McIlroy’s Open Champ Dreams Crushed at St. Andrews
ST. ANDREWS, Scotland – Making his 25th major championship appearance, Cameron Smith defeated Cameron Young by one stroke to win the 150th Open Championship. It marked his sixth win on Tour and first major championship title.
At 20-under, Smith equals the lowest score in relation to par in major championship history. With a 6-under (30) (including five straight birdies on Nos. 10-14), Smith carded the lowest closing nine-hole score by a winner in Open Championship history.
Smith’s (268) marks the lowest winning score by a champion at St. Andrews (269, Tiger Woods, 2000) while he became the fifth Australian to win The Open and first since Greg Norman in 1993. He joined Peter Thomson(1955) and Kel Nagle (1960) as Australian winners at St. Andrews.
Smith also joined Jack Nicklaus (1978) as the only players to win THE PLAYERS Championship and The Open in the same year.
This season marks the first time since the Masters Tournament began in 1934 that all four majors were won by players under the age of 30.
PGA Tour rookie Cameron Young’s runner-up finish is the best by a player in his Open debut at St. Andrews since Tony Lema won in 1964.
The Open | Final Leaderboard
Cameron Smith 67-64-73-64—268 (-20)
Cameron Young 64-69-71-65—269 (-19)
Rory McIlroy 66-68-66-70—270 (-18)
Tommy Fleetwood 72-69-66-67—274 (-14)
Viktor Hovland 68-66-66-74—274 (-14)
Full Leaderboard: (link)