Breakfast Ball #28: Open Championship Preview

What a weekend in Scotland. This is why the PGA Tour has to consider an international strategy going forward. National opens are the best of golf and Bob MacIntyre is a perfect example of why they are so important. Two weeks of links golf per year is not enough.

We will be running an Open Championship pool for readers of The Blue Horizon this week. You can sign up here to have a chance to win a Ryder Cup-themed prize that will be announced on Twitter this week.

In This Week’s Newsletter:

Open Championship Preview: Who has what it takes to conquer Royal Troon?

The Open Championship is the oldest golf tournament in the world. This year it will take place at Royal Troon on the East coast of Scotland, separated by 500 yards from Prestwick Golf Club, the host of the first Open Championship in 1860. It is golf at its most pure in the place where it all began.

Royal Troon Profile:

• Par 71

• 7,385 yards

  • The golf course has been expanded by 195 yards since 2016

• Hosted 10 Open Championships, most recently in 2016 when Henrik Stenson shot a final round 63 to defeat Phil Mickelson

• Stenson’s winning score of 20-under from 2016 is tied with the lowest score to par to win an Open with Cam Smith’s win at St. Andrews in 2022

• Troon houses both the longest and shortest holes in Open Championship golf

  • The par three eighth, known as the postage stamp, is one of the most iconic holes in golf. Although it is only 123 yards, the narrow green is surrounded by bunkers that present an extremely tough test if your tee shot is offline

  • The par five sixth will stand at 623 yards, the longest in Open Championship history

• Weather is expected to be relatively good, with winds maxing out at 22km/h on Saturday and occasional rain. This could lead to low scores unless there is a change in the forecast

• For more on the golf course, Golf Digest has a wonderful hole by hole overview

Five European Debutants to Watch:

🇸🇪 Jesper Svensson:

Svensson graduated from the Challenge Tour in 2023, finishing fifth in the season-long rankings. He got his first victory on the DP World Tour earlier this year, winning the Porsche Singapore Open after a course record 63 on Sunday. The 26 year old is currently eighth in the DPWT rankings, with a great shot at going from the Challenge Tour to the PGA Tour in two years. A good performance in Troon would go a long way to doing that.

🇩🇰 Jacob Slov Olesen (a):

Olesen recently finished his collegiate career at the University of Arkansas, where he had the best statistical season in Arkansas’ history. Then, three weeks ago, Olesen became the first Danish golfer to win the British Amateur in Ballyliffin Golf Club. He will be right in the mix for low amateur this week.

🇪🇸 Angel Hidalgo:

Angel Hidalgo is currently 72nd in the DP World Tour standings and the 397th ranked golfer in the world. However, there is a reason this is called The Open Championship - anyone can qualify. Hidalgo made it to final qualifying at Dundonald Links, and needed an eagle on the par four 18th to get a spot at Royal Troon. Unbelievably, he holed out from the fairway to qualify for the first major of his career.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Calum Scott (a):

Calum Scott is one of the best amateur golfers in the world. He is currently ranked 14th in the World Amateur Golf Rankings as he prepares for the final year of his collegiate career at Texas Tech. Scott lost in the quarter final of the British Amateur to Jacob Slov Olesen this year, and will likely be one of the closest challengers for the low amateur title.

🇸🇪 Ludvig Åberg:

It is hard to believe this is Ludvig's first Open Championship. While he has exploded onto the scene over the past year, he is yet to win in 2024. He faded away over the weekend after leading on Friday at the US Open, and was ahead by two shots going into the final round of the Scottish Open yesterday. He couldn't close it out both times, and will hopefully learn from those experiences to perform well at Royal Troon.

Which European Player is Under the Most Pressure to Perform?

While most people might think this honor goes to Rory McIlroy, he has performed quite well in majors this year. Jon Rahm’s best finish in a major since his controversial move to LIV Golf is a T45 at The Masters earlier this year. Jon Rahm is still only 29 years old. He is approaching the golden age for most professional golfers, and has yet to prove that playing in LIV is going to be good for his golf game.

While he has performed well on LIV, finishing in the top ten eight times in his first ten starts, that has yet to translate to the major championships. Rahm’s last win was at The Masters last year. He has performed well in Open Championships in recent years, posting a T2 in 2023 and a T3 in 2021. If he does not play well this week he will have to wait nine months until his next shot at a major, and there will be plenty of offseason talk about his ability to still produce his best golf while playing on LIV.

The pressure is on. Time to perform.

Robert MacIntyre WINS the Scottish Open for his Second Victory of 2024

Robert MacIntyre won the Scottish Open by one shot ahead of Adam Scott with a birdie on the final hole. It was an incredible win for MacIntyre, who said he had dreamt of winning the tournament since he was a boy growing up on the west coast of Scotland: "It's the one I wanted and it's the one I got. It was really the only one that I could go and watch as a kid. Yeah, I can't believe it's happened."

MacIntyre went into the final round two shots behind Ludvig Åberg who had a disappointing Sunday, shooting a 3-over 73 to finish in T4. MacIntyre's main challenger was Adam Scott, who led by two shots as MacIntyre stood on the tee box of the par-5 16th hole.

After his drive found waist-high rough on the right of the fairway, Bob was left with a very difficult shot in a horrendous lie. As he was taking a practice swing, he heard the metal spikes on his shoes make contact with a sprinkler head: “I just heard the clunk; I've got the front three studs on my shoes as metal spikes, and I was like, no way. I've got a sprinkler underneath my foot.” As there was a man made object interfering with his stance, MacIntyre was allowed to take a free drop, which improved his lie dramatically. He stepped up and took advantage of the lucky break, hitting a towering 6-iron 247 yards to 6 feet and he knocked in the eagle putt to tie the lead.

MacIntyre parred the 17th and found himself on the green on the 18th with a 22 foot putt to win the tournament. As the ball rolled toward the hole, it seemed like it was going to come up short, but the whole of Scotland willed the ball into the hole to bring home the first Scottish winner of the Scottish Open in 25 years.

Other Results:

• 🇫🇷 Romain Langasque, 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Aaron Rai, ☘️ Rory McIlroy, and 🇸🇪 Ludvig Åberg all finished in the top five

• 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Aaron Rai, 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Richard Mansell, and 🇸🇪 Alex Noren all qualified for The Open at the final opportunity thanks to their results

• Notable players to miss the cut included 🇫🇷 Matthieu Pavon, 🇦🇹 Sepp Straka, ☘️ Tom McKibbin, and 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Justin Rose

Results on Tour:

• Sergio Garcia got his maiden victory on LIV Golf in his home tournament at Valderrama 🇪🇸 

  • Anirban Lahiri had a two-foot putt to win the tournament on the final hole but it agonizingly lipped out

  • Garcia's team Fireballs also took home the team title in a playoff to give the Spaniards a clean sweep of titles to go along with Alcaraz's win in Wimbledon and Spain's victory over England in the Euro 2024 final

• Harry Hall won the opposite field PGA Tour event at the ISCO Championship in Kentucky with a chip in on the third playoff hole 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 

  • This was Hall’s first PGA Tour win and guarantees him a PGA Tour card for the next two years

  • The tournament set the record for the lowest cut in PGA Tour history at 8-under

Coming up this week on Tour

• The Open Championship at Royal Troon. Bring it on.

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