{"id":812231,"date":"2026-07-20T12:50:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T12:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/812231\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T12:50:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T12:50:14","slug":"another-choke-pro-makes-brutal-admission-after-open-near-miss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/812231\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Another Choke’ – Pro Makes Brutal Admission After Open Near-Miss"},"content":{"rendered":"

While Ryan Fox made his dreams come true by winning The Open Championship<\/a> in truly dramatic style at Royal Birkdale on Sunday, there were several other golfers who were left wondering what might have been.<\/p>\n

In one of the best finishes to an Open in many a year, as many as six pros had legitimate chances of crowning themselves Champion Golfer of the Year on Sunday.<\/p>\n

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Sam Burns<\/a> began with the lead through 54 holes but quickly faded and never looked to have his best stuff in tow while Cameron Young<\/a> will possibly always wonder what might have been had he not tried to go for the green from a fairway bunker on the 72nd hole.<\/p>\n

Young’s risky decision saw him ultimately make bogey at the last and set the clubhouse target on nine-under – one stroke shy of the number required for a playoff.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, home favorite Tommy Fleetwood<\/a> also had the opportunity to create a truly remarkable fairytale story when he moved within one shot of the lead midway through Sunday, only to suffer three consecutive bogeys which all but vanquished his chances.<\/p>\n

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Speaking afterwards, the Southport-born pro admitted it was a “terrible mistake” which led to his downfall but vowed to continue chasing his Open dream<\/a> for as long as it takes.<\/p>\n

The man he eventually finished alongside, Scottie Scheffler<\/a>, could quite comfortably have defended his crown if not for some particularly underwhelming putting throughout the week.<\/p>\n

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But possibly the most frustrated man of the lot was Si Woo Kim<\/a>, who took The Open by the scruff of the neck early on to reach 10-under after eight holes.<\/p>\n

Stood on the 11th tee, the South Korean was still leading and knew solid golf until the end would give him a great chance of reigning supreme.<\/p>\n

Yet, bogeys at 11, 12, 16 and 18 left Kim on six-under and in a tie for sixth when all was said and done.<\/p>\n

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It was the four-time PGA Tour winner’s first Open top-10 and only the second top-10 of his Major career, a stint which includes 38 starts since 2016.<\/p>\n

However, it was Kim’s eighth top-six of the season so far with five of those being either runner-up or third-pace finishes.<\/p>\n

At The Open, the 31-year-old felt it was another huge opportunity that he let slip and made a brutal evaluation of his own final-round performance on social media.<\/p>\n

Kim said: “Thank you [The Open Championship]. Another choke final round & another top-6.”<\/p>\n

Translated from Korean, Kim continued: “Thank you to everyone who supported me.”<\/p>\n

Kim is not the first player to call himself a variation of ‘choker’ after a men’s Major, and he may well not be the last either.<\/p>\n

Following The Masters in 2023, Brooks Koepka admitted he “choked victory away”<\/a> after blowing a four-stroke lead to Jon Rahm at Augusta National.<\/p>\n

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\"Brooks\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Asked on the ‘Pardon My Take’ podcast at the time if he felt he choked on Masters Sunday, Koepka was brutal in his self-assessment.<\/p>\n

“Yeah, I’d characterize that as a choke,” he said, admittedly with a smile on his face. “It was pretty bad. I mean, come on you’ve got a four-shot lead, all you’ve got to do… I was playing good, I just choked it away. But it’s alright, I’ll figure it out.”<\/p>\n

A couple of years later, speaking to Rick Shiels in a YouTube match, Koepka went on to claim he didn’t think he would have won a fifth Major at the 2023 PGA Championship if not for that crushing disappointment the month prior.<\/p>\n

Rick Shiels Vs Jon Rahm & Brooks Koepka – YouTube
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Koepka said: \u201cTo go back out and win the PGA Championship in the next [Major] – that was probably the coolest thing in my career. Because it meant so much because I had just blown [The Masters]…<\/p>\n

“I’ve got quite a few seconds – I think I’ve got four of them. I would say to everybody, everybody looks at it as failure. I don’t look at it as failure. If you learn something, it’s a success.<\/p>\n

“I don’t think I could have won the PGA [Championship] without blowing The Masters to Jon. Because if I limp down to the finish line and win by one, I didn’t really learn anything.<\/p>\n

“I didn’t learn that ‘hey, I wanted this so bad and I can’t think about that, just go out and go play.’ It wouldn’t have happened, I don’t think, I really don’t.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While Ryan Fox made his dreams come true by winning The Open Championship in truly dramatic style at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":812232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":["post-812231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=812231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/812232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=812231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=812231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=812231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}