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Mark Schlabach, ESPN Senior Author
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 any individual who’s both a bit older or perhaps not as gifted 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 continues to be going to problem gamers like myself.”
In fact, Scheffler continues to be the person to beat, based on oddsmakers. How he continues to regulate to hyperlinks golf will probably be one of many prime storylines at Royal Troon.
Will Scheffler hold profitable?
Scheffler is available in pink scorching, 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.
Pretty much as good as Scheffler has been the previous 4 seasons, The Open has been his largest 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 educational curve goes, I simply really feel like you need to be extra inventive right here,” Scheffler stated. “I really like that a part of it. I really feel like, once 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 inventive across the greens.”
After tying for twenty first within the one 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 an alternative of enjoying 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 completely different than what we play at dwelling, so getting used to the firmness of the fairways, getting used to the bunkering and the velocity of the greens is clearly completely different as properly,” Scheffler stated.
Will McIlroy finish his drought?
All eyes will probably 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 large 4 when he captured a second PGA Championship in August 2014.
McIlroy is attempting to bounce again from heartache within the remaining 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 underneath.
“Recreation’s in actually good condition,” McIlroy stated. “Had a pleasant reset after Pinehurst that was wanted and felt like I shook off just a little little bit of the rust final week and performed OK. Felt like I in all probability may have given myself extra of an opportunity to win the event. I believed it was a stable week. Once more, it is like one eye on making ready for this week, however one other eye on attempting to get into rivalry as properly.”
McIlroy tied for fifth at 4 underneath within the 2016 Open Championship, 16 photographs behind winner Henrik Stenson of Sweden.
The four-time main champion says he is near profitable 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 sensible likelihood to win a significant championship in that five-year interval. So I would a lot moderately have these shut calls. It signifies that I am getting nearer.
“However yeah, completely, I would love to have the ability to play the golf and get one over the road, however as quickly as I try this, individuals are going to say, ‘Effectively, when are you going to win your sixth?’ So it is endless.”
What to know in regards to 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 report 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, based on The R&A.
Sturdy winds off the Firth of Clyde, particularly on the again 9, could make the course play even longer. Sometimes, golfers may have the wind at their backs going out, then they’re going to play into the wind coming again. In fact, wind path is dependent upon Mom Nature, and it may be the other way throughout the first couple of rounds this week.
Scotland’s climate may be unpredictable, however the forecast requires temperatures from the mid-60s to excessive 60s and an opportunity of rain showers. A mild to average breeze is predicted all through the weekend.
“It is mainly a story of two nines on this course,” McIlroy stated. “You’re feeling like you need to make your rating on the way in which out after which kind of grasp 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 would 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 feel nice little quick holes like which can be enjoyable,” Scheffler stated. “I feel it is an underrated ability for guys these days to have the ability to management your ball, and I feel it is one thing we have to encourage in our recreation, not simply constructing golf programs longer and longer. You can also 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. Often known as “Railway,” the 498-yard gap has out of bounds alongside the rail line on the correct and thick gorse on the left.
Can Rahm bounce again?
After profitable 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 up to now.
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 minimize 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] instructed 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 may have began going up my leg and created a much bigger problem. We determined to take the week off, as arduous because it might need been.”
After lacking the minimize 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’d have favored to move and possibly why I did not carry out the way in which I’d have favored to carry out,” Rahm stated. “I feel that was a giant change, proper? Having the ability to swing on the driver extra freely and with out having to consider approach a lot I feel 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 simply 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 feel it might in all probability add just a little little bit of stress, 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 manner, I am properly ready. I am a tricky man to beat, and if I simply put together the correct manner, then care for what I can do, then I am going to give myself one of the best alternative to have one other likelihood.”
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 nearly as good because it’s ever been. The one factor I have not achieved properly this 12 months is I have not putted particularly properly. So I am simply sort of ready for all of it to line up accurately.”
