Leonard revisits Royal Troon

TROON, Scotland — His dog is named Troon’s Magical Sunday, so you probably can guess how good a day it was for Justin Leonard on that mid-July Sunday at the 1997 British Open.

Leonard had turned 25 two days before the tournament began at the Royal Troon Golf Club, a layout he had never seen until he played his first practice round on Monday morning. It didn’t take long for Leonard to develop a certain fondness for Troon, and the reason is simple.

Here on this deceptively difficult links layout that bumps up against the Firth of Clyde, Leonard became the third consecutive U.S. player to win the Open Championship, following John Daly at St. Andrews and Tom Lehman at Royal Lytham.

And Leonard did it with a certain flash, seemingly cementing his reputation as the Next Big Thing in golf with a comeback victory.

Down five shots to begin the final day, Leonard fired off the best closing round of Sunday, a 6-under-par 65, made birdie at the 16th and 17th, and watched as Jesper Parnevik’s game collapsed on the back nine.

He had won two tournaments since he turned pro in 1994 as a heralded amateur, including the Kemper Open a month before Troon, and Leonard found himself awash in great expectations.

Critics have said he has fallen short, despite five more PGA Tour victories in the seven years since. But when he looks back at that week in July 1997, Leonard said he is grateful he accomplished something so important at such a young age.

“I do look back and wonder,” he said. “My lack of experience at the time might have been one of my greatest assets. I didn’t feel the pressure of expectations, like it was my tournament to lose or anything like that.

“I was just trying to shoot the best score I could. I try to return to that feeling as often as I can. My attitude was probably that I did not realize the pressure I was battling, like Jesper or Darren Clarke were feeling, the guys I was battling that day.”

Parnevik’s second consecutive round of 66 on Saturday left him in charge for the final day with a 54-hole total of 11-under 202. That was two shots better than Clarke and five shots ahead of Leonard, whose 1-over 72 on Saturday in little wind didn’t do much to encourage him.

On Saturday night, Barbara Nicklaus saw Leonard eating dinner and told him he still could win. Leonard thought she probably knew a little something about winning majors, since her husband Jack had won 18 of them, so Leonard perked up.

He remembered his victory at the Kemper, where he was five shots down on the last day and won.

“I used my victory at the Kemper as a mental pick-me-up,” Leonard said.

It also didn’t hurt that he started quickly, with six birdies on the front side, which plays downwind, and a 31 to get to within one shot of the lead.

The back nine here generally plays directly into the prevailing wind. After a clutch up and down on the 15th, the tournament belonged to Leonard. He made a birdie on the par-five 16th that tied him with Parnevik and another at 17 — a 30-footer that dropped straight in the hole and put him ahead for good.

Parnevik bogeyed four of the last six holes for a 73 and tied for second with Clarke, who had a 71.