Only half-joking, Cameron Smith said he planned on drinking the Claret Jug 20 times over after capturing golf’s oldest and most cherished trophy with an extraordinary finish at St Andrews.
“I’m definitely going to see how many beers fit in this thing,” an ecstatic Smith said after reeling in Rory McIlroy, then holding off Cameron Young in a rousing finale on Sunday.
With five consecutive birdies to open the back nine and then another to seal victory at the last, Smith won by a shot from Young with a record final-round 64.
His 20-under four-round total was also the 72-hole Open scoring record, leaving Smith to ponder a question from former AFL footballer now sports podcaster, Dylan Buckley, about how he intended to celebrate the famous win.
“I’ll probably have about 20 Claret Jugs,” he said, guesstimating the spoils would fit “two cans of beer”.
Smith is only the fifth Australian to have his name etched onto the trophy, joining Greg Norman (1986 and 1993), Ian Baker Finch (1991), Kel Nagle (1960) and five-times champion Peter Thomson (1954, 1955, 1956, 1958 and 1965).
Cameron Smith became the fifth Australian to collect the Claret Jug after his one-shot win at The Open at St Andrews.(AP: Alastair Grant)
As fate would have it, Smith’s victory at the 150th Open — the most celebrated tournament in the sport’s rich history — followed Nagle’s at the 100-year anniversary Open in 1960.
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