The No-pen Championship, Part Deux

Raise a pint of the plain this a.m. to Shane Lowry, who is not from Northern Ireland but still an Irishman, and who won the British Open by six strokes Sunday at Royal Portrush in the North. It was Lowry's first win in a major, and he won it on his home island if not his homeland. So here's to him.

And here's to Royal Portrush, which finally showed the teeth a respectable Open Championship course is supposed to show in the final round.

Wind and rain lashed the course in proper British Isles fashion Sunday, and everyone properly suffered -- even Lowry, who cruised to his six-stroke win even though he carded a 1-over 72. This was only right, because suffering is frequently the essence of golf, and its oldest championship just as frequently sets the tone for that.

Which brings us to poor J.B. Holmes, who was the epitome of golf suffering on Sunday.

Holmes is pretty much a PGA Tour ham-and-egger, a guy who'll win you an occasional Greater Hog Wallow Slim Jim Open but never the marquee events. The gods, however, chose to smile on him briefly over the weekend.

He led by a stroke after one round. He was still tied for the lead after two rounds. Even going into Sunday, he was tied for third and just six strokes adrift of the lead.

Then the Open Championship said, "OK, chum. That's quite enough out of you."

In all that wind and rain, Holmes dropped like a brick dropped from a great height. After making bogey or worse just five times in the first three rounds, he did it 11 times in 18 holes Sunday. At one point he followed a triple bogey with a double bogey. He finished with an 87 and wound up in a tie for 67th.

Third to 67th in 18 holes. Now that's some classic Open Championship stuff.

Even worse, he was playing with Brooks Koepka, the best golfer in the world right now and a man on his way to making history by becoming the first player in PGA history to finish fourth or better in all four majors in a calendar year. And who spent most of the afternoon figuratively tapping his foot and looking at his watch as Holmes, a notoriously slow player, agonized over every one of his 87 shots.

Can't imagine a more uncomfortable good walk spoiled than that. Which means the Open's work was most well done.