That's all folks: 2015 Open Golf Blog

Bill Eliott writes this 2015 Open Golf Blog on the end of the marathon Open Championship and then end (just) of Jordan Spieth's grand slam attempt

2015 Open Review

That's all folks: 2015 Open Golf Blog

DISAPPOINTMENT arrives in different ways and for different reasons.

There was a time not long ago when Jordan Spieth would have been delighted to have finished one tantalising shot away from an Open Championship play-off. Not, however, now.

Those who felt it was too much to expect for this 21 years old prodigy to continue his Major run this year at St Andrews were proved correct.

But, come on, didn't he give it a rip. In the end it was a fractionally misjudged putt on 17 and a slightly overspun wedge to the last that cost him dear.

We should not, however, now begin to undervalue his achievements so far this year and his increasing impact on a game that can only benefit from his presence towards the centre of the top table.

Somewhere a limping Rory McIlroy knows for sure that he has a real fight on his hand for years to come.

And golf knows that it has a rivalry for the ages.

Where Rory is all bouncy and animated Ulster charm Jordan is considered Texan intelligence.

This Open was my first chance to spend some time in his company and I am leaving Scotland hugely impressed with his maturity, his wit and his instinctively mannered  ability to deal with a big room full of hardened reporters at least twice his age.

I really did believe that he would win this Open and while he didn't, he did win many more admirers. It was in the end a beleaguered Open, a Championship battered by weather and diminished by the absence of the world number one but it remained a truly memorable one.

We shall always remember Zach Johnson as the winner, of course we will, but many of us I suspect will mostly recall this 144th Championship for the resolute effort of a player only just past the cusp of manhood who attacked an unlikely target with real panache and confidence.

Spieth will, surely, win one of these at least once over the next couple of decades but, you know what, he will never eclipsed the glory of this particular failure.

At least not for me he won't. Safe home everyone.