The Limerick Summary: 2014 Open Championship

Winner: Rory McIlroy

Around the wider world of golf: Kylie Walker won the Ladies German Open on the LET; Lydia Ko got her second LPGA win of the year at the Marathon Classic; Steve Wheatcroft won the Albertsons Boise Open on the Web.com Tour; Wes Homan won the Staal Foundation Open on the PGA Tour Canada; Troy Cox won the Ian Weigh Toyota Rockhampton Pro Am on the Australasian Tour; and Misuzu Narita won the JLPGA's Samantha Thavasa Ladies (the Constructivist has details).



Until he bogeyed the 15th, I thought Sergio Garcia just might pull it off. He had gotten himself within two shots of Rory... but that 6-shot lead to begin the day was just too much. (Sergio said later that, even before the bogey, he knew that Rory hadn't stumbled badly enough to give him a chance. It didn't stop Sergio from giving Rory a smiling congratulations at the end. Sergio has come a long way.)

And it doesn't stop me from gloating just a bit. They may not have won, but 3 of my picks -- Sergio, Rickie Fowler, and Jim Furyk -- filled out the Top4 at the Open. I rarely choose that well!

The old cliche proved to be true: Rory both drove for show and putted for dough. (And for the Claret Jug, of course!) Rory became the only European player with 3 legs of the Career Slam, with only the Masters left to go... and Phil Mickelson was probably correct when he said Rory's game was well-suited to picking up that last leg! He became the 3rd youngest player to get to the 3/4 point:

1. Jack at 23
2. Tiger at 24
3. Rory at 25

And of course he set a number of other records, most of which escape me at the moment.

Of course, it seemed that the biggest news was the bet Rory's dad (and a few friends) placed 10 years ago concerning Rory winning the Open. There are a number of different reports about the bets and exactly what the bettors won, but ESPN posted the Ladbrokes official announcement on their site. Here's the short version (these are quoted from the article):

There were 3 bets:

• One bet -- believed to be made by McIlroy's father -- was a 200-pound wager ($341) at 500/1 odds placed in 2004 for his son to win within 10 years. That bet will pay out $171,000.
• The second bet -- believed to be made by his dad's friends -- was for 200 pounds at 250/1 for him to win The Open by 2015, and
• The third bet -- also believed to be made by his dad's friends -- was for 200 pounds at 150/1 for McIlroy to win The Open before age 50. These last two bets will pay out a combined $136,700.

And Ladbrokes tweeted that they will be paying these bets off. These are called special odds requests and apparently they aren't unusual, although most of them never pay off. You can get the details from that ESPN article.

In the meantime, Rory will be sipping wine from his jug in celebration of his newest Limerick Summary. That's worth more than anything, right?

Three-fourths of the way to the Slam
Rory’s proved he’s a wolf, not a lamb!
There’s a smile on his mug
When he’s holding the Jug…
And on Dad’s. He’ll drink more than a dram!

The photo is the selfie that Rory sent out on @The_Open.