TROON, Scotland — The Open Championship, the ultimate main championship of the season, begins Thursday at Royal Troon Golf Course on Scotland’s west coast.
The Open is usually essentially the most wide-open of the 4 majors, which is the way it produced earlier champions like Todd Hamilton, Ben Curtis, Paul Lawrie and others. The agency fairways and sluggish greens of hyperlinks golf assist make it anybody’s event to win.
“I can simply see how someone who’s both a bit older or possibly not as proficient as a few of us out right here, such as you take a ten handicap that solely carries it 200 yards, they will run it up and have enjoyable and never lose many balls,” world No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler stated. “However a golf course out right here remains to be going to problem gamers like myself.”
In fact, Scheffler remains to be the person to beat, in keeping with oddsmakers. How he continues to regulate to hyperlinks golf can be one of many high storylines at Royal Troon.
Will Scheffler preserve successful?
Scheffler is available in crimson sizzling, having gained six occasions in his previous 10 begins on tour. His sixth win got here in a playoff victory over Tom Kim on the Vacationers Championship at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut, on June 23.
Tiger Woods was the final golfer to win seven occasions in a season on tour, most just lately in 2007.
Nearly as good as Scheffler has been the previous 4 seasons, The Open has been his greatest problem within the majors. His greatest end was a tie for eighth at Royal St. George’s in Sandwich, England, in 2021.
“So far as the training curve goes, I simply really feel like you must be extra artistic right here,” Scheffler stated. “I like that a part of it. I really feel like, after I do come over right here, that is actually how golf was meant to be performed. I really feel like there’s much more alternative for shotmaking and being artistic across the greens.”
After tying for twenty first within the a hundred and fiftieth Open at St. Andrews in Scotland in 2022 and for twenty third at Royal Liverpool in England final 12 months, Scheffler altered his preparations this 12 months. As a substitute of taking part in within the Scottish Open the week earlier than, he arrived at Royal Troon early.
“So far as getting used to this place, the hyperlinks golf is clearly totally different than what we play at house, so getting used to the firmness of the fairways, getting used to the bunkering and the velocity of the greens is clearly totally different as nicely,” Scheffler stated.
Will McIlroy finish his drought?
All eyes can be on McIlroy, who will as soon as once more attempt to finish an almost 10-year drought with out a main championship victory. He final gained one of many massive 4 when he captured a second PGA Championship in August 2014.
McIlroy is making an attempt to bounce again from heartache within the closing three holes of final month’s U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2 when he missed two quick putts and misplaced to Bryson DeChambeau by one shot.
McIlroy will play the primary two rounds with Max Homa and Tyrrell Hatton. They’re going to tee off at 5:09 a.m. ET on Thursday and 10:10 a.m. ET on Friday.
McIlroy tied for fourth in final week’s Scottish Open at 14 beneath.
“Recreation’s in actually fine condition,” McIlroy stated. “Had a pleasant reset after Pinehurst that was wanted and felt like I shook off a bit of little bit of the rust final week and performed OK. Felt like I in all probability might have given myself extra of an opportunity to win the event. I assumed it was a stable week. Once more, it is like one eye on getting ready for this week, however one other eye on making an attempt to get into competition as nicely.”
McIlroy tied for fifth at 4 beneath within the 2016 Open Championship, 16 pictures behind winner Henrik Stenson of Sweden.
The four-time main champion says he is near successful one other one after so many close to misses.
“I do know that I am in a great place,” McIlroy stated. “If I take into consideration 2015 by means of 2020, that five-year stretch, I seldom had a practical probability to win a significant championship in that five-year interval. So I might a lot slightly have these shut calls. It signifies that I am getting nearer.
“However yeah, completely, I might love to have the ability to play the golf and get one over the road, however as quickly as I try this, persons are going to say, ‘Effectively, when are you going to win your sixth?’ So it is unending.”
What to know concerning the course
Royal Troon Golf Membership, established in 1878, is internet hosting The Open for the tenth time and the primary since Henrik Stenson gained the Claret Jug in 2016 with a 72-hole complete of 20-under 264, then a scoring document for all 4 majors.
The par-71 course has been lengthened from 7,190 yards — its distance eight years in the past — to 7,385 yards. Every of the three par-5s is longer. The par-5 sixth is now 623 yards, making it the longest gap in Open historical past, in keeping with The R&A.
Robust winds off the Firth of Clyde, particularly on the again 9, could make the course play even longer. Sometimes, golfers could have the wind at their backs going out, then they will play into the wind coming again. In fact, wind route is dependent upon Mom Nature, and it could be the other way through the first couple of rounds this week.
Scotland’s climate could be unpredictable, however the forecast requires temperatures from the mid-60s to excessive 60s and an opportunity of rain showers. A delicate to reasonable breeze is anticipated all through the weekend.
“It is mainly a story of two nines on this course,” McIlroy stated. “You’re feeling like you must make your rating on the way in which out after which type of dangle on coming in.”
Royal Troon’s most well-known gap is the par-3 eighth, which is called “Postage Stamp.” It is solely 123 yards lengthy, however its small inexperienced of about 2,500 sq. ft makes for a not-so-easy goal and is protected by 5 bunkers.
“It is a quite simple gap — simply hit the ball on the inexperienced,” Woods stated. “That is it. Inexperienced good, miss inexperienced unhealthy. It does not get any extra easy than that. You do not want a 240-yard par-3 for it to be arduous.”
Scheffler stated he likes quick par-3s, like No. 12 at Augusta Nationwide and No. 17 at TPC Sawgrass, as a result of they require a golfer to regulate his ball.
“I believe nice little quick holes like which might be enjoyable,” Scheffler stated. “I believe it is an underrated talent for guys these days to have the ability to management your ball, and I believe it is one thing we have to encourage in our sport, not simply constructing golf programs longer and longer. You may make a brief gap with a small inexperienced, and it is fairly dang powerful.”
The par-4 eleventh gap is taken into account probably the most troublesome at any course that hosts The Open. Referred to as “Railway,” the 498-yard gap has out of bounds alongside the rail line on the precise and thick gorse on the left.
Can Rahm bounce again?
After successful a inexperienced jacket within the Masters and tying for second in The Open final 12 months, it has been a forgettable season for LIV Golf star Jon Rahm within the majors to date.
Rahm, who jumped to LIV Golf in December, tied for forty fifth on the Masters at 9 over, 20 strokes behind Scheffler. He missed the lower on the PGA Championship and was pressured to withdraw from the U.S. Open due to an an infection between toes on his left foot.
Rahm, 29, stated he was going to attempt to give it a go within the U.S. Open however modified his thoughts after visiting a podiatrist in Pinehurst, North Carolina.
“[The podiatrist] informed me I in all probability should not play,” Rahm stated. “It was arduous to decide then as a result of he had numbed my foot so I could not actually really feel something. However primarily based on the development, he stated, ‘Yeah, you in all probability should not play.’
“That is once we made the choice. Had it made it worse, had the an infection unfold any extra, it might have began going up my leg and created an even bigger concern. We determined to take the week off, as arduous because it may need been.”
After lacking the lower on the PGA Championship, Rahm modified the shaft on his driver as a result of he “had too many ideas” on his swing.
“I wasn’t simply letting it go and having move on the golf course the way in which I might have appreciated to move and possibly why I did not carry out the way in which I might have appreciated to carry out,” Rahm stated. “I believe that was an enormous change, proper? Having the ability to swing on the driver extra freely and with out having to consider method a lot I believe has been fairly good.”
Harman’s protection
Brian Harman was an unlikely Open Championship winner when he ran away with a 6-stroke victory over Rahm and three others at Royal Liverpool Golf Membership final 12 months.
There hasn’t been a back-to-back Open Championship winner since Padraig Harrington captured the Claret Jug at Carnoustie Golf Hyperlinks in Scotland in 2007 and Royal Birkdale in England in 2008.
Harman is barely the third left-handed participant to win The Open, becoming a member of Bob Charles (1963) and Phil Mickelson (2013). His 6-stroke margin of victory matched the second largest in Open historical past by golfers representing the US; Woods gained the Claret Jug with an 8-stroke margin at St. Andrews in Scotland in 2000.
“I believe it could in all probability add a bit of little bit of strain, however I do not suppose you ever actually know what you are able to till one thing like that occurs,” Harman stated. “At the least now I do know that if issues go my method, I am nicely ready. I am a tricky man to beat, and if I simply put together the right method, then deal with what I can do, then I am going to give myself the very best alternative to have one other probability.”
Harman hasn’t gained once more since his runaway victory at The Open. He has three top-10s and 10 top-25s in 18 begins this season, together with a tie for second on the Gamers Championship and for ninth on the Vacationers Championship.
“My stats this 12 months have been actually good,” Harman stated. “My ballstriking has been pretty much as good because it’s ever been. The one factor I have not executed nicely this 12 months is I have not putted particularly nicely. So I am simply type of ready for all of it to line up accurately.”
