Zach Johnson’s 28 footer for birdie on 18 that he sank was historically good at the 144th Open Championship at St. Andrews on Monday. It put Zach in the clubhouse at -15 and waiting on Jordan Spieth, Jason Day, Louis Oosthuizen and Marc Leishman to finish and see if he was in a playoff or if he might come up short by a shot. I’m sure there was a lot of anxiety on Zach’s part.

It was a battle down the stretch. Louis sank an eight footer on 17 for par to take it to 18 where he finished with a clutch birdie to get into the playoff. Leishman held firm, almost sinking a 90 foot putt on 17 that would have put him in at -16 if he parred 18, which he did, and he made the playoff. Zach of course got it done with two consecutive birdies on the first two holes of the four hole playoff and won by a shot over Louis who just barely missed an eight footer for birdie on 18 that would have tied Zach and put them in a sudden death playoff. Zach prevailed and he was a gracious, humble champion.

Spieth fought courageously as you would expect from this amazing 21 year old, who will turn 22 next Monday (7-27). The four-putt double bogey on 8 was tough to take and dropped him to -12; at the time three shots back. But he birdied nine and 10, and then on 16 sank a miraculous and champion-like 45 footer to tie for the lead at -15. He went to the 17th looking for at least at par on the difficult road hole. If he did that, he had  a very good chance of winning his third major in a row because 18 is short with a high chance for birdie. His second shot on the long road hole landed in the rough about 50 yards short of the hole. He chipped it up to eight feet and it seemed like a typical Spieth moment where he’d sink the putt and move onto 18 with a good chance of tying Ben Hogan’s record of three majors in a row in one season. But his putt slid to the right for bogey which dropped him to -14, so he had to have a birdie to make a potential playoff with Zach, who was at -15, as was Leishman, and Jason Day was at -14 playing with Spieth. Louis was behind him and could go even lower. He hit a drive to the left on 18, and couldn’t get it down in three. But Spieth, in typical fashion, was just as classy in defeat as he has been in victory. He was one of the first guys out on 18 to do congratulate  Zach after Zach won the playoff.

Jack Nicklaus finished second 19 times in majors and Tiger Woods has finished second six times in his career. So it happens to the best. But I love the way Jordan competed like he always does with tenacity and, even more importantly, with high character. He handled not winning this one as well as anyone could. Zach was just the best player on Monday as he shot a final round 66.

The Grand Slam may not have been accomplished in the modern day era, but I’ll credit Bobby Jones with winning the Grand Slam. He won the the U.S. Open, the Open Championship, the U.S. Amateur and the British Amateur in 1930. The Masters was not in existence at the time and the PGA was not considered a major at the time. That’s what he had to do, and he got it done. Jones deserves every bit of credit for winning the Grand Slam.

It’s even harder to do now, as Spieth showed. It’s even harder to win three majors in a row like Hogan did in 1953. The competition is as fierce as ever, the media frenzy is more intense than ever. The pressure is immense. The depth of excellent players is out the roof good right now, and now there is getting to be a pretty good depth of elite players and players who are going to be elite. I’d say Jason Day, Dustin Johnson, Louis, Rory, of course, Rickie Fowler, Bubba Watson, Martin Kaymer and Justin Rose are all elite players. Adam Scott, still is a major contender. Young guys like Patrick Reed, Brooks Koepka and Justin Thomas are coming up the pike to be elite players. So the degree of difficulty  today of winning one major a year is very high. So what Spieth did winning two majors in a row is quite remarkable, and being right there in the hunt for his third straight major was spectacular theater.

But you have to give credit to the 39 year old from Iowa City, Iowa, who is certainly elite. The thinking was that players needed to play in the Scottish Open the week before to win at St. Andrews. Well, Zach and Spieth disproved that theory by playing in the John Deere Classic in Illinois. Spieth won it and Zach finished second missing out on a playoff between Jordan and Tom Gillis by one shot. So Zach and Jordan were both trending well and both of their games transferred extremely well to the Old Course. Zach is a salt of the Earth guy. He’s a midwesterner who is devoted to his wife and two sons and daughter and had Bible verses in his yardage book. He’s quite a classy, high character guy. With his Masters victory in 2007 and now his victory at the Open Championship at the home of golf,  he certainly has earned a Hall of Fame resume. He has 12 PGA tour victories in his hopper now. And he’s not done. He’s still hungry for more. The way he’s playing, I see him as a favorite at Whistling Straits for the 97th PGA Championship.

Spieth is of course another favorite, and I think Dustin Johnson and Day will be right there. Johnson had the infamous two shot penalty for grounding his club at Whistling Straits on No.18 in 2010 that prevented him from winning that PGA, which Martin Kaymer eventually won in a playoff over Bubba. Two other guys who will be right in the hunt are Kaymer and Bubba. I’d put Justin Rose in that group.

Tiger, I don’t see it. His game is disastrous right now and  he can’t fix it by the PGA, which takes place Aug. 13-16th. If he gets some competition in– he will play at the WGC Bridgestone Invitationalwhere he has won an amazing eight times–maybe he can be competitive. But he’s won a lot of places wherehe hasn’t even been competitive this year. He missed the cut at the Memorial where he had won five times. The list goes on: the Arnie, the Masters, missed cut at the U.S. Open and another major missed cut disaster at St. Andrews, where he has won twice in 2000 and 2005. His game’s just not there. Not even close. Whether he really wants to get back there competing for majors and going for Jack’s record is a major question mark. The work it will take will be monumental at this point. But he has been the ultimate competitor in the past, so maybe he can find the inner fortitude to bring his game back to the standards he had just two years ago when he was player of the year and won five times. But he hasn’t won a major since the U.S. Open in 2008 at Torrey Pines, so his ability to break through now and win over this level of competition doesn’t look too good. I’d put his chances of winning another major at 15-20% and of catching Jack at 0%. I don’t think it’s going to happen now. The competition is just too good. Still the second best player of all time up to this point, but it just isn’t working for him right now.

Rory is a question mark for the PGA. His severely sprained ankle is a serious problem for his golf game. Using your ankles are pretty critical in the golf swing and a severe sprain takes five to six weeks to get over at best. It happened three weeks ago, so there is chance at him playing in the PGA. There were reports that there was some possible ligament damage. So his chances of playing look to be about 35% and his chances of winning are 0%.

All the credit goes to Zach Johnson at the 144th playing of the Open Championship, and all the players who were in the hunt for this majestic major. It’s always memorable at St. Andrews. It seems like every major these days are memorable. Something magical happens. The tournament  had some hiccups with the weather, but that’s golf at the Old Course. You never know what to expect weather wise in Scotland. I didn’t think the R&A handled Saturday morning very well putting players back on the course in 40 MPH winds. That was dumb. But the major championship turned out to be a classic and the R&A redeemed themselves, though it was really the players who redeemed the R&A. Great champion in Zach. Great effort by Louis, Leishman, Spieth and Day. One to remember in the annals of this great major championship at one of the world’s classic courses, if not the most classic, though I’d put Augusta is right there with it. Now it’s on to Whistling Straits with a few stops in between. Will be fun.