Congratulations to Daren Clarke for The Open victory!  This couldn't have happend to a nicer guy or a person so respected by his fellow competitors and liked by the common golfer.  There were a few keys that I noticed which lead to victory.  The ball striking by Daren was solid all week especially in the last couple rounds but what really stood out to me was his tenacity to keep grinding and not being discouraged by all of the missed putts.  If Clarke had putted well from the 10 to 25 foot range, he might have won by 10.  He did make almost every single putt inside of the 10 foot range.  This was the difference between he and Phil Mickelson.  Phil missed many short putts and still finished tied for 2nd.  I think there is no secret that putting wins championships but this was a glaring example of it.  The lesson here is to practice from inside 10 feet all the time so that you are on the positive side of this example.

I thought that even though the championship was not won by an American it was a great showing out of the U.S. players.  Dustin Johnson tied with Phil Mickelson for 2nd but had a great run until he pressed a little to hard on par 5, sending his second shot out of bounds and made it nearly impossibly to catch Clarke with only 3 holes remaining.  Ricky Fowler also had a great showing for a youngster.  There were a lot of American flags on the leaderboad and it was very refreshing to see.  I believe this is a greatly positive sign for the near future of american golf.