Golf.com

Playing Royal Portrush | DESTINATION GOLF: LINKSLAND

Wed, 28 Sep 2022 15:04:02 +0000

GOLF’s Dylan Dethier and Sean Zak head to the UK for an epic buddies trip to visit the next three sites of The Open Championship. Starting in Northern Ireland, they play Royal Portrush Golf Club and explore the surrounding town.

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Off Course with Claude Harmon: How this pro’s devastating loss fueled his first major win

Thu, 19 May 2022 19:16:47 +0000

On this week’s episode of Off Course with Claude Harmon, Shane Lowry explained how his loss at Oakmont fueled his win at Royal Portrush.

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The Open Championship is officially returning to Royal Portrush, and way sooner than you think

Kevin Cunningham — Wed, 08 Sep 2021 11:37:44 +0000

When the Open Championship travelled to Northern Ireland’s storied Royal Portrush Golf Club in 2019, it was the first time golf’s oldest tournament had ventured to the Irish Isle in over 60 years. The wait for another Northern Irish Open will be shorter. Much shorter.

On Wednesday, top R&A executives and Northern Ireland government officials met at Royal Portrush to announce that the Open would return to the renowned links course in 2025.

Tournaments

The Open Championship has (finally) returned to Royal Portrush, but its quest back was not so simple

By: Alan Shipnuck

“We could not be more thrilled to be bringing The Open back to Royal Portrush in 2025,” Martin Slumbers, chief executive of the R&A, said. “There will be huge excitement among golf fans around the world to see the best men’s players facing the challenge of this magnificent links once again.”

In a press release, Slumbers called the 2019 Open at Portrush a “massive success,” Northern Ireland First Minister Paul Givan referred the event as an “outstanding success” and Economy Minister Gordon Lyons similarly expounded on the “sheer scale of success” the club, tournament and surrounding area experienced as a result of the Open’s initial return.

We are delighted to announce that The Open will return to @RoyalPortrush for The 153rd Open Championship pic.twitter.com/AL0kuj50gm
— The Open (@TheOpen) September 8, 2021

It sounds like hyperbole, but the numbers back up the organizers’ ebullient praise.

According to the release, the 2019 Open at Royal Portrush attracted an astounding 237,750 spectators during tournament week. That’s the most fans who have ever attended an Open not at St. Andrews, which will host the 150th Open next year.

Futhermore, the R&A claims the Open generated more than £100 million for Northern Ireland’s economy.

News

Shane Lowry’s win hits home at the club where he learned the game, four hours from Portrush

By: Michael Bamberger

The tournament didn’t disappoint viewers either, with the beautiful, historic course playing backdrop to Irishman Shane Lowry’s emotional victory.

Everyone involved hopes for and expects a similar level of success for 2025, including Mayor Councillor Richard Holmes of Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council, who said, “Based upon the way the whole of Northern Ireland embraced The 148th Open, I have no doubt that in collaboration with The R&A, Royal Portrush Golf Club and the other delivery partners, we will honour this incredible event and build upon the achievements of 2019.”

After St. Andrews in 2022, the Open will travel to Royal Liverpool in 2023 and Royal Troon in 2024 before Royal Portrush makes its third appearance on the world stage for the 153rd Open.

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The first time I played in a pro-am I battled nerves, rain... and Royal Portrush

Josh Sens — Wed, 29 Apr 2020 15:19:21 +0000

Ed. note: In golf, you always remember your first time: the first time you broke 100, the first time you played Pebble, your first visit to the range with your kid. For a new GOLF.com series — we’re informally calling it First-Time Fridays — we’ve asked our staff to recall some of their fondest golfy firsts. Michael Bamberger kicked things off with the first time he interviewed Arnold Palmer. Now, here’s Josh Sens on the first time he played with the big boys in a pro-am…

*****

The greatest thing about golf, many golfers say, is that on any given day, with any given swing, an ordinary duffer can strike a shot as sweet as any Tour pro’s.

No doubt, that’s cool. What’s even cooler, though, is that on rare occasions, when the stars align, that same Joe Schmoe can tee it up for 18 with the best in the game.

I’m thinking of the first time I took part in a pro-am. At the 2004 Senior British Open Championship. At Royal Portrush.

Picturing it now, the image of my playing that course in that event comes back to me as something of an absurdist stunt, the golf equivalent of a Garage Band hack sitting in with the Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl.

Really, I had no business there.

The author, Josh Sens, at a different pro-am, this one at Kapalua.

Though I was in my 30s and had dabbled in the game for nearly half my life, I was a golfer with a very small ‘g,’ a self-taught muni scrounge with a cheeky attitude toward golf’s tweedy customs and almost no exposure to its big-boy venues. My only brush with a championship course had come one day in high school when I’d trespassed onto The Country Club, in Brookline, Mass., hit a single iron shot, then fled. That I’d made a life in golf was entirely unplanned.

In the late-1990s, while working the city beat at a large newspaper in Northern California, I’d become acquainted with a golf-addicted Tibetan lama. An emissary of the Big Hitter himself, he lived in a posh spread in the hills near Berkeley, led meditation sessions on weekday evenings and played skins games with the men’s club on Sunday mornings: a spiritual figure plucked from Caddyshack.

When the story I scribbled about him got picked up by a glossy golf publication, my career took a turn. Almost overnight, I became a golf writer, or at least enough of one to be granted opportunities I’d never dreamed of, including an invite to peg it with the real men in Northern Ireland, on one of the world’s most storied links.

In the years since, I’ve played in enough pro-ams to have learned the only two rules that really matter in them: keep up the pace, and approach your pro as you might a squirrel or someone else’s teenager: without any sudden movements or intrusive inquiries.

That day at Portrush, though, I was simply trying to breathe.

For starters, there was the daunting specter of the course itself, a double-black diamond of a brute that bore no resemblance to the bunny slopes I’d learned on. Its bunkers were a fright. Its fairways had been firmed to the texture of a tarmac. And the rough was tall enough to lose a toddler in it.

News

British Open 2019: Shane Lowry wins Open by six in dominant performance at Royal Portrush

By: Sean Zak

Nor was the weather in a kindly mood. To say a heavy rain was falling isn’t quite right. It was knifing off the water in near-horizontal sheets. The wind was whipping such that as I hunched toward the first tee, a large white tarp flew past me, the top torn off a hospitality tent.

Like any round of golf on a crowded course, a pro-am is a showcase of the human carnival, a pageant of idiosyncratic swings. One of my amateur partners was the head distiller at Old Bushmills Distillery, a cheerful man who swore profusely and played cack-handed, as they call it, with his left hand low on every club. His putting was atrocious but boy, could he smoke it. On the rare occasions when he missed a shot, he’d drop an f-bomb that, in his pronunciation, rhymed with “took.”

This being a senior event, the pros weren’t all conventional either. Playing in the group ahead of us was Eamonn Darcy, the Northern Irish stalwart and four-time Ryder Cupper. If Jim Furyk’s swing calls to mind an octopus falling from a tree, Darcy’s was like a swarm of jellyfish caught in a tornado: a whirlwind of flailing limbs. Every ball I saw him hit went laser straight.

The pro in our group was Don Pooley: tall, lean, long-hitting, laconic. I remember that he struggled with his ball-striking that day, to the point where I thought: this guy stands no chance.

That he went on to lead the tournament into the weekend, and finished just a few shots out of the winner’s circle, points to another lesson pro-ams teach you: the best players in the world can turn it On and Off like that.

Other things I remember:

I remember my opening shot, a nervous, glancing blow of a tee ball that ballooned high right into the rough. I hacked out and limped to a double bogey — not a proud showing, and yet two shots better than the snowman Rory McIlroy recorded on the same hole at last year’s British Open.

As I recall, double bogey was the maximum we were allowed to take. After that, it was in your pocket. And I was in my pocket on more than half the holes.

Still, the pace was sluggish. There were backups everywhere. In the group behind us was Tom Watson. In my most vivid memory of him from the round, he is waiting, arms crossed, on the tee box of a par 5, glowering at me as I take a practice swing. Though, of course that can’t be true. He just had resting-scowl-face, as he would have had a right to on a day like that.

Travel

PHOTOS: Tour Whistling Straits, host of the 2020 Ryder Cup

By: Nick Piastowski

Anyway, it’s a silly notion. The idea that a golfer of Watson’s stature would be paying me any heed at all. Therein lies yet another pro-am lesson, a lesson that applies at all levels of the game: as long as you keep moving, no one cares how you perform. Aside from dying, playing golf badly is the loneliest thing you can do in the company of others.

On that day, at least, I was not alone in stinking up the course. The round wore on, the rain and wind relentless. On the 14th hole, a bear of a par-3 known as Calamity, Pooley led us off with a shocker of a shot: a hosel-rocket that screamed low and right and vanished in a gulley overrun with gorse.

It was my turn next.

Four-iron in hand, I focused, waggled, drew the club back, and uncorked a daisy-cutter on exactly the same line — a faithful replica of Pooley’s shank. There was silence on the tee box, and then laughter.

“Congratulations, Josh,” my cack-handed Northern Irish playing partner crowed. “You’re hitting ‘em just like the pros!”

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Lessons from Portrush: Blissful night golf, Rory's charge and the charm of Ireland

GOLF Editors — Thu, 25 Jul 2019 23:00:54 +0000

Dylan Dethier watches an iron shot sail toward the green at Ballyreagh Golf Course in Northern Ireland, just down the road from where Shane Lowry won his first major title.

Luke Kerr-Dineen

The very best version of the game

There’s one golf course that occupies the coastline between venerated Northern Irish clubs Portstewart and Royal Portrush: Ballyreagh Golf Course. That’s where colleagues Bamberger, Shipnuck, Kerr-Dineen (Marksbury didn’t bring her clubs!) and I found ourselves late Thursday night, scrambling for a dusky few holes. But as we pulled into the near-empty parking lot at 9:20 p.m. we realized we were in for a real treat.

There are two keys to Ballyreagh: property and ethos. The first comes out of sheer luck, I guess. Craggy coastline is rather more abundant in the north of Ireland than where I’m from, but this is still a prize piece. But the ethos of Ballyreagh is what makes the place. There are two sides to the property, a pitch-and-putt and the “big course,” the latter a nine-hole par-3. Greens fees never run more then eight pounds (10 bucks), and less for juniors. There’s a practice putting green and a chipping green, there are *actual* cheap deals on used equipment and clothing in the pro shop, and there’s nary a mention of dress code on the entire property. The greens roll a strong 6 and the views are a strong 10.

The night we escaped out there, we were hardly alone. Three other groups played on in front of us, and another behind us. Three kids wheeled their pull-carts down the road on the way home. Two dog-walkers made their own fair use of the grounds. Sunset-walkers strolled the cliffside trail just below us. We set out with the goal of playing two or three holes; we ended up playing all nine, unable to resist the charm of No. 6, which played directly down at the water, or No. 7, which played directly alongside it, or No. 9, which carried a ravine, a dramatic conclusion for any golfer.

There’s no official talk of “growing the game” at the Open Championship, at least not with that sort of catchphrase. But Rory McIlroy brought it up in his pre-tournament press conference. “I’m very fortunate that I grew up here,” he said, “because golf was so accessible and you didn’t have to come from money or anything to play the game.” I came back to Ballyreagh Monday morning after the Open’s finish. Whether inspired by Shane Lowry’s win or McIlroy’s cut line charge or just unseasonably sunny weather, kids and friends and parents had flocked to both sides of the course, enjoying the best version of the game.

— Dylan Dethier

Rory McIlroy's Friday charge came up just short, but the Northern Irishman gave the home crowd a show they'd never forget.

Getty Images

Rory's last stand

After 12 years at GOLF, I finally made it to my first Open Championship this year. I loved everything about it. Portrush is as charming in person as it looked on TV, and the course was simply divine. My husband is from Ireland, so I had some extra insider’s insight regarding the magnitude of Shane Lowry’s accomplishment. It was thrilling to watch, and while Lowry’s win will be a special one in my memory, it’s Rory McIlroy who made the biggest impression on me.

The hype for Rory’s performance at Portrush was literally years in the making. Golf is a selfish sport at its core, but it was clear from the beginning that Rory’s motivation at Portrush was more for his country — the whole island of Ireland, really — than himself. He said as much after his second round on Friday. The pressure was an enormous burden.

Willing yourself to play your best golf on a given day is practically impossible, and when Rory imploded right off the bat on Thursday, you couldn’t help but feel for him. Brandel Chamblee deemed it “choking,” and he was right. Rory knew he had one more shot at redemption on Friday, and the way he lit up the golf course in a spirited quest to make the cut was incredible to witness. Has there ever been so much excitement and energy directed at a player who was so far from the top of the leaderboard? The atmosphere was electric. It’s exactly why we love golf, and sports in general.

Rory’s raw display of emotion and class in his ultimate defeat humanized him on a new level. He became more relatable than ever, and I have even more respect for him after the way he handled himself. Lowry is the Champion Golfer of the Year, but in terms of perseverance in the face of adversity, it was McIlroy who truly triumphed.

— Jessica Marksbury

A couple of local kids battled the rain at Esker Hills as Lowry did the same four hours away.

Michael Bamberger

A taxi to Esker Hills and Ireland in all its beauty

There were two people left in the Portrush press tent, as Saturday edged into Sunday, a reporter and a photographer, Keyur Khamar, from the PGA Tour. Beyond the tent’s doors, a warm rain was falling and the back-of-the-house operations at the course were in full swing, mini-trucks with play tires and inadequate headlights hauling trash and traffic cones. At the exit gate, all the human traffic was funneled into one chute and two dozen local lads, their work shifts ending and looking to let off some steam, were in there with you, bound for downtown. None of them needed the light of a cellphone. You were soaked by the time you made it to your Open-week home, but relieved. Its drying room never looked so good.

There were no hire cars (rentals) available Sunday morning anywhere near Portrush, so to make it to Esker Hills, Shane Lowry’s home club in rural Ireland, four hours to the south if you don’t make too many wrong turns, you found yourself in the front seat of an Audi taxi, with a driver you struggled to understand. A nice man, but a city driver, and he knew the country roads no better than you. He stopped for petro, for a loo visit, for a cigarette, for a map consult, wondering if he’d make it back for his evening job. The white shirt and black tie it required sat on a hanger in the back. A working man. Greater Belfast is filled with them. One of Rory’s grandfathers worked in a shipyard and the other sold ice cream from a truck.

Finally, Esker Hills came into view, the rain still falling, and it never looked so good. The clubhouse was packed and there was Keyur Khamar, making his rounds unobtrusively, lens in hand, shooting this and that. This was the other Ireland now, the sing-song Ireland the tourist boards sell. There were two boys coming off the course, hair soaked, clubs soaked, windbreakers soaked. They’d be dry in 10 minutes in the humid warmth of the clubhouse. There was a pack of girls running around the perimeter of the clubhouse. There was a boy kicking a soccer ball against a table stand. There were two young girls, conspiring silently: Let’s go to the ladies’! Their hideout. The boys would not follow them there and the grownups were all glued to the telly. Free at last.

There were 20 or 30 kids, scurrying around the clubhouse and the parking lot at Esker Hills, every last one of them wearing a team emblem of some kind. They were 6 and 8, 10 and 12, 14, and surely some odd ages, too. Shane Lowry was them, not that long ago. Keyur Khamar snapped the scenes and the kids barely knew he was there.

— Michael Bamberger

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#AskAlan mailbag: Why didn't J.B. Holmes get a slow-play penalty at The Open?

Alan Shipnuck — Wed, 24 Jul 2019 21:11:53 +0000

In this installment of the #AskAlan mailbag, GOLF senior writer Alan Shipnuck answers your burning questions about the 2019 Open Championship, including J.B. Holmes’ slow play problems, Portrush’s chances to get another Open, and much more.

Why do you hate David Duval??? -Daniel (@68shooter)

I don’t! I’ve argued in print he should be in the Hall of Fame, because his dominant five-year run was far more impressive than anything many inductees ever did. I think he’s excellent on the Golf Channel. By all accounts Duval is a dedicated family man. None of this is personal…but someone had to say it. (And after I did I had numerous reporters, three caddies, one American Ryder Cupper and another player in the top 50 of the World Ranking tell me they agree but wouldn’t say so publicly.)

News

The Open 2019: Should David Duval have declined his invitation to Royal Portrush?

The fact is, Duval plays only a few tournaments a year – his game, mind and body simply aren’t ready for the rigors of the Open. In 2016 he went 82-WD. In 2018 he opened with an 80 and withdrew again. We know what happened this year. This can’t be fun for Duval. It’s not fun for the fans. Wouldn’t the tournament be better served opening up that spot to a full-time touring pro who could potentially make a run at the Claret Jug, like this year’s first alternate, Martin Kaymer?

Does Portrush get another Open? -@SteveThomsonMN

Oh, hell yes, and soon. It is destined to be a regular part of the rota. No one really loves Royal St. Georges or Royal Lytham, so we can phase out one or both to make room. In fact, my dream rota would be Old Course, Portrush, Turnberry, Muirfield, and Birkdale. Every 10 years we can mix in Carnoustie and Portmarnock for variety.

Did Brooks’s pace of play put J.B. off his game? -@mocycling

Well, Holmes had hardly missed a fairway over the first three rounds and, statistically, that couldn’t last. And he’s shown before he’s capable of a spectacular crack-up under pressure: at the 2017 Players he started Sunday tied for first and shot a ghastly 84. But no doubt Koepka’s very public posturing had an effect on Holmes, and I’m totally okay with that. It’s increasingly clear that the only way things are going to change is by the players policing each other. And there is zero doubt who is now the new sheriff on Tour.

News

The Open 2019: Here’s how Brooks Koepka says J.B. Holmes could pick up the pace

Why why why didn’t the R&A hand out a bad time penalty for J.B. Slow? -@Babs2121

In this scenario I’m actually a little sympathetic to the tweedy blokes at the R&A. They only run one tournament a year – why do they have to create a huge controversy by being the only organization to hand out slow play penalties? This problem belongs to the PGA Tour and European Tour – they run professional golf week-in-and-week-out and control the livelihoods of the players. The stewards of the tours could change the way the game is played if only they had the balls to do it. It’s not fair to lay the responsibility on the governing bodies who only have one flagship tournament each year.

J.B. Holmes pictured after completing the third round of the 2019 Open Championship.

Getty Images

Is the difficulty of winning a major championship starting to become a reality for Koepka? He had a great major season, but do the near- misses (and the scare on Sunday at the PGA) start to become scar tissue instead of a momentum builder? -Dave (@djlettieri )

Yes, Bamberger and I discussed exactly this in our Sunday night podcast. Historically, only the very best players win even one out of four chances at the majors. At the Masters, Brooks’ watery tee shot on 12 was a killer, and he didn’t convert shortish birdie putts on 17 and 18 that could have dramatically altered the outcome. The four straight bogeys to open his round on Sunday at Portrush was a stunning retreat. Brooks has to be commended for consistently rising to the occasion – it’s been thrilling to watch. But there’s going to be a little scar tissue, too, from these majors that got away this year.

Rory McIlroy, a tragic hero? There seems no progress in his performances when it matters the most. -@Dominique_Franz

The 79-65 was the perfect summation of McIlroy’s last five years: maddening and thrilling in equal measure. We know his wedge game can be sloppy and his putting inconsistent, but what happened on Thursday at Portrush was metaphysical. It helps explain why Rory often seems overwhelmed at the Masters, the tournament he wants the most. We all love Rory because he’s real and honest. We’re dazzled by his physical gifts. But what happened at Portrush was a window into his soul. Tragic hero is a very good way to think about Rory.

News

Why, in the end, Rory McIlroy actually got the Open Championship he wanted

Rickie has been labeled the best player to not have a major. Is Tommy Fleetwood moving into that category? -@DJ_Lightz

I could watch Tommy Lad hit the ball all day long. Some of the shots he played through the wind on Sunday were awe-inspiring. But his putting let him down. Again. As good as Fleetwood is it’s criminal that a year and a half has gone by since his last win. He’s such a kind, gentle soul – can he access the hardass flintiness that most of the game’s greats possess? Or maybe all he has to do is free up his putter on Sundays and he can remain a sweetheart with a bunch of big, shiny trophies on his mantle. (I think we’d all prefer the latter.) To your question, Fleetwood has certainly had the requisite near-misses in the major championships required to be the BPNTHWAM. But I think he needs to prove he can win more consistently before we worry about his major haul. Right now, I think Kuchar carries the dreaded title of BPNTHWAM.

I saw Jaime Diaz say this was one of the great major seasons of all time. I don’t get that. Yes people liked Tiger winning, but Brooks made the PGA boring for 65 holes, and Woodland and Lowry are pretty underwhelming winners. How would you rank this year? -Jeff (@War_Eagle1988)

Coming up with an actual ranking would require more thinking than I’m prepared in this jet-lagged state but my feelings are much closer to Jaime’s than yours. This year’s Masters was utterly epic and will be talked about as long as golf is played. The PGA Championship featured the number 1 and 2 players in the World Ranking slugging it out on a big, brawny golf course…what more could you want? The U.S. Open had a lot of glittery names on the leaderboard, Koepka made a stirring run at another historic win and Woodland hit maybe the two most memorable shots of the year to pull out the win on an iconic course. The Open Championship was imbued by so much emotion. If Sunday lacked a certain dramatic tension that’s only because the day before Lowry produced the round of the year. He was the right champion at the right time. All in all, I think it was a helluva year.

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Best majors of the last decade? We ranked them, from forgettable (No. 40) to indelible (No. 1)

Tiger looked dejected, very slow through the ball and creaky old. Enough with the Masters hangover talk, there must be more going on here. -@LabLoverDE

I think there was a legit emotional hangover after the Masters, and it clearly spilled into the PGA Championship. At the two Opens it was more about Tiger’s physical limitations. He pushed really, really hard last year, trying to build a new swing and reinvent himself as a golfer. Then he maxed out again leading to the Masters and throughout that week, when he climbed the tallest mountain imaginable. It’s pretty clear now that Tiger pushed himself to the breaking point. I’d love to see him just shut it down for six months and then show up at Torrey next year and build toward the Masters again. He only has a finite number of swings left – I hope he uses them wisely.

Tiger Woods missed the cut at the 2019 Open Championship at Royal Portrush.

Steve Flynn/USA TODAY Sports

Aship, there seems to be a level of reverence reserved for The Open that no other major gets. Our scribes romanticize the courses and towns and fawn over the weather. The Masters gets nailed for its snobbery and past, the U.S. Open for the blazers and gimmicks, and the PGA for…something. It seems the R&A is held in a special place above criticism. If the U.S. Open had in-course O.B., or 5 feet behind a green, we’d call it Mickey Mouse. What gives??? Why the love affair?? -@FakePoulter

Well, the R&A was savaged for some of the nonsensical new tee boxes on the Old Course and the ridiculous condition of the greens there during the 2015 Open, and it was deservedly part of the blowback for Muirfield’s embarrassing male-only policy. But in general the R & A has had far fewer setup issues, which helps temper criticism. (So does making common sense decisions like denying John Daly a buggy.) I agree with your general thesis, though. There is something undeniably romantic about these ancient courses and the little towns around them. The players feel it and so do the scribes. But that doesn’t mean we’re not going to call a spade a spade, like, say, my rant on GOLF.com last week about the O.B. stakes at Portrush.

Has J.B. taken over the top spot of golf twitter’s favorite villain? (Or at least until the next Jason Day WD…) -@WallDwarf

It think Holmes solidified that honorific with his tedious layup at Torrey. It’s really a shame because J.B. has a moving personal story and should be easy to root for, but the incredibly selfish way he plays the game has destroyed any and all goodwill. Hopefully he takes to heart Brooks’, uh, encouragement. Kevin Na has learned to play faster and it’s no coincidence he’s won twice since. So maybe there’s hope for us all.

Looks like internal O.B. > rough to control the bombers. -@nolandad

Yeah, sure, if you line any hole with O.B. stakes it becomes a lot tougher and forces players to be more defensive. That doesn’t make it right, or pleasing. My only critique of Portrush is that it needs to lose the O.B. down the left side of No. 1 and 18. Neither is necessary on this great links. (The out-of-bounds behind 5 green makes a little sense since there’s no way play a ball from the steep cliffs beyond the white line.)

News

The Open 2019: Royal Portrush is great, but O.B. left on the first hole is a crime

Is it the player’s responsibility to ensure their clubs are conforming? -@aussieinafrica

Of course, because they are the ones that will pay the penalty if the clubs aren’t conforming in the form of a P.R. hit or the stress of having to replace them at the last minute or, in Xander’s case, both. We know that manufacturers are building drivers right up to the legal limit, and that after hitting thousands of balls the face gets fractionally thinner, which can push a club into non-conforming territory. Clearly players and manufacturers are going to have test drivers much more regularly or this is going to be a recurring problem.

Regarding Koepka’s comment that he doesn’t practice before regular Tour events…Isn’t it a bit insulting to fellow pros and the Tour brass that are trying to promote every event? What does it say about those events? Or him? -Vaidya (@vs2k2)

There is a certain lack of professionalism there. I think about Joe DiMaggio being asked once why he played his heart out in every game and he said, to paraphrase, because there might be a boy in the stands watching me for the first time. If Brooks is going to turn up at a Tour event you’d like him to put in a little effort to play well, since fans have paid good money to be there, thousands of volunteers have given their time and various corporations have invested a lot to put on the event. But Koepka has made the correct calculation that majors will define his legacy and that’s where he can scoop up the long money and World Ranking points. So, why sweat the small stuff? He’s certainly a lot fresher physically and mentally this way. But his milquetoast performances in everyday events just throws into sharp relief Tiger Woods’ grind and pride as he fought so hard to win every single time he teed it up.

Would you root for a WGC in Europe, possibly in Ireland instead of Memphis or Mexico? -@Goufit

I love the Mexico City event, and it’s important to have a WGC in Latin America, though I wish it would visit some other parts of the region. We have a WGC in Asia, too, and that’s a good thing. The European Tour visits so many corners of the continent I’m not sure we need a WGC there. I’d rather see it get to Australia, South Africa and the Caribbean.

Given the recent Apollo 11 hoopla, who is golf’s Michael Collins? – Brian (@HailFlutie)

It’s gotta be Gary Player. He was in the orbit of the stars but so often overlooked.

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The post #AskAlan mailbag: Why didn’t J.B. Holmes get a slow-play penalty at The Open? appeared first on Golf.

British Open 2019: J.B. Holmes' disastrous final-round 87 cost him a boatload of money

Jessica Marksbury — Sun, 21 Jul 2019 23:00:29 +0000

PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — After firing 66-68-69, J.B. Holmes was 10 under par through three rounds at the Open Championship, good for second place. Though he faced an uphill battle in the final round, trailing 54-hole leader Shane Lowry by six shots, a bad weather forecast for Sunday gave all the chasers hope that they might be able to make up some ground.

Holmes teed off in the penultimate group with Brooks Koepka, but it didn’t take long for things to go south. Holmes made a double bogey on the 1st hole, a brutal opening blow. Four more bogeys followed on the front nine, mitigated by just one birdie. Holmes made the turn at five 0ver on the front side.

Things only got worse on the back. Holmes suffered a triple bogey, three double bogeys, and two additional bogeys for a back-nine 46. What’s worse, his resulting final score of 87 caused Holmes to plummet 64 spots down the leaderboard into T-67 — a loss of approximately $700,000 in prize money. Holmes finished the championship at six over par overall, ahead of only three other players who made the cut.

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The Open 2019: Social media torched J.B. Holmes for slow play at Royal Portrush

Had Holmes managed to stay in the top 4 on Sunday, he would have earned an invitation to next year’s Masters — a tournament he’s played in only five times over the course of his career, finishing T-4 in 2016 — as well as valuable world ranking points (Holmes is currently ranked 55th in the world).

It was a rough day all around, with playing partner Koepka also appearing visibly irritated by Holmes’ pace of play. Holmes opted not to speak to reporters after his round.

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Shane Lowry's New Legacy

Sun, 21 Jul 2019 22:47:11 +0000

Jessica Marksbury reflects on why the golfer’s Open Championship victory will be remembered as one of the most significant achievements in the history of Irish sport.

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The Open 2019: What would a 15-handicap have shot at Royal Portrush in Sunday's squall?

Luke Kerr-Dineen — Sun, 21 Jul 2019 22:26:24 +0000

PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — Royal Portrush gave us three days of soft, scoreable weather, and one day of absolute misery.

The rain came hard and fast on Sunday at the 2019 Open Championship. So did the wind.

The R&A saw it coming and took some drastic measures to keep the course from becoming unplayable. They moved up the tee times and slowed down the greens. Still, players struggled.

“The weather is testing players to the very limit,” Graeme McDowell said.

“It will be carnage,” predicted Tyrrell Hatton after walking off the course with an impressive 69.

He was right. The scoring average for the final six groups was 75.41, and J.B. Holmes, playing in the second-to-last group, shot 86. Combined, the final seven groups played the course in 64 over par.

Watching the pros bleed shot after shot made us wonder: What would a 15 handicap shoot out there?

The greens are pretty manageable — they were rolling at about a nine — so putting wouldn’t be as big a problem as one might expect. The issue would be from tee-to-green. Few 15 handicaps have the control required to navigate sustained winds at 20 mph (at at times reaching 35 mph).

Trying to hit fairways would be a nightmare. They’d be hacking out all day, and once they do get close enough to the green, they’d see how the surfaces severely run off into valleys. Heavy rain on-and-off throughout the day, means they’d never get into a rhythm. Not to mention the course stretches to more than 7,300 yards.

A moment Shane Lowry and Ireland will never forget! pic.twitter.com/9atCLBD2sT

— GOLF.com (@GOLF_com) July 21, 2019

First, I wanted to hear what our resident 16 handicap, Josh Berhow, thinks.

What would I shoot at Royal Portrush today? Man, I don’t even want to think about that. I’m a 16 handicap who doesn’t play as much golf as I’d like to, and here’s the brutal truth about the majority of fellow 16s like myself:

1. We don’t hit the ball that far.

2. We aren’t consistent. Shanked irons and thinned wedges can pop up at any turn.

3. We don’t play smart. Part of that is the mentality of, “Hey, I’m not gonna set the course record today, so who cares?”

That said, luckily for me I’m blessed (?) with an extremely low ball flight (take that, Irish wind!) and hit my 3-wood and hybrid better than anything in the bag, so my optimistic side believes I could find some fairways, work my way to the green and mix in some decent numbers.

So after some thorough thought, careful to give myself a little credit without being too optimistic, I’ll settle on a 128.

Pretty honest and brutal assessment from Josh there. But what do players think?

“They definitely wouldn’t break 100,” Russell Knox said after an eight-bogey 77.

Added Cameron Smith after his 76, “If they were counting every shot, I’m not sure they would finish today if I’m being honest.”

So according to my highly unscientific poll, the consensus seems to be hovering around 120, which sounds about right. But what do you think?

Final seven groups played the course in 64 over-par. What would a 15 handicap shoot if they played Royal Portrush today?

— LKD (@LukeKerrDineen) July 21, 2019

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British Open 2019: The weather at Royal Portrush is getting ridiculously harsh

Jessica Marksbury — Sun, 21 Jul 2019 18:44:51 +0000

PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — The forecast isn’t always correct, but yesterday’s prediction for wild Sunday afternoon weather at the Open Championship at Royal Portrush is right on target.

The morning was calm, but clouds quickly rolled in and the rain began soon after Shane Lowry and Tommy Fleetwood began their final rounds.

GOLF.com’s intrepid onsite correspondent, Luke Kerr-Dineen, ventured into the weather to follow a few groups and arrived back at the media center with an astute observation: “It’s officially miserable out there.” From the media tent, it periodically sounds as though someone is hosing down the ceiling.

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2019 British Open Live Coverage: Highlights from Sunday’s final round at Royal Portrush

The R&A’s trepidation regarding the forecast was so great that the championship’s governing body opted to move tee times forward by nearly two hours in hopes that the worst of the weather would set in after play was complete.

At the moment, conditions are uncomfortable, but they’re thankfully not unplayable. The temperature is in the low 60s and the wind is gusting 14-17 mph. Though it’s rained off and on since Thursday, Sunday’s rain and wind is the first stretch of sustained difficult weather players have encountered in Portrush. Luckily, more of the heavy stuff isn’t forecast to hit until the final round is complete.

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