John Huggan: Overwhelmed by that sinking feeling

The last putt on the last day of the last major championship always brings with it a feeling of melancholy bordering on depression. Not for a ludicrous eight months will we again get to watch any truly meaningful golf, when the now sadly geriatric “Big Three” of Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus tee-off at Augusta National to signal the start of another Masters – American golf’s so-called “rite of spring”.

Until then, all we have to look forward to is a trio of cups: Walker, Solheim and Presidents, the meaningless money-grabs also known as the FedEx Cup and the Race to Dubai and – a rare highlight – an Australian Open defended by the player of 2015, Jordan Spieth. Quite apart from finishing first in two of golf’s four most important events, the 22-year-old Texan was a cumulative – and record-breaking – 54 under par for the 16 rounds he played over Augusta National, Chambers Bay, the Old Course at St Andrews and Whistling Straits. As a measure of just how good that is, the newly minted USPGA champion, Jason Day, finished second on the 18-strong unofficial list, 19 shots behind.

Indeed, while the major championships do not always provide a wholly accurate picture of what is happening at the sharp end of the game in a given season, this year three of the four were won by the two men who hit the fewest number of shots overall. All of which only provokes sympathy for Justin Rose. The Englishman, US Open champion in 2013, was 34 under par – just one shot behind Day – yet came away with nothing other than a pile of cash and a nod of admiration for shooting the fourth-best aggregate seen in the past 30 years.

The same, to only a slightly lesser extent, can be said of the enigmatic Dustin Johnson, who was five shots behind Rose. Capable of the most stunning play one minute and the most mediocre rubbish the next, Johnson’s year in the majors was accurately summarised by his play in the last round of the USPGA a week ago. After opening with a quadruple-bogey 8, the 31-year-old South Carolinian made two more bogeys over the next 17 holes yet still got round in 69 (three under par) to finish tied for seventh.

Consistency, of course, has always been the most overrated quality in golf. Very soon, no one will recall how well Rose performed in 2015. But Zach Johnson – who failed to qualify for the weekend at Whistling Straits – will forever be remembered as the man who won the Open Championship at the Home of Golf. Which is why three missed cuts and a win is surely – and ironically – more satisfying than, say, the four top-five finishes recorded by Rickie Fowler last year. Winning is everything.

But is it? Last Sunday evening, Spieth was perhaps understandably looking far from devastated at his “failure” to complete what would inevitably been called the American Slam. He had played well – he was the first man ever to shoot 17 under par for 72 holes in any major and not win – and had been beaten by the better man. No shame in that. Plus, he had the added bonus and consolation of ascending to the No.1 ranking spot in the world. Amazingly, the Masters and US Open champion is only the second American this century – Tiger Woods the other – to achieve that singular feat.

Anyway, back on the “no cuts missed” list, Europe’s Ryder Cup captain Darren Clarke will have taken note of the fact that men who will most likely form the core of his side next year at Hazeltine – Rose, Sergio Garcia, Henrik Stenson and Paul Casey – all performed with some distinction in the events they all want to win most.

Throw in Rory McIlroy, who we can safely assume would have played all four rounds in the Open, and Clarke will be reasonably content with the way things are looking just before the qualifying period begins in the upcoming Russian Open. The presence of those experienced figures makes the prospect of Ryder rookies like Shane Lowry, Danny Willett, Joost Luiten and, hopefully, Scotland’s Marc Warren, all making the side that bit less daunting on foreign soil.

For all that, more immediate attention will turn to the bamboozling and somewhat tedious business of the aforementioned FedEx Cup. Historically close to irrelevant, this thinly disguised month-long orgy of cash-grabbing “appearance money” is diminished by the fact that, billed as a “play-off” series, it is actually nothing of the sort. .

Much more fun will be the biennial matches between the United States and first the male amateurs of Great Britain & Ireland for the Walker Cup, then Europe’s women professionals in the Solheim Cup, then the International side made up of male professionals from everywhere except Europe.