You can’t really properly mimic history, especially the outrageous and frankly mad examples that occur too often at the culmination of an Open Championship.
So it was for Costantino Rocca, who tried and failed 22 times to hole a putt from out of the Valley of Sin on the 18th at the Old Course, St Andrews, just as he had done so memorably at the finish of the 1995 Open force a play-off with John Daly.
The popular Italian and Daly, along with a bevvy of other legends of the game, will return to the Old Course in July as it hosts the Senior Open for the first time, which is already gearing up as a proper celebration of the halcyon days before the game was overwhelmed by technology and athleticism.
For Monday’s re-enactment the pin wasn’t in the time-honoured Open final round spot, some way back from that zone of uncertainty which caught Rocca’s second shot and sent it sliding back into the Valley – maybe that’s why his attempts kept coming up short, but thankfully the memories of 23 years ago are still sharply in focus.
“I remember on the 18th tee I turned to my caddie and said ‘if I hit driver and put the ball on the green I could make two’,” recalled the 61-year-old, who used the same putter he wielded that famous day.
“I knew I had to make birdie (to tie with Daly) but I went for the eagle (to win) because I felt positive after the shot I had played from the road at the side of 17.
“But the ball bounced on a divot and went left. So I tried to chip in and tried too hard to get it perfect, but it wasn’t in my mind to settle for par. I could only think eagle or birdie.
“When I saw the putt go in I thought someone from above must have helped me. It was going left of the hole and I said to myself ‘it’s perfect’ as it turned towards the hole.”
His reaction, burying his face in the turf and beating the ground in celebration, will be as long remembered but the emotion seem to overwhelm him in the playoff, with a triple-bogey seven at the 17th handing the four-shot victory to Daly.
Even though he won many events around the world and played in three Ryder Cups – beating Tiger Woods in singles at Valderrama in 1997 – it’s still that Open most remember him for.
“People remember that I beat Tiger but most people remember the putt,” he said. “I never thought that coming second in a Major would be something I’d be remembered for, but I suppose I did something special that day – and it became perhaps more famous than if I’d actually won the tournament ahead of John Daly.
“Maybe I am the most famous runner-up in history!”
Jean van de Velde – and his infamous finish four years later – might dispute that, but when Rocca returns and stands on the steps above the 18th green, he feels those emotions again.
“Every time I’ve come back since that moment is emotional,” he says.
“When you stand here, in front of the clubhouse, and look down the 18th and first hole you breathe in the real air of golf.”
Sir Nick Faldo, Open champion at St Andrews in 1990, has entered the Senior Open, which will be played the week after the Open at Carnoustie, on July 26-29. Tickets are priced at £13.50, with Under-16s and parking free of charge.
