Xander Schauffele pips Justin Rose to win Open at Royal Troon

The 30-year-old Californian won the Open with a closing, bogey-free 65 to beat playing partner and home favourite Justin Rose by two shots.

Billy Horschel, another crowd favourite, matched Rose’s mark of seven-under par by birdieing the last three holes while Yorkshire’s Dan Brown, who twice led on Saturday, saw his hopes fade on Sunday.

After the awful weather of Saturday afternoon that condensed the field, all of the top eight players shot under 70, but it was the ice-cool Schauffele who got the job done, overtaking South Africa’s Thriston Lawrence with a birdie on the difficult 11th and then accelerating away with further birdies on 13, 14 and 16.

It is a second major title in two months for a man who prior to his breakthrough win at the PGA Championship at Valhalla, had been knocking at the door so long he was widely considered the best player never to win a major.

Not any more. And with Scottie Scheffler winning the Masters and Bryson DeChambeau the US Open it completes a clean sweep in the men’s majors for American players.

"I can't wait to drink out of it,” said Schauffele. “My dad's here so I'll let him do the honours of choosing.

"It really is a dream come true to be holding it. It definitely hasn't sunk in yet. My brain is still grinding on this amazing property. I can't wait to sit back and have a moment with this Claret Jug.

"I thought [winning the PGA] would help me and it actually did. I had this sense of calm, a calm I didn't have when I played earlier at the PGA.

"For some reason, I was calm and collected. I was telling my caddie Austin that I felt pretty calm coming down the stretch and he said he was about to puke on the 18th tee.

"I just told myself to just hit it down there and keep moving along."

Rose had to go through final qualifying to get into the Open, a tournament he first announced himself as a contender at way back at Birkdale in 1998 as a 17-year-old amateur.

He has finally bettered that result with this second-place finish but it was not the win he craved, not that he did much wrong as he took his starting position of three-under par and turned it into the lead with two birdies in his first four holes. He only had one bogey, on the 12th.

"When I walked off the course it hit me,” said Rose. “The dream's been alive all week and I felt that I did an awesome job of coming out and really getting amongst it from the word go.

"I got off to a strong start and felt like I played my way into the tournament.

"I saw glimpses of my name at the top of the leaderboard at times, did some of the hard work on the back nine but Xander got that momentum.

"He's an ice cold competitor and one of the best players in the world and it was tough to keep up.

"This will be a tough one but a great one. I played in some of the hardest weather all week. I played some of the best golf but it didn't quite add up to the trophy."