Typically British! Won last Monday by American Zach Johnson, the 144e edition of the British Open has often generated its share of rain, wind, cold snaps or anthology, suspense and also regrets… Because on the legendary course of Saint-Andrews, they are numerous to have experience during an extended edition of one day due to difficult climatic conditions. What in Scotland is tautology ...

Starting with our French. A nice battalion of five players (Lévy, Dubuisson, Wattel, Jacquelin and Langasque) - an unprecedented number at this level - set out to attack the famous Claret Jug on Thursday. On Sunday, after the cut, there was only one survivor, spent between bullets and gusts of wind: Romain Langasque, a promising 20-year-old player, qualified for the Open (as the English say) thanks to his victory to the British amateur a month earlier. A tournament that he will end in the end at the 65e place, alongside a certain Ernie Els ...

The other French will console themselves, so to speak, by thinking that they have fallen on the field of honor alongside a certain Tiger Woods. The best player of all time (with Nicklaus) still lived a long way of the cross that let dread his second blow of the tournament: a blow of wedge… in the water. With a score of +7 after two days, the former world No. 1 once again ends up at the bottom of the leaderboard, ahead of only seven players, including old glories (Tom Watson, Mark Calcavecchia, Nick Faldo) or an amateur. Will the Tiger roar again or is it definitely lost to the cause? Questions and doubts remain.

In the ray of regrets, we also think of Dustin Johnson. After having badly redacted the last US Open by taking three putts at 3,50 meters on the 18, the American athletic led the troop at the halfway point, on Sunday morning in Saint-Andrews, before gradually eroding due to rain and wind (49e finally).

During the last round on Monday, of all the players who made their appearance at the top of the leaderboard, it is probably Phil Mickelson who will experience the least regret. Gone in the morning in 45e position, Phil the Thrill (as the Americans say) were heading in the early afternoon with two headshots thanks to 16 first holes in -6. Forced to take all the risks on the last two holes to try to grab a place of provisional leader, the winner of the British Open 2013 sent his drive to the start of hole 17 - one of the most difficult in the world - on the balcony of the neighboring hotel. Damage assessment: no broken window but one out of bounds and a triple bogey.

Shortly after, another former winner of the British Open appeared at the top of the leaderboard: the Irishman Padraig Harrington, missing since 2009, when he had the incongruous idea of ​​wanting to modify a swing that had however brought three Majors. Three birdies on the first 5 holes… but four bogeys and two double bogeys on the next 13, the Irishman disappeared from the radar again.

Still regrets for Paul Dunne. This 22-year-old Irishman was co-leader at the end of the third round and could make history by becoming the first amateur to win the British Open since a certain Bobby Jones in 1930. But after having handled his clubs with the dexterity of best pros on the golf world for three laps, Dunne silted up on the last day and multiplied the tops and the strings to put on his amateur costume again. Assessment: a card of 78, the worst signed the last day

Still regrets for Adam Scott. Pointed only to a blow of the head, the Australian missed a putt of… 20 centimeters. Yes Yes, it's possible !

Regrets for Jordan Spieth. Thanks to a 12-meter string on hole 16, the winner of the Masters and the US Open took the lead of the tournament and could envisage a third victory in a row in Major and even a legendary Grand Slam. But a failed putt of 1,80 meters on the 17th and a wedge with too much backspin on the 18th shattered the dream of the Texan, indisputable best player in the world since the start of the year.

Regrets for Jason Day, who was once again not the day. The Australian, often placed in Major but never winning, still came close to the Grail on Monday. Missing a few centimeters, short in the line, a putt for birdie that would have sent him to the play-offs, the world No. 9 almost triggered the anger of Thomas Levet in front of his microphone on Canal +: "He does not have the right to stay short on a putt to win the British Open! It doesn't matter if he goes three meters past the hole there… ”In the light of his crestfallen expression, one can imagine that Day was thinking more or less the same thing at that moment…

Finally, regrets for Louis Oosthuizen and Mark Leishman, both beaten by Zach Johnson in the play-offs. Especially for Leishman by the way. With two strokes ahead at the start of the 16th, the American already had a finger on the Claret Jug. But a missed 1-meter putt and then a bogey on the 17 got the better of an underrated player, but regular and often placed at the top of the leaderboards.

It was finally a compatriot with a similar profile who ended this crazy day without any regret: Zach Johnson. The official double of the Emperor Commodus in "Gladiator" (played by actor Joachim Phoenix), winner of the Masters in 2007, thus returned to the closed clan of double winners of a Grand Slam tournament. A deserved award for one of the arguably most underrated players on the circuit, a member of the US Ryder Cup team and having been in the world top 60 for eleven years. A monster not of power but of regularity (85% of fairways affected during the tournament, 75% this year) and a small game among the sharpest on the circuit.

Frank Crudo