R&A : 153rd Open Championship. Tee Times
The fourth and final men’s Major Championship of the season takes place this week as the world’s best gather at Royal Portrush for The 153rd Open.
WEATHER : A dry start to Wednesday with clouds making way to sunshine. A bright warm day with gentle winds. However rain is expected to arrive on Thursday, with heavy showers expected in the afternoon.
Schauffele defends
After spending so long as a Major winner in waiting, last year was a year to remember for Xander Schauffele. With victory at the US PGA Championship and then The Open over a three-month span, he confirmed himself to be a man for the big occasion. A winner of the Genesis Scottish Open in 2022, he proved his game could travel and he adapted to the links challenge that Royal Troon provided 12 months ago expertly. A final-round 65 – which he then later described as the best of his career - saw him triumph by two shots from Justin Rose and Billy Horschel as he emerged from the pack to lift the Claret Jug.
Royal Portrush’s history of big events
Founded in 1888, Royal Portrush has been a home to the game’s great champions and championships. It hosted the country’s first amateur and professional tournaments. Max Faulkner claimed the Claret Jug in 1951, when the club welcomed the first Open Championship to be played outside Scotland and England. Its global profile grew in stature as it held six Senior Opens in a ten-year span, including five in a row from 1995. In 2005, a then 16-year-old Rory McIlroy set a course record over the Dunluce Links with a 61 in the North of Ireland Amateur Championship.
In 2018, the Boys Amateur Championship was played in Ireland for the first time, before Irish eyes were smiling a year later when Shane Lowry claimed victory as The Open made its long-awaited return. Lowry is feeling confident about his chances as he returns to the scene of his greatest triumph for the Open Championship.
“What I did was very special, and to walk down the 18th hole with a six-shot lead, I'm probably never going to do that again so I'm not going to try and replicate that this week," he said.
“I'm just going to go out and try and play the tournament as well as I can this week.
“I've prepared as well as I can for this tournament. I know I have. Then it's just up to me to stay out of my own way on Thursday morning and go and get after it and see what happens.”
“I think the golf course is perfect right now,” he said after a practice round. “I think it's ready for a great week of golf.
“Trying to judge the scoring will be a little bit difficult, and it's going to play quite tough.
“I think it's a little bit firmer than it was, but we're going to have a little bit of rain over the next few days.
“I don't know if that rain will have a massive effect on the course, depending on how heavy it is. I don't really plan to approach the course any differently.”
“I forgot how well-bunkered the course is. There's a lot of options off tees. You just have to go with what you feel. You're going to see a lot of people hitting different clubs off different tees, playing the golf course differently.”
Record crowds
The appetite for golf in Great Britain & Ireland has never been stronger, with 278,000 fans set to gather at Royal Portrush this week. This will mark a new record for the largest attendance at The Open held outside St Andrews, and surpasses the previous high mark set on the Antrim Coast when 237,750 fans gathered in 2019.The 153rd Open will also be the largest ever sporting event held in Northern Ireland.
Harrington honour
Two-time Open champion Harrington will hit the opening tee shot at this year's tournament. The 53-year-old Irishman, who clinched back-to-back Claret Jugs in 2007 and 2008, will open play early on Thursday morning.
Harrington beat Sergio Garcia in a play-off at Carnoustie for the first of his victories after starting the final round six shots back, and successfully defended his title at Royal Birkdale 12 months later with a four-shot win over Ian Poulter.
Harrington, who also held off Garcia to win the 2008 US PGA Championship, missed the cut at the 2019 Open at Royal Portrush. Since then, he has enjoyed great success in seniors golf, winning ten PGA TOUR Champions titles. The latest of those came with his second U.S. Senior Open win last month.
Course guide
Ahead of The Open's return to Portrush in 2019, the Dunluce Links underwent significant changes that began in 2015. Five new greens, eight new tee boxes and 10 new bunkers were created, along with two new holes from land on the club's Valley Course that replaced the old 17th and 18th and become the new seventh and eighth.
After the widespread acclaim it received then, some refinements have been made but the holes will largely play similarly to how it did in 2019. At 7,381 yards, the course - which features several elevation changes and out of bounds off the tee on several holes - will play 37 yards longer than in 2019.
europeantour.com
Bryan Angus (edit)
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