Open Championship: Spieth, Kuch and Poulter thinking about Sunday faceoff
Spieth, Kuch, and Poulter all ready to bring the winning Sunday game to the 146th Open Championship.
The 146th Open Championship leaderboard is beginning to firm up and while there’s still much golf to be played, I’m beginning to think about the possibilities for Sunday afternoon at Royal Birkdale.
I could be wrong. The game of golf is peppered with upsets, dreams dashed on bad bounces and bumbled tee shots. But I’m thinking about Jordan Spieth, Matt Kuchar, and Ian Poulter coming down the back nine Sunday afternoon and battling it out, shot-for-shot in a Sunday Shootout like no other.
Jordan Spieth will be trying to complete the third leg of a career Grand Slam. There’s no question that’s on his mind. I don’t care if he chews one piece of gum or ten. He wants to put his hands on the Claret Jug and lift it high and claim that victory, and Spieth has been playing the kind of game through fair weather and foul that should get him across the finish line.
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Then there’s Matt Kuchar, one of the game’s most pleasant and likable guys, a 39-year old who has 13 pro victories on his résumé and not a single one of them a major championship. Kuch keeps finishing inside the top-10 at the majors, but he hasn’t been able to close the deal.
Kuch matched Spieth’s first round with a beautiful, bogey-free 65 on his card but then dropped back on Friday, and that was playing in the more benign morning conditions while his Ryder Cup pod mate battled the elements and still managed a 1-under par second round (the first time the Texan has managed to get in red numbers at an Open Championship second round).
Still, Kuch says playing in the final group at The Open Championship is every boy’s dream and he’s going to have fun. Do you think that means Kuch doesn’t care about winning? Think again.
And finally, there Ian Poulter who goes into the weekend chasing but who’s certainly entertaining dreams of his own.
". . . there’s a lot of golf to be played. I’m going to love to grab that thing with two hands, if I can. I think you can guess how good it would feel like after the year I’ve had . . ."
The gallery will be there for the Englishman, on every hole, with every shot. They want the home boy to hoist the silver jug and with Fleetwood out – that opening 76 was just too much to overcome, despite two very fine rounds that followed – Poulter is the closest to a home boy the gallery at Royal Birkdale are likely to get.
I’m looking for one of these three to join the list of Royal Birkdale’s Golf Champions.
Next: Royal Birkdale's Champions
Brooks Koepka is right there, too, and Branden Grace really isn’t that far back as third round play unfolds, and Rory McIlroy is the wild card, but I’m seeing the battle shaping up between Spieth, Kuch, and Poulter.