Nuevamente, un gran campeón (SPA-ENG)

A great champion, again

At the beginning of yesterday afternoon in these latitudes, the oldest major tournament in world golf ended, the most traditional and probably the most prestigious of the four. However, that is just a personal opinion, probably the North Americans, who have in their country three of the four championships that make up the Grand Slam, disagree.

The North Americans are so immersed in the importance of this only major tournament that does not take place in their lands that so far in the 21st century they have won half plus one of the editions played, "leaving" the rest of the players from other countries that share the other victories, much to their regret.

In this 152nd edition, as in the previous year, a man born in the United States of America obtained the title and a succulent check of 3.1 million. Xander Scheuffele closed this year with two Grand Slam titles since he had won in the PGA Championship, but that's not all, for the first time in the last 42 years, the four most important tournaments in golf have been left in the hands of Americans since the world number one, Scottie Scheffler won Augusta National and Bryson De Chambeau won. He won the US Open.

Xander, born in San Diego, California 30 years ago, is the son of a German immigrant and Taiwanese mother. He has a family history of elite athletes. His great-grandfather was a good soccer player who defended the colors of the Austria national team and his grandfather was an outstanding athlete who won over 40 titles in discus, javelin, and shot put.

Schauffele turned professional in 2015 and in his career, he had accumulated 7 wins in tournaments organized and supervised by the PGA but the major tournaments had been denied to him, much was said about his mental attitude since he had led on several occasions in these important tournaments championships but had finally succumbed to pressure or circumstances and was relegated, that was until this year's PGA Championship, when he brilliantly won the victory, bearing the weight of being the leader from the beginning of the last lap. Now he confirms his great game and his concentration by winning the British Open brilliantly, coming from behind and with an extraordinary last round despite the adverse weather conditions, in that last round he got 6 birdies and no bogey on his card, and he finished with 65 strokes (-6 concerning the court's par) to be at the top of the leaderboard with a total of -9, he was 2 ahead of his immediate pursuer, the 43-year-old British Justin Rose, who if he triumphed would been the oldest since the Argentine Roberto De Vicenzo won the title in 1967 at the age of 44.

Xander Schauffele did not have much time to celebrate such an important achievement, a few hours later he packed his things and headed to France where he will defend his gold medal won in Tokyo 2020.