Will Scheffler raise his first Claret Jug or can McIlroy bounce back?
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Mark Schlabach, ESPN Senior Writer
TROON, Scotland — The Open Championship, the final major championship of the season, starts Thursday at Royal Troon Golf Course on Scotland’s west coast.
The Open is typically the most wide-open of the four majors, which is how it produced previous champions like Todd Hamilton, Ben Curtis, Paul Lawrie and others. The firm fairways and slow greens of links golf help make it anyone’s tournament to win.
“I can just see how somebody who is either a bit older or maybe not as talented as some of us out here, like you take a 10 handicap that only carries it 200 yards, they can run it up and have fun and not lose many balls,” world No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler said. “But a golf course out here is still going to challenge players like myself.”
Of course, Scheffler is still the man to beat, according to oddsmakers. How he continues to adjust to links golf will be one of the top storylines at Royal Troon.
Will Scheffler keep winning?
Scheffler comes in red hot, having won six times in his past 10 starts on tour. His sixth win came in a playoff victory over Tom Kim at the Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut, on June 23.
Tiger Woods was the last golfer to win seven times in a season on tour, most recently in 2007.
As good as Scheffler has been the past four seasons, The Open has been his biggest challenge in the majors. His best finish was a tie for eighth at Royal St. George’s in Sandwich, England, in 2021.
“As far as the learning curve goes, I just feel like you have to be more creative here,” Scheffler said. “I love that part of it. I feel like, when I do come over here, this is really how golf was intended to be played. I feel like there’s a lot more opportunity for shotmaking and being creative around the greens.”
After tying for 21st in the 150th Open at St. Andrews in Scotland in 2022 and for 23rd at Royal Liverpool in England last year, Scheffler altered his preparations this year. Instead of playing in the Scottish Open the week before, he arrived at Royal Troon early.
“As far as getting used to this place, the links golf is obviously different than what we play at home, so getting used to the firmness of the fairways, getting used to the bunkering and the speed of the greens is obviously different as well,” Scheffler said.
Will McIlroy end his drought?
All eyes will be on McIlroy, who will once again try to end a nearly 10-year drought without a major championship victory. He last won one of the big four when he captured a second PGA Championship in August 2014.
McIlroy is trying to bounce back from heartache in the final three holes of last month’s U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2 when he missed two short putts and lost to Bryson DeChambeau by one shot.
McIlroy will play the first two rounds with Max Homa and Tyrrell Hatton. They’ll tee off at 5:09 a.m. ET on Thursday and 10:10 a.m. ET on Friday.
McIlroy tied for fourth in last week’s Scottish Open at 14 under.
“Game’s in really good shape,” McIlroy said. “Had a nice reset after Pinehurst that was needed and felt like I shook off a little bit of the rust last week and played OK. Felt like I probably could have given myself more of a chance to win the tournament. I thought it was a solid week. Again, it’s like one eye on preparing for this week, but another eye on trying to get into contention as well.”
McIlroy tied for fifth at 4 under in the 2016 Open Championship, 16 shots behind winner Henrik Stenson of Sweden.
The four-time major champion says he’s close to winning another one after so many near misses.
“I know that I’m in a good spot,” McIlroy said. “If I think about 2015 through 2020, that five-year stretch, I seldom had a realistic chance to win a major championship in that five-year period. So I’d much rather have these close calls. It means that I’m getting closer.
“But yeah, absolutely, I’d love to be able to play the golf and get one over the line, but as soon as I do that, people are going to say, ‘Well, when are you going to win your sixth?’ So it’s never-ending.”
What to know about the course
Royal Troon Golf Club, established in 1878, is hosting The Open for the 10th time and the first since Henrik Stenson won the Claret Jug in 2016 with a 72-hole total of 20-under 264, then a scoring record for all four majors.
The par-71 course has been lengthened from 7,190 yards — its distance eight years ago — to 7,385 yards. Each of the three par-5s is longer. The par-5 sixth is now 623 yards, making it the longest hole in Open history, according to The R&A.
Strong winds off the Firth of Clyde, especially on the back nine, can make the course play even longer. Typically, golfers will have the wind at their backs going out, then they’ll play into the wind coming back. Of course, wind direction depends on Mother Nature, and it might be the opposite direction during the first couple of rounds this week.
Scotland’s weather can be unpredictable, but the forecast calls for temperatures from the mid-60s to high 60s and a chance of rain showers. A gentle to moderate breeze is expected throughout the weekend.
“It’s basically a tale of two nines on this course,” McIlroy said. “You feel like you have to make your score on the way out and then sort of hang on coming in.”
Royal Troon’s most famous hole is the par-3 eighth, which is known as “Postage Stamp.” It’s only 123 yards long, but its small green of about 2,500 square feet makes for a not-so-easy target and is protected by five bunkers.
“It’s a very simple hole — just hit the ball on the green,” Woods said. “That’s it. Green good, miss green bad. It doesn’t get any more simple than that. You don’t need a 240-yard par-3 for it to be hard.”
Scheffler said he likes short par-3s, like No. 12 at Augusta National and No. 17 at TPC Sawgrass, because they require a golfer to control his ball.
“I think great little short holes like that are fun,” Scheffler said. “I think it’s an underrated skill for guys nowadays to be able to control your ball, and I think it’s something we need to encourage in our game, not just building golf courses longer and longer. You can make a short hole with a small green, and it’s pretty dang tough.”
The par-4 11th hole is considered one of the most difficult at any course that hosts The Open. Known as “Railway,” the 498-yard hole has out of bounds along the rail line on the right and thick gorse on the left.
Can Rahm bounce back?
After winning a green jacket in the Masters and tying for second in The Open last year, it has been a forgettable season for LIV Golf star Jon Rahm in the majors so far.
Rahm, who jumped to LIV Golf in December, tied for 45th at the Masters at 9 over, 20 strokes behind Scheffler. He missed the cut at the PGA Championship and was forced to withdraw from the U.S. Open because of an infection between toes on his left foot.
Rahm, 29, said he was going to try to give it a go in the U.S. Open but changed his mind after visiting a podiatrist in Pinehurst, North Carolina.
“[The podiatrist] told me I probably shouldn’t play,” Rahm said. “It was hard to make a decision then because he had numbed my foot so I couldn’t really feel anything. But based on the progression, he said, ‘Yeah, you probably shouldn’t play.’
“That’s when we made the decision. Had it made it worse, had the infection spread any more, it could have started going up my leg and created a bigger issue. We decided to take the week off, as hard as it might have been.”
After missing the cut at the PGA Championship, Rahm changed the shaft on his driver because he “had too many thoughts” on his swing.
“I wasn’t just letting it go and having flow on the golf course the way I would have liked to flow and probably why I didn’t perform the way I would have liked to perform,” Rahm said. “I think that was a big change, right? Being able to swing at the driver more freely and without having to think about technique so much I think has been quite nice.”
Harman’s defense
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 Club last year.
There hasn’t been a back-to-back Open Championship winner since Padraig Harrington captured the Claret Jug at Carnoustie Golf Links in Scotland in 2007 and Royal Birkdale in England in 2008.
Harman is only the third left-handed player to win The Open, joining Bob Charles (1963) and Phil Mickelson (2013). His 6-stroke margin of victory matched the second largest in Open history by golfers representing the United States; Woods won the Claret Jug with an 8-stroke margin at St. Andrews in Scotland in 2000.
“I think it would probably add a little bit of pressure, but I don’t think you ever really know what you’re capable of until something like that happens,” Harman said. “At least now I know that if things go my way, I’m well prepared. I’m a tough guy to beat, and if I just prepare the proper way, then take care of what I can do, then I’ll give myself the best opportunity to have another chance.”
Harman hasn’t won again since his runaway victory at The Open. He has three top-10s and 10 top-25s in 18 starts this season, including a tie for second at the Players Championship and for ninth at the Travelers Championship.
“My stats this year have been really good,” Harman said. “My ballstriking has been as good as it’s ever been. The only thing I haven’t done well this year is I haven’t putted especially well. So I’m just kind of waiting for it all to line up correctly.”
