At Turnberry Lawrie 'Wins' High-Scot Honors, Manassero Is High Amateur

Stewart Cink is the British Open champion, the first major victory of his 15-year professional career. Given what happened at the 2001 U.S. Open at Southern Hills, you might say it's a been a long time coming.

But part of me wonders if the 138th Open Championship will be remembered for who didn't win. Tom Watson, 59 -- and 26 years removed from his last major title -- was the 54-hole leader. In fact, he was the 71st-hole leader, too. A sloppy bogey on the last landed him in a playoff with Cink and that was that.

It was a valiant effort and a hell of a lot of fun to watch, particularly since we weren't beaten about the head with every Tiger Woods shot since, you know, he missed the cut.

Ten years ago, Jean Van de Velde held a three-shot lead on the last hole of Open Championship. A slow-motion train wreck triple-bogey got him into a playoff but by then his fate was sealed. Oh, and Paul Lawrie eventually outlasted Justin Leonard for the Claret Jug that year. It's easy to forget.

I mention Lawrie because he's in the news again. Sort of. He's Scottish, this year's Open Championship was held in Scotland, and he had the highest finish among his countrymen. It's hard to make an 8-over, T47th exciting, but I think this qualifies:

Lawrie made an albatross-3 on the par-5 seventh hole on Sunday that was, all things considered, the highlight of the week for the home side.

Lawrie's 4-iron from 213 yards lifted him into top-Scot honors, somewhere around 50th place. Adding to that competitive injury the Scottish had to endure a high-profile row between two of their top players – Sandy Lyle and Colin Montgomerie.

Ah, yes, Sandy and Mrs. Doubtfire. Apparently, catfights take a lot out of old people because Lyle and Monty missed the cut. In fact, the only other Scot to play the weekend was David Drysdale who finished 10-over for the week. So, yeah, that seemingly meaningless Lawrie double-eagle on No. 7 proved to be the difference.

Meanwhile, Italy's Matteo Manassero won low amateur honors. The 16-year-old, who played with Watson the first two days, tied for 13th after shooting 2-over. For some perspective, when Tiger Woods played his first PGA Tour event as an amateur in 1992, Manassero was -1.