TROON, Scotland – The specific game plan for taking on the 145th British Open and hole-by-hole strategy will come later for Zach Johnson. On Monday, there was something else heading up his list of priorities. He had to hand back the champion’s Claret Jug to R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers.
“I practiced,” said Johnson, who emerged from a pack in a wild Monday finish a year ago at the Old Course at St. Andrews to secure his second major title.
He was kidding, or so we think. Johnson, 40, said handing back the most storied trophy in the game was an exercise he considered bittersweet.