So that’s it for another year then – the Open Championship done and dusted. The circus packs up and moves on to Portrush leaving behind a trail of traumatised talent.
Troon proved to be a seaside stock car race with the elements throwing up an examination which teetered on the edge of unfathomable at times but in the end it delivered an A-list winner.
Not a Rory McIlroy maybe – it wouldn’t be would it? – nor a Bryson DeChambeau but an Open champion worthy of the name.
This was a championship which took many to the limit and beyond and to win it demanded a man of substance.
‘Forged By Nature’ read the Open slogan across the grandstands but nature can be cruel.
When even Shane Lowry, who does not mind a drop of rain, is moaning you know conditions are rough but that is the Open for you when the weather comes in. The test is technical but also mental. It demands resilience as much as skill.
Xander Schauffele proved the full package.
An Open Championship, influenced as it is by the luck of the draw and the capricious bounce of the links, does not always throw up the best winner but it is hard to argue with Schauffele’s credentials.
He is the seventh American to triumph at a Troon Open in the last eight stagings.
The concertina effect of the brutal Saturday evening conditions had served to squeeze the leaderboard, only for the Olympic champion to pull it apart again with his one-man show.
It deprived the final round of some drama but over the course of the piece, this championship had plenty.
Maybe the set-up did tip over into unfair territory on Saturday evening when the weather blew in – drivers at par threes is extreme – but then life is unfair. It throws out its challenges and the job is to deal with them as best you can.
“Sadistically enjoyable,” was Rose’s take.
Russell Henley wouldn’t even go that far.
“I feel very uncomfortable here. It’s just a completely different ballgame,” said the American.
“I think over here your game plan that you normally have at home is kind of thrown out the window.”
The Troon grind was compellingly gritty. The rain fell, the wind blew and the bunkers punished those that went astray.
Darren Clarke had the best advice for the players who moaned about the depth of them.
“Don’t f—ing hit the ball in them then,” he said.
Nothing came easily but that is how it should be. There are enough golf tournaments that border on exhibitions.
There is a certain pleasure in seeing the best of the best subjected to the sort of frustrations us mortals face.
For that the Ayrshire links and its microclimate is owed a debt of gratitude.
In throwing up a fourth round shake-up featuring the World No 1, the US PGA champion, a great English hope and a rank outsider Troon did its bit. It took something spectacular to turn Sunday into a stroll.
For the galleries, it was an exhibition rather than a thrill ride but over the four days they had their money’s worth – even if watching from the comfort of the living room was the drier option.
Thomas Bjorn, the former European Ryder Cup captain, had it right when he observed on social media.
“Isn’t this just the best golf event in the world?? I would be swearing and moaning out there but sitting on my couch I would give everything to be out there.”
Better than the Masters? It is like comparing two different worlds. But there was beauty in this beast.
In the end only nine players finished under par.
Matteo Manassero, the Italian, wasn’t one of them but it didn’t colour his appreciation of the championship.
“The Open is very special. It’s golf at its very finest. It’s pure,” he said.
He spoke for many.
