The golf drama that awaits after spoiled Grand Slam | New York Post - New York Post

Sometimes in sports â€" and certainly in life â€" we don’t always get what we want.

Take the 144th British Open as the latest case in point: What everyone wanted Monday at St. Andrews was Jordan Spieth winning the Claret Jug to become only the second player in the history of golf to win the Masters, US Open and British in the same year.

Everyone except Zach Johnson, his family and loved ones.

Spieth going to Whistling Straits next month to play the PGA Championship with a chance to become the first player ever to win a calendar-year Grand Slam would have set the sport of golf on fire. There would be a buzz in golf we haven’t felt since before Tiger Woods’ SUV met that fire hydrant in 2009.

Zach Johnson celebrates his British Open victory.Photo: Getty Images

But don’t blame Johnson for seizing his moment on Monday, getting himself into the playoff and winning his first British Open to go along with his 2007 Masters victory.

Johnson is no more to blame for killing the potential historic buzz at St. Andrews than Stewart Cink was for outlasting 59-year-old Tom Watson at Turnberry in 2009.

He should be no more to blame than Kel Nagle, who prevented Arnold Palmer from winning the first three majors in 1960 when he beat him by one stroke to win the British Open at St. Andrews, or Lee Trevino, who did the same to Jack Nicklaus in the 1972 British Open, or Ernie Els, who won the 2002 British Open to keep Woods from winning the third leg of the Grand Slam.

Johnson’s upset of Spieth was a batter breaking up a pitcher’s perfect game with two outs in the ninth. He was any of the horses in the Belmont Stakes field trying to prevent American Pharoah from completing the Triple Crown.

Don’t hate him for being better than Spieth when he had to be.

Johnson is a worthy champion and a nice guy. His outpouring of emotion and respect for what he had accomplished in the immediate aftermath of victory Monday was raw and real and moving even to someone who wanted Spieth to win.

Johnson is not a star on the level of Spieth, who has a chance to stamp himself as one of the greatest ever to play the game.

“I know I’m not a charismatic, emotional, fun-packed individual on the golf course,’’ Johnson said. “I get that.’’

That doesn’t take away from Johnson’s underrated career accomplishments â€" two major championships, 12 PGA Tour titles and four Ryder Cup teams.

Rory McIlory missed the British Open with an ankle injury.Photo: AP

But the reality of the result at St. Andrews was this: We didn’t get what we wanted because Spieth simply did not seize the moment â€" and Johnson did.

Sure, Spieth played fantastic golf worthy of a victory. Had he played as well at Chambers Bay as he did at St. Andrews, he said afterward, he would have won the US Open “by more than just a shot.’’

But Spieth, regarded as one of the best lag putters in the game, had five three-putts in his third round Sunday and a sloppy four-putt double bogey Monday on the eighth hole.

And he owns that. Spieth is not running from his flaws from the week. He’ll learn from them and they’ll make him even better. He insisted afterward he would beat himself up for failing to close this immensely important deal. But he shouldn’t.

What lies ahead in golf is fascinating, because as close as Spieth was to making Grand Slam history, that’s how close he was to wresting the world No. 1 ranking from Rory McIlroy.

And, if you don’t think McIlroy was paying close attention â€" while he was at home resting his left ankle, injured playing soccer with friends a few weeks before the Open â€" to the adulation being showered on Spieth, then you do not know McIlroy very well.

Because, as affable as both McIlroy and Spieth are on the outside, they are cold-blooded killers inside the ropes. You do not accomplish what those two already have without possessing that gene.

So, whenever McIlroy is well enough to play again, it’ll be game on between the two top-ranked players in the game. And that will be as compelling to watch as the Grand Slam pursuit.