Good morning.
And if you’re a golf fan on this side of the pond, it truly is a good morning. Because this is the week of the Open Championship, aka the British Open. Which means, as the week goes on, the mornings will get even better.
On this side of the pond, we will wake in the AM, pour a cup, hit the remote and walla! Major championship golf comes on the screen. We will settle in, swallowed by a comfortable couch, unencumbered by the latest PGA Tour/LIV noise, impervious to DOJ hearings and legal fencing, distracted only by sappy, contrived commentary and Open Championship history lessons.
We will enjoy watching the best in the world hitting shots on one of the great courses in the world. It will be golf, actual golf, in a most glorious form.
For those with the proper television bundle, last week’s Genesis Scottish Open provided a little whistle-wetter. But the proceedings at Royal Liverpool Golf Club Holyoke this week represent the genuine article, the top of the fold, the championship that precedes all championships.
The Open was first conducted in 1860, 25 years before the British Amateur was launched, 35 years before the U.S. Open signed on, and long before any of us were born.
So, as we put a pot on, put our feet up and put the rest of the noisy world on hold, what should we know about this 151st “Champion Golfer of the Year” challenge?
The Open history at Royal Liverpool
Well, for one, this will be the first time since 1951 the Open is conducted with a king — King Charles III — occupying the throne. What does that mean? No idea. But Prince Harry and Meghan Markle needn’t worry — they are welcome at Royal Liverpool.
By the way, the ’51 Open at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland — when King George VI was still kicking — was won by Max Faulkner, an interesting chap. Faulkner was renowned for wearing colorful outfits. He especially liked pink shoes and socks, and occasionally dressed head to toe in yellow. Eat your heart out Rickie Fowler.
Faulkner also made his own putters, including one in which he carved the head from driftwood and used a pool cue for the shaft. And he certainly didn’t lack confidence. He took a 6-stroke lead after three rounds at Portrush and immediately began signing autographs with a “1951 Open Champion” postscript. He shot a 2-over-par 74 in the final round and wound up beating Antonio Credo by two strokes. Had it all the way.
The championship at Royal Liverpool also will be the first golf major conducted with a LIV player as the reigning champion. Cameron Smith captured last year’s event at St. Andrews, blowing past Rory McIlroy and Viktor Hovland with a final-round 64. A few weeks later, Mr. Smith joined LIV for a reported $100 million, making his Claret Jug runneth over.
A list of back-to-back Open winners is flush with iconic names, like Tiger Woods, Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson, Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen. The last to double down was Padraig Harrington in 2007-08. Smith had a three-round win earlier this month — that’s how the LIV rolls — and has top-10s in the last two majors, so it’s not unreasonable to suggest he might repeat.
The player who might find that development least palatable is McIlroy. He has been the poster boy for anti-LIV sentiment and least forgiving of Judas Iscariot peers.
The Northern Irishman recently declared, “If LIV Golf was the last place to play golf on Earth, I would retire.” Worth noting that Milroy’s net worth has been estimated in the neighborhood of $175 million, which is a comfortable retirement community. So, it’s unlikely he would be greeting you at Walmart as the alternative. Nonetheless, the spirit of the statement stands.
Rory McIlroy looks to end major drought
Meanwhile, McIlroy won the Scottish Open on Sunday and now looms as the most formidable roadblock to hopefuls at Hoylake. Now, s’true, players don’t frequently win back to back, much less the week prior to winning a major. The only player ever to take the Scottish Open the week before winning the Open is LIV convert Phil Mickelson, who turned the trick in 2013.
That said, the last to win the week prior to winning any major is — you guessed it — McIlroy. He won the 2014 WGC Bridgestone Invitational the Sunday before winning the 2014 PGA — the last of his five major titles.
Oh, and by the way, he also won the last Open at Royal Liverpool in 2014, slam-dunked it, wire to wire. It has been nine years since without a major for McIlroy, and you don’t need DNA samples to figure out why.
McIlroy and Hovland shared a four-shot lead going into Sunday at St. Andrews last year. In that final round, McIlroy hit all 18 greens, and then two-putted each to finish third. Fast forward to last month, when he birdied the first stop on U.S. Open Sunday to share a first-place tie with 17 holes remaining.
That circle was the only one on a final-round card of missed opportunities as he finished a stroke behind winner Wyndham Clark.
During that final round, McIlroy ranked 56th among the 65 cut-makers in strokes gained: putting. But he shook off his “Sundayitis” at the Scottish Open, making big putts from long, medium and short range. In the final round, he ranked third (+2.67) in strokes gained: putting.
The victory gives McIlroy six consecutive top-10s coming into this week. He ranks third on the PGA Tour in scoring average (68.948) and first in driving distance (327.6). He is 87th in putting, but if he is locked in, look out.
And if not McIlroy, Fowler might be the ticket. Back in 2014, Fowler shot four rounds in the 60s at Royal Liverpool, including a closing 67. He finished second, alongside Sergio Garcia and two strokes behind McIlroy.
Recently, Butch Harmon has helped the 34-year old Fowler emerge from a four-year cocoon. Earlier this month, Fowler won a playoff at the Rocket Mortgage to get his sixth PGA Tour win — 1,610 days after his fifth. Fowler has never won a major, but he has demonstrated he can play Royal Liverpool if he’s on his game. And apparently he is.
He had the lead, or a share of it, for three rounds before settling for a T5 at there U.S. Open.
This is another chance … at the British Open … the Open … the one we Yanks wake up to … the one this unsettled world of golf needs right now.
Good morning.
Dan O’Neill writes columns for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter at @WWDOD