was misplaced right and upside down, behind a bush and left it with an impossible approach on a bunker. Bogey followed, leaving him forced to make an eagle to force the extension.