A W for history

 This was no unraveling in the shadow of the old town, and somehow that made it worse. Rory McIlroy had no one to blame but no one as the Claret Jug again slipped from his grasp, and how did that not make you ache a little?

All he did with a two-shot lead on the last nine holes of the British Open was keep making pars. He  didn't Jean van de Velde it. He didn't disappear into one of St. Andrew's famous pot bunkers, never to be seen again. Hell, he didn't even yip it up on the Old Course's continent-sized greens.

He just didn't make birdies.

Rolled his ball up to the lip of the cup, time after time. Watched it stop just short or slide just past, time after time. Pursed his lips, shook his head, went on to the next hole, the next chance.

You know that old saying about the majors? That no one really wins them, other people just lose them?

Well, forget that. Rory McIllroy didn't lose anything Sunday afternoon.

Cam Smith just won.

Dropped an 8-under 64 on everyone, and what are you gonna do when a guy does that? Birdied six of the last nine holes, Cam did, including 18. Reeled in Rory like a rainbow trout. No one's ever shot a lower final round in the 30 times The Open has been contested at St. Andrews, and that goes all the way back to 1873.

Ulysses S. Grant was president then. Custer was still three years away from the Little Bighorn. Old Tom Morris wasn't even old yet.

That was some historic stuff yesterday, in other words. And how does a guy beat history?

And so Rory shot 2-under for the day, and still lost. In the 150th Open. At the home of golf, St. Andrews. 

History?

History sucks.

Just not for Cam Smith.