As soon as Thomas Bjorn's attempted chip-in on the 72nd hole failed to reach its intended destination, and Ben Curtis was fated to be an unlikely winner of the 132nd British Open at Royal St George's on Sunday, the post-mortems started.
By their very nature, such examinations are not pretty; this time, though, many of the game's top players had much soul-searching to do, and the results are unlikely to be too pleasant.
Bjorn, unfortunately, is the one who has to take the hardest look at himself; but he isn't alone. Tiger Woods has eight majors to his name, yet he has never won one when trailing going into the last round. Why? Sergio Garcia, not for the first time, failed to deliver in the final round of a major when perfectly positioned. Likewise, Davis Love and Vijay Singh didn't deliver when it mattered.
As for Padraig Harrington and particularly Darren Clarke, they too have some serious questions to ask themselves and, perhaps, it would be opportune to take a close look at Curtis in attempting to decipher some answers. In this day and age when players surround themselves with ever-growing teams of specialists in the quest for a major, the 26-year-old American did so without a coach and without a regular caddie. Maybe an approach of low expectations has its own benefits.
Only history will show if this was a flukey winner, or if it was a player of undoubted potential fulfilling that potential quicker and more calmly than he had any right to do. After all, when he was an amateur, he was ranked number one in the world and was on the US team that won the Eisenhower Trophy in Germany in 2000.
From his initial reaction, Love would appear to believe that the unlikely winner was a lucky one.
"When the course plays like this and when it is that fine a line between a good shot and a bad shot then these things can happen," said Love. "You know, he played very well but the rest of us didn't play good enough to get enough good bounces."
Singh, in trying to conduct his own post-mortem, was more self-critical. "I blew it. There's no excuse for that . . . you have to go back and see what you did wrong and prepare for the next time."
Curtis's win is a genuinely life-changing one. Ranked 396th in the world before the championship - he has moved up to 35th in latest rankings - he was the lowest player since John Daly won the US PGA in 1991 - when he was ranked 168th - to win a major. At the start of the year, he possessed no world ranking points and had 1,268 players ahead of him.
He need never worry about having to attend tour school for the foreseeable future. Victory in the Open means he can play in the British Open until he is 65 and also the next five US Masters, US Opens and US PGA Championships - starting with next month's PGA in Rochester where he will play the first two rounds with Masters champion Mike Weir and US Open winner Jim Furyk - as well as the next 10 Players' Championships.
He also gets into this season's two remaining WGC events, the NEC Invitational and the American Express Championship, is guaranteed a place in the HSBC World Matchplay at Wentworth in October and has also secured his US Tour card for the next five years.
"My life is going to change, but I'm looking forward to it. A lot of great challenges lie ahead of me," said Curtis, who a year ago was playing his golf on the NGA Hooters Tour, effectively the third division in the US. Prior to hitting the jackpot on Sunday, he had earned $195,689 on the US Tour this season where he had missed four cuts, withdrawn from another tournament, and had a best finish of tied-13th in the Western Open, the event where he won an exemption into the Open.
While Curtis became the fourth successive first-time major winner - following Rich Beem, Weir and Furyk - it was a gilt-edged opportunity for a European player in the shape of Bjorn to finally win a major, something which has been beyond anyone from his side of the Atlantic since Paul Lawrie's Open win at Carnoustie four years ago. He let it slip, big time.
In reflecting on what might have been, Bjorn will recall two incidents in particular: the first was the two-shot penalty incurred in Thursday's first round for hitting the sand in a bunker after failing to extricate the ball with his first shot; the second was his need to take three shots before getting the ball out from a greenside bunker on the short 16th hole in Sunday's final round.
"It's going to be a tough few days," conceded Bjorn, who this week plays in the Nissan Irish Open at Portmarnock. "I have to go on from here and I have to try and get a bit stronger and just go to the next championship and try and win that. Hopefully, there will be a major coming my way very shortly."
Nobody will have to remind him, however, that chances such as the one he had at Sandwich come along very seldom.
If there was any consolation for Bjorn, it was that he improved 29 places to 20th place in the world rankings. David Duval, meanwhile, has fallen out of the top 100 for the first time since March 5th, 1995.
Harrington, still ranked ninth, is the highest ranked player in the field for this week's Irish Open which returns to its spiritual home. However, he is unhappy, as is Clarke, with his current form and he decided to have a day off yesterday and will have his first practice round on the course today. Fledgling professional Gary Cullen was yesterday given the last sponsor's invite into the field.
World Rankings
1 Tiger Woods (USA) 16.81pts av
2 Ernie Els (Rsa) 9.38
3 Vijay Singh (Fij) 8.25
4 Mike Weir (Can) 7.99
5 Davis Love-III (USA) 7.64
6 Jim Furyk (USA) 7.34
7 David Toms (USA) 6.79
8 Kenny Perry (USA) 6.36
9 Padraig Harrington (Irl) 6.11
10 Phil Mickelson (USA) 5.82
11 Nick Price (Zim) 5.77
12 Retief Goosen (Rsa) 5.04
13 Justin Leonard (USA) 4.29
14 Sergio Garcia (Spa) 3.90
15 Chris DiMarco (USA) 3.87
16 Robert Allenby (Aus) 3.67
17 Rich Beem (USA) 3.54
18 Darren Clarke (NIrl) 3.50
19 Bob Estes (USA) 3.44
20 Thomas Bjorn (Den) 3.33
Selected others
22 Colin Montgomerie (Sco) 3.22
35 Ben Curtis (USA) 2.82
57 Paul Lawrie (Sco) 2.23
65 Bernhard Langer (Ger) 2.14
