Hoping to Relive His Dog Days

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 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 six-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 that 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 one-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, and Leonard began with a bogey at the 10th, then saved par at the 11th when he rolled in a 10-foot putt. He made three consecutive pars and at the 15th he made another with a clutch up and down after a chip shot left him 15 feet from the hole.

Leonard said he told himself he needed to make the putt to stay in the tournament and admitted that’s not the relaxing thought process you generally want, but he made the putt anyway.

After that, 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. It was a difficult defeat for Parnevik, something like his last round in the 1994 British Open at Turnberry, where he bogeyed the last hole for a 67 and lost to Nick Price, who made an eagle at the 17th for a 66 and a one-shot victory.

Leonard’s career was off and running. He had a chance to win the 1997 PGA Championship at Winged Foot after a third-round 65 that caught Davis Love III, but Love closed with a 66 that beat Leonard by five shots.

Leonard also had another chance to win the British Open in 1999 at Carnoustie, famous for Jean Van de Velde’s collapse at the 72nd hole, but Leonard lost to Paul Lawrie in a four-hole playoff that also included Van de Velde.

The hero of the U.S. victory in the 1999 Ryder Cup at Brookline, Mass., Leonard has topped $2 million on the money list four times in the last five years. But he hasn’t had such an easy time this year as he returns to the west coast of Scotland to revisit the site of the greatest achievement of his career.

In 16 tournaments, Leonard has only one top-10 finish -- a tie for ninth at the FBR Open in February -- and has missed four cuts in his last six tournaments. His ranking has fallen to 47th.

Leonard hopes for the best at a familiar setting.

“I haven’t played well this year and hope to get that turned around,” he said. “But in 1997, I was not playing well until about a month before. I am hoping I can have the same kind of turnaround as in 1997.”

He is not known as a long hitter, but Leonard knows his way around the greens, which may be the key to taking control this week. At least that’s the way it was seven years ago, when Leonard took control all by himself, won a trophy, a major and found the perfect name for his dog.