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      Jiyai Shin Won a British Open at Royal Liverpool. She’s Got Some Advice.

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      It is easy to forget, given just how thoroughly Jiyai Shin romped to victory at the 2012 Women’s British Open, that she did not lead from start to finish. But her triumph at Royal Liverpool, the English club often known simply as Hoylake, nevertheless stands as one of the most commanding performances in the tournament’s history.Her message to the world’s top men’s golfers, who will contest their British Open at Royal Liverpool beginning on Thursday, can be summed up in two words: Look out.“Royal Liverpool has a lot of small greens, as well as small, deep bunkers,” Shin, who also won the 2008 Open at Sunningdale, wrote in Korean in response to emailed questions.“There is also wind,” warned Shin, who still plays on the L.P.G.A. of Japan Tour and tied for second at this month’s U.S. Women’s Open. “You have to be patient against the constant toil of the wind.”Jiyai Shin celebrated her victory on the 18th green during the final round of the Women’s British Open at Royal Liverpool Golf Club in 2012.Andrew Redington/Getty ImagesThe wind may not be the only menace, not at a club with a record of weather headaches at its recent Opens. In 2006, when Tiger Woods won, signs warned of the risk of fires. Eight years later, before Rory McIlroy’s victory, a forecast for thunderstorms led to a two-tee start for the first time in Open history. And when Shin played there in 2012, poor weather led to the third and fourth rounds being condensed into a single day. At the time, she said Hoylake had offered up the “worst conditions I think I’ve ever played.”The coming days could pose problems, too.“My worry is now what the forecast is for Saturday and Sunday, which there’s some uncertainty about which way it will go,” Martin Slumbers, the chief executive of the tournament-organizing R&A, said on Wednesday. “But it’s going to be wet or it’s going to be very wet. We’ll see.”Weather notwithstanding, the course has a distinguished history: No club along the English shore, with the exception of Royal North Devon, is older than Royal Liverpool, which was founded in 1869 and first hosted a British Open in 1897, when the amateur Harold Hilton won. Its men’s Open champions later included Bobby Jones and Peter Thomson.The 151st Open, Shin predicted, “will be the beginning of another history.”No. 1: RoyalPar 4, 459 yardsThere are three bunkers near the green on the par 4 first hole at Royal Liverpool.David Cannon/R&A, via Getty ImagesMore often than not, Royal Liverpool’s first hole will play into the breeze, and there are fairway bunkers on both sides of the hole — right around the distances where many of this week’s players can drive their tee shots.Welcome to the British Open.“It is a dogleg hole that bends slightly to the left, and the width of the green is not wide, making it difficult to put the second shot on the green,” Shin said. “It is advantageous to aim a bit to the right to maintain the flow for the next shot when playing this hole.”There are three bunkers near the green, which hardly has Britain’s smoothest putting surface. Trouble on No. 1 does not necessarily doom a player, though: Shin had a triple bogey there during one round.No. 7: TelegraphPar 4, 481 yardsRory McIlroy on No. 7 during the final round of the British Open at Royal Liverpool in 2014.Ian Walton/R&A, via Getty ImagesWant to make it to the fairway? Hit the tee shot at least 250 yards into what could be a decidedly forbidding wind. Come up short, and you’re probably in the gorse that can be found all over Royal Liverpool. A successful tee shot, though, can position a player for an accommodating second shot toward the green, where two left bunkers lurk nearby.The green has been infused with more tricks since Shin and McIlroy won, but Shin suggested the wind was a greater challenge than the green.“It was difficult to adjust the distance from the second shot to the pin due to the back wind,” she remembered. “A strong wind had the biggest impact on the first bounce.”No. 13: AlpsPar 3, 194 yardsRickie Fowler on the 13th hole at Royal Liverpool in 2014.Stuart Franklin/Getty ImagesFew holes are more beloved among Royal Liverpool’s members than No. 13. Mounds obscure the green from the tee box, suggesting that there is not much of a green on the left side.But that’s not true, and there is actually more green on the left than the right.Shin counsels not to expect much bounce from the green, which is diagonal and runs left to right, and she remembers how she “aimed a bit harder at the back of the pin than the front.”And beware the right bunker.“It seems like the club members know a thing or two about golf if they love this difficult hole in particular,” Shin said.No. 17: Little EyePar 3, 136 yardsThere are many perils on the way to the 17th hole at Royal Liverpool.Andrew Redington/Getty ImagesThe British Open has never been played in Wales, but the new 17th hole will bring the competition awfully close: just across Dee Estuary. The raised green awaits players after a spread of bunkers and other perils, so there is little room for error off the tee. There are not many favorable spots for a ball that rolls off the green, either, and the R&A is hoping the hole will infuse some drama as the tournament nears its end on Sunday.Perhaps this is the year of the par-3. At Los Angeles Country Club last month, the course included five par-3 holes for the first time at a U.S. Open since 1947.“Personally, I think par 3 makes the game more exciting,” Shin said. “I think it will be a great hole with a variety of new variables.”No. 18: DunPar 5, 609 yardsOne of five bunkers near the 18th green.Andrew Redington/Getty ImagesShin arrived at the 18th tee box during the final round with virtually no chance of losing. The only question, really, was whether she’d win by a double-digit margin.“When I walked up to the hole looking at the grandstands surrounding the green,” she said, “I felt that it was my stage and that I was honored to be there.”It stands to reason that this year’s Open might not have such a runaway winner — the most recent player near Shin’s 2012 mark was Woods in 2000, when he won by eight strokes at St. Andrews — so No. 18 might be a bit more freighted. And it will assuredly be longer after the addition of a new tee, and it will also be narrower. The R&A itself is warning that the fairway can seem “just a handful of yards wide” in some spots off the tee.The hole, the 16th for members and a place where Open players have often used long irons in the past, will veer toward the right, by an extensive and expanded out-of-bounds area, for second shots. If a player can avoid the five bunkers around the green, including the three on the left side, eagle is a possibility.“Since the hole flows from the front to the back of the green, you can aim for the next shot without any worries even beyond the green,” Shin said.On Sunday, weather permitting, someone will stand on that green and hoist the claret jug freshly engraved with his name. More

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      British Open Won’t Rule Out Saudi Deal

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      The Open is not looking for a title sponsor for one of the world’s most celebrated tournaments, but other options could be on the table.The leader of the R&A, who only a year ago was among the fiercest critics of LIV Golf, did not rule out the possibility on Wednesday that the group, the British Open’s organizer, could someday accept money from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund.“The world of sport has changed dramatically in the last 12 months, and it is not feasible for the R&A or golf to just ignore what is a societal change on a global basis,” Martin Slumbers, the R&A chief executive, said at Royal Liverpool, where the Open will begin on Thursday. “We will be considering within all the parameters that we look at all the options that we have.”The wealth fund has lately surged to become one of the most prominent benefactors in sports, cumulatively spreading billions of dollars through golf and soccer and stirring speculation about where it might put its money next. Britain has been central to the wealth fund’s ambitions: In 2021, it purchased the Premier League soccer team Newcastle United.The fund and its allies have insisted that the investments are intended to broaden the Saudi economy, but they have faced skepticism and fears that Saudi leaders are partly looking to use sports to rehabilitate their kingdom’s reputation for human rights violations.Although Slumbers said last year that he was “very comfortable in golf globally growing,” he complained then that LIV’s Saudi-bankrolled model was “not in the best long-term interests of the sport” and “entirely driven by money.” Human rights abuses, he declared then, were “abhorrent and unacceptable.”He appeared far less fearsome on Wednesday, even as he placed a limit on a potential arrangement with the wealth fund, or anyone else, and insisted that he was uninterested in a so-called presenting sponsor for the Open, which will be played in the coming days for the 151st time. (Rolex is the principal sponsor for next week’s Senior Open at Royal Porthcawl in Wales. Next month, the AIG Women’s Open will be contested at Walton Heath, near London.)But asked directly during a news conference about the possibility of the wealth fund becoming “a partner,” Slumbers replied, “If I’m very open, we are and do and continue to do, talk to various potential sponsors.”Slumbers’s receptiveness reflects the swelling fears among golf executives about the financial sustainability of the sport, whose prize funds have recently soared. The purse for this year’s Open is $16.5 million, more than double that of a decade ago. On Wednesday, Slumbers said prize money was increasing far faster than he and other executives had expected.Some of the pressure swamping men’s golf could ease if the PGA Tour and LIV end what has amounted to an arms race for the world’s top players. The tour, the wealth fund and the DP World Tour took a step toward that last month, when they announced a plan to bring their golf business ventures into a new, for-profit company. The agreement, which the R&A is not a part of, may not close for months.Slumbers said that the R&A, which, along with the U.S. Golf Association, writes the sport’s rule book, would “absolutely welcome an end to the disruption in the men’s professional game.”He was much less eager for a partnership with former President Donald J. Trump, who has been one of LIV’s biggest boosters and has repeatedly asserted that the R&A is looking to return the Open to Turnberry, one of Scotland’s most spectacular courses. Trump purchased the property in 2014, five years after its most recent Open.“We will not return until we are convinced that the focus will be on the championship, the players and the course itself, and we do not believe that is achievable in the current circumstances,” Slumbers said in the days after the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.Trump has nevertheless claimed since then that the R&A is looking to host another Open at Turnberry. Instead of acquiescing on Wednesday, Slumbers instead came close to repeating his 2021 statement.“We’ve been very clear,” he said. More

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      Five Players to Watch at the British Open

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      Many of the best players in the world have gathered at Royal Liverpool for the last major of the year.It seems like only yesterday that the best golfers in the game were battling for a green jacket at the Masters Tournament, the season’s first major.With mid-July here, however, the stage is set for the final major, the British Open at Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake, England, which begins on Thursday.It will be fascinating to see if Wyndham Clark, who was a surprise winner in the United States Open in June, can back it up at the British Open — and whether the world No. 1, Scottie Scheffler, whose name always seems to be on the leaderboard, will make enough putts to win his second major after taking the Masters last year.Here are five other players to watch this week.Koepka won the P.G.A. Championship this year.Charles Laberge/Liv Golf, via Associated PressBrooks KoepkaNo one has been more impressive in the majors this year than Koepka. He tied for second at the Masters and won the P.G.A. Championship.At 33, Koepka, with five major titles, is still in the prime of his career. With one more major, he’d join such greats as Lee Trevino, Nick Faldo and Phil Mickelson with six. Koepka said his goal was to reach double figures in majors, and it’s not out of the question.“I think sometimes majors are the easiest to win,” he once said. “Half the people shoot themselves out of it, and mentally I know I can beat most of them.”Koepka, who signed with the Saudi-financed LIV Golf tour in 2022, is healthy again. As knee and hip injuries took their toll in the last couple of years, his game suffered as did his confidence.Rory McIlroy won last week’s Genesis Scottish Open.Frank Franklin Ii/Associated PressRory McIlroyWith the arrival of each major championship, there’s the same question for McIlroy, 34: Will he win his fifth title? He has been stuck on four since he captured the 2014 P.G.A. Championship.He almost came through at the United States Open this year but failed to make a birdie on No. 8, the vulnerable par 5, and bogeyed No. 14, another par 5, to finish second by a stroke.McIlroy, who birdied the last two holes to win last week’s Genesis Scottish Open, still has time. Mickelson and Ben Hogan didn’t pick up their first major until they were in their early 30s. On the other hand, McIlroy, ranked No. 2, can’t keep letting these opportunities slip away. There are only so many.He has one big thing going for him this week. It was on the same course in 2014 that he captured his lone British Open, winning by two over Sergio Garcia and Rickie Fowler.Justin Rose will turn 43 at the end of the month.Julio Aguilar/Getty ImagesJustin RoseTime, however, is starting to become a factor for Rose, who will turn 43 at the end of the month, in his pursuit of a second major. His first was the 2013 U.S. Open. Since 2000, only Tiger Woods and Mickelson have won majors after their 43rd birthday.Rose, of England, has shown this year he still has plenty of game. In February, he won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am because of a 65 and 66 in his final two rounds. He tied for sixth at the Players Championship, tied for ninth at the P.G.A. Championship and came in eighth at the RBC Canadian Open.It’s hard to believe, but a quarter century has passed since, as a 17-year-old amateur, Rose holed out on the 72nd hole from 50 yards away to tie for fourth in the 1998 British Open. “It was something,” he said, “that was way beyond anything I could have ever imagined or experienced.”Cameron Smith is the defending champion.Andrew Redington/Getty ImagesCameron SmithHoping to defend his title is Smith of Australia, who hit a final-round 64 last year to win by a stroke over Cameron Young. McIlroy finished third, two shots back. Smith, who made eight birdies, didn’t seem to miss a putt in the final round. Most memorable was the save he made on No. 17, the Road Hole, knocking in a 10-footer after an exquisite third shot that he navigated around the bunker.“I knew if I could get it somewhere in there,” said Smith, ranked No. 7, “that I’d be able to give it a pretty good run.”Smith, 29, who won a recent LIV Tour event in London, tied for 34th at the Masters, but tied for ninth at the P.G.A. and came in fourth at the U.S. Open, closing with a three-under 67. Unless his putter cools off, he should be in the hunt.Collin Morikawa is a two-time major champion.Andrew Redington/Getty ImagesCollin MorikawaStill only 26, Morikawa, a two-time major champion, might have found something to turn his season around. Morikawa, ranked No. 19, closed with a 64 a few weeks ago at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, losing in a playoff to Fowler. It was his first top 10 finish since the Masters, most surprising for a player of his ability.His first major came in the 2020 P.G.A. Championship. Morikawa, who shot a final-round 64, made a memorable eagle on No. 16 after reaching the green with his tee shot. In 2021, he won the British Open by two shots over Jordan Spieth.Morikawa hasn’t won since, however, and it’s getting to him.“I mean frustrating, frustrating’s a word I can use,” he said in June.“It’s been a while, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know how to” win, he said. “It’s still there.” More

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      For the British Open, You Just Can’t Forget the Weather

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      The R&A has learned from past mistakes. This year, it’s planning to allow the wind to dictate how the course at Royal Liverpool is set up.Royal Liverpool is hosting the British Open, which starts on Thursday, for the third time in 20 years. And the biggest deciding factor in how the course plays and who wins could be the one thing that the R&A, golf’s governing body in Britain, has no control over: the weather.When Tiger Woods won here in 2006, the course was firm and baked out, with temperatures approaching 100 degrees. Woods kept his booming driver in the bag on almost every tee box, choosing to hit irons on most holes to control the flight of his ball and to play the roll on the hard fairways.Eight years later, Rory McIlroy played the same course, which dates from 1869, in vastly different conditions. It was wet and lush. The temperatures were in the 70s, and a severe rainstorm blew through after the third round.While both players had low scores — 18 under for Woods and 17 under for McIlroy — and beat their nearest competitor by two shots, that variability is how the R&A likes it these days.“It wasn’t easy,” McIlroy said in a post-round interview at the time. “There were a few guys who were making a run at me, so I had to stay focused and get the job done.”Going into this week, the R&A said it had a series of plans that would match the weather forecast to test the golfers. Where the tees and pins will be placed will be determined less by the length of a hole on the scorecard or slope of the green and more by conditions the governing body can’t plan for in advance: the wind, the rain, the heat and the cold.Tiger Woods with his caddie Steve Williams at the 2006 British Open at Royal Liverpool. The course was firm and baked out, with temperatures approaching 100 degrees that year.Warren Little/Getty Images“It’s fair to say we’re very much in the hands of the weather,” said Grant Moir, the R&A’s executive director of governance, who leads on-course setup at the Open. “A couple of months ago, there was a drought, and the course was very dry and burned out. We thought we were headed for a hard and fast Open, which was terrific.“But in the past couple of weeks we’ve had a significant amount of rainfall, and the course has greened up. So, our fairways and greens are softer and certainly softer than at St. Andrews last year,” he said about the 2022 Open. “We just accept that. We’ll adapt the way we set up the course to the conditions we have and the weather we have.”This is what an Open has come to mean, where whatever preparation players have done could be for nothing given the chance that the conditions change.Padraig Harrington of Ireland, a two-time Open champion, said he had been preparing for hard, firm conditions, but knows that could change by the time of the first round.“It’s not a course where it nearly matters as much what you do getting to know the course ahead of time,” he said. “I’ll only play two nines in practice. You know what you’re doing. At Royal Liverpool, you can be aggressive, but it’s your decision-making in the wind that matters.”The setup of the Open is regularly compared to the United States Open. This year’s contest at Los Angeles Country Club had lower scores than the United States Golf Association, the governing body in the United States, usually allows with its setup. On the first day, two players broke the championship record, with Rickie Fowler and Xander Schauffele shooting 62.Critics said it was too easy, with a winning score of 10-under par. But Harrington came to the course’s defense. It wasn’t the wide fairways that made scoring conditions favorable. It was the greens.“We’ve never putted on greens that good in the U.S. Open,” he said. “They never got crispy. Usually the greens on a Sunday in that major, the ball won’t stop. I didn’t three-putt all week.”At the 2014 British Open, won by Rory McIlroy, Royal Liverpool was wet and lush. The temperatures were in the 70s, and a severe rainstorm blew through after the third round.David Davies/PA Images, via Getty ImagesStewart Hagestad, a member of Los Angeles Country Club and a two-time United States Mid-Amateur Champion who has qualified for the U.S. Open in the past, said before the tournament that the conditions in Los Angeles were almost too good for a major. “What makes major championship is weather,” he said.This week at Royal Liverpool, the weather forecast is mixed, but Moir said that was fine. “We’re looking to provide an appropriate challenge,” he said. “We have to recognize the forecast and adapt from there and go with the best information we have.”It wasn’t always so. One of the turning points for the R&A was the 1999 Open at Carnoustie in Scotland, which earned the nickname Car-nasty, for how tough the course played. That week was memorably brutal.Jean Van de Velde of France was in the lead after 71 holes. With one hole to go, the championship appeared to be his. He had a three-stroke lead over two players when he hit an errant drive on the final hole.It only got worse, in a nightmare finish that was more akin to how an amateur would play than an elite player. His ball found the rough, the water, a bunker, even a grandstand. When it was over, he carded a triple bogey, which dropped him into a tie for the championship and put him into a three-man playoff.In the four-hole match, Van de Velde lost to Paul Lawrie of Scotland. The winning score was 6-over par.Yet the criticism went deeper than just Van de Velde’s performance. The rough was so high and the fairways so firm that play was brutally challenging and incredibly slow.Harrington, who shot 15-over par that year to finish in 29th place, said the Open course setups since then had not been as fixated on what the winning score would be.“In 1999, the R&A brutalized the players and did everything they could to make it tough,” he said. “After that, the R&A said we’ve got great golf courses. We’re going to let the weather determine if it’s tough or easy. They’re not going to get in the way.”Moir did not disagree with that assessment. “There were a lot of learnings from Carnoustie in 1999,” he said. “The biggest change was the R&A took greater control over the setup. We’re talking 24 years ago — the attention wasn’t as great in those days. It was a different time.”The biggest change to Royal Liverpool since its last Open has been the creation of a new par-3 and slotting it in as the 17th hole. It had been the 15th hole and used to play downhill to the water; now the shot has been reversed, so players will have to hit a short shot up a hill to a tabletop green that is fully exposed to the elements.“If we have any sort of wind at all, it’s going to impact on that hole,” Moir said. “It’s an exposed green on top of the dune, and the backdrop is the beach. Any wind will be at its peak up there.”It’s also an example of how the prevailing wind direction on any given day will determine where the pin is. The R&A has plans for all four days to pick a spot where players will have to navigate the breeze, not just ride the direction it’s blowing, to get a shot in there close.“The two modern Opens here are great examples of the impact that weather can have,” Moir said. “But what this course will do is it will provide chances to score. There’s an opportunity to make bigger numbers out there, too.” More

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      Nick Price and the Thrill of Winning the British Open

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      He won three majors in his career, but it was taking the British Open in 1994 that meant the most.Nick Price, the former No. 1 player in the world, won the P.G.A. Championship in 1992 and 1994, but it was his victory in the ’94 British Open at Turnberry in Scotland that stands out.While playing the 71st hole, a par 5, Price of Zimbabwe felt he needed a birdie to give himself a chance. He did better than that. He got an eagle, knocking in a 50-footer, and went on to win by a stroke over Jesper Parnevik of Sweden.Price, 66, speaking by phone from his home in Florida, reflected recently on his Open triumph and why it was so special. The conversation has been edited and condensed.Where do you place your victory at Turnberry?Having been second twice, in 1982 and in 1988, it was something I really wanted badly. It’s the first major championship I ever watched on TV. It meant the most to me.What are the challenges facing the players at Royal Liverpool?I think your normal links golf. One of the real keys to links golf is to hit the ball straight. Tom Watson, who was always a master of the links courses, that was his philosophy. He said it doesn’t really matter if you miss hit the ball or whatever, but if you hit it straight you can play a links course, and no truer words were spoken.What was the Open you first watched?In 1969, when Tony Jacklin won at Royal Lytham. We didn’t have live TV in those days. The tobacco companies used to have all of these 16-millimeter films that they used to bring to the golf clubs. They would do two showings, one on a Friday night and one on a Saturday night. I can remember sitting on the floor at the golf course in the main lounge in front of the screen watching with two or three buddies. It was such an eye-opening thing. I didn’t know you could make money playing professional golf.What was the key to your win?The putt on 17 was huge, but I birdied the 16th hole, which really put me in a position to win. I played the hole absolutely perfect. I hit a driver down there so I could get my 60-degree sand wedge on it, which I had the most amount of spin with. I used a little bit of a slope behind the pin as a backboard and drew the ball back off the slope to about 15 feet and holed a very difficult left-to-right, downhill putt.What about Bernhard Langer recently setting the record for most wins as a senior?What amazes me about him is the desire. He still has the desire. For many of us who have stepped aside or retired, he’s just an amazing human being.You’re only seven months older. Can you imagine yourself doing what he is doing?No. I had an injury that put me on the downhill toward retirement in 2012. But even so, if I hadn’t that, I probably wouldn’t be playing as much — a few events, but not like he does.You were never fired up about the senior tour anyway, were you?Not really. I went flat out on the regular tour until I was 50, so I was at a little bit of burnout on my first three of four years on the Champions Tour. It didn’t inspire me.What is your biggest regret?I would have liked to have come to America earlier. Over here my progress accelerated a lot more. I should have come at the end of 1980 instead of 1983.When you play with friends these days, what motivates you?The love of the game, that’s what it comes down to. I have to keep moving my goals. It’s not what it was. Yesterday, I shot 71. I broke par. I’m playing from the second set of tees, a course about 6,700 yards. It’s still fun for me and especially with the guys I play with. I try to be selective about the courses I play. I only like to play courses I enjoy playing. That’s one of the things you can be when you get to my age. More

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      There’s a British Open Winner Coaching High School Golf in Ohio

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      All of the noise is gone now. There is no entourage, no hubbub, no fuss. Instead of yukking it up with David Letterman, as he did 20 years ago this month, Ben Curtis is spending the morning teaching southeast of Cleveland and steeling himself for the roughly 750-mile drive to South Carolina for a family vacation.This kind of understated Friday morning is very much how Curtis likes his life two decades after he made his major tournament debut at the British Open — and won. His victory at Royal St. George’s was an international sensation: He went from being the world’s 396th-ranked player, the one who had spent part of tournament week sightseeing in London with his fiancée, to being the first golfer in 90 years to win a major title on his first try.He never captured another. Sporadic successes followed — ties for second at a P.G.A. Championship and a Players Championship, a spot on a Ryder Cup-winning team, a few other PGA Tour victories — but never the major-winning magic. He last played a tour event in 2017, finishing with career earnings of more than $13.7 million.Today, he coaches his son’s golf team at Theodore Roosevelt High School in Kent, Ohio, and teaches at a golf academy that bears his name. On Thursday, the Open will begin at Royal Liverpool. He could play in it, but he’d rather not.This interview has been edited for length and clarity.Curtis celebrating with the claret jug after his victory in the British Open at Royal St. George’s in 2003.Andrew Parsons/PA Wire, via Associated PressLet’s start in 2003. After the first round, you were five shots off the lead. After the second, three. After the third, two. When did you start to think you could win?Saturday, I remember struggling the first nine holes, and then something — I don’t know if I just calmed down, maybe thought it’s over, I don’t know — happened. I shot three under on that back nine, and it just boosted my confidence. When we went to bed that night, I was like, “I’m going to win this thing.” I told Candace that, and she kind of went quiet until the next day.The back nine on Sunday wasn’t as smooth as Saturday’s. Was it the course or the pressure?Probably the pressure more than anything.The first nine continued what I was doing on Saturday. In any tournament, but a major especially, it’s hard to play really consistent for 27 holes without having some kind of hiccup. In the back of my mind, I kept telling myself, “It’s tough for everybody.”Ever watched the round?Twice.Twice in 20 years?We were at a friend’s house, woke up and he had the Golf Channel on since it was Open week. And so we sat there and watched it a little bit, and the kids slowly came down and we watched it. And then that kind of spurred it on to, “Hey, let’s take the time since the kids were older.”When I was playing, I never wanted to watch it because I was stubborn and wanted to concentrate on the future. Now I look at it though, and it’s like, “What were we wearing?”A few days after you won, you told The Times: “It won’t change me. It won’t change who I am.” Did it?I’m sure it did. But personality-wise or things like that, I would hope not.Did it change how you approached golf?I wasn’t used to the limelight, and so it was just difficult to go practice, to go find that quiet place where I could get work done. You try to schedule your day and you tried to have it down to within a few minutes, but if you’re trying to have a two- or three-hour practice session and it ends up being six and you’ve only practiced for two, it wears on you.People are coming up and you’re getting distracted — and not in a mean way, by any stretch — but then you realize you’re putting less and less time into the practice because of that. So that’s what was difficult, or even just going out to eat, and it made me realize I never wanted to be like that — like, I would never want to be in Tiger Woods’s shoes.I’d want to come in under the radar. I wanted to win every week, of course. Everyone does.I’ve heard you felt pressure to prove that the Open hadn’t been a fluke.Definitely. Especially when you’re young and you win early, there’s that pressure of you’ve got to do it again to prove your worth, I guess.Where does that pressure comes from? From within yourself? The media? The galleries?It’s a combination of everything. Luckily, social media wasn’t a huge deal back then. But I did feel it internally. I remember practicing and getting ready at the end of 2005, and my college coach just went: Screw this. Just be you. Don’t try to be somebody that you’re not, because you’re trying to emulate what the top players in the world are doing, and, well, maybe that’s not for you.That was probably the first time I had heard that in years.Curtis talked about his stunning victory in the British Open with David Letterman.Jeffrey R. Staab/CBS, via Getty ImagesJust go back to being Ben Curtis?Just go back to being me. That refocused me a little bit. I think it showed in the play that year, winning twice.You coach high schoolers now. What do you tell them about pressure?They’re worried about breaking 80 or 90, not winning majors. But to them, that’s a big deal. I remember the first time you break 80, the first time you break 70 and how big of an accomplishment that is. So that’s their major.I always tell them you can’t force it. It’s just going to happen. You work hard, and it’s just going to fall in there.You can only control yourself and your emotions and try to treat every shot like it’s the first shot. And 99.9 percent of the rounds do not go the way you want them because usually it’s derailed within the first shot or hole.Brooks Koepka says he thinks he can win 10 majors. Did you ever let a specific number like that enter your head?No, but I always dreamed of winning another one and had a couple of opportunities.Winning a major put you in the history books. Would your career have been easier if you hadn’t won so early?Probably, but it wouldn’t be as cool of a story. Like, if I had won two other events and then won a major and then kind of disappeared?Is there such a thing as winning a major too early?It’s not so much the winning the one too early, but maybe the way Koepka did it and winning a lot within a couple of years. Now, all of a sudden, you think you should win every week.And the hardest thing — and I fell into that trap, too — was trying to gear up your game just for the majors. If you just do that alone, if you’re not playing good going into it, what difference does it make if you don’t have the confidence? Confidence is the biggest thing.Curtis with his wife, Candace, in New York in 2003, shortly before they were married.Ozier Muhammad/The New York TimesI was talking to Max Homa recently, and he said he had realized he didn’t prepare for the majors how he prepared for everything else and that maybe he should smile more and laugh more.It’s true. When I won at the Open, we got there early just to get adjusted to the time change. I played on Saturday and Sunday, and then on Monday, Candace and I went into London and were these American tourists.Then I came back and played 18 on Tuesday and nine on Wednesday. But you can overdo it, and I think what Max is saying is if you treat it like any other event, you’ll be fine.It’s so hard to do. But every time I’ve won or came close, it was just, let’s go play golf. You play free.Wyndham Clark is going to Royal Liverpool as a first-time major champion. What’s your advice for him?Enjoy the moment, and don’t be afraid to say no. Try to stick to your routine. And the biggest thing is just expectations: Don’t expect to win. Just go out there and try to enjoy the moment. Just like Max said, laugh, have some fun. If you make the cut and have a chance to win, great. If not, you’re still the U.S. Open champ, and no one is ever going to take that away.You’ve played two Opens at Royal Liverpool. What do you make of it?It’s a really good golf course. I wouldn’t say it was my favorite.Would Royal St. George’s be the favorite?It’s up there, but I love Birkdale, just the look of it, the feel of the place. And obviously St. Andrews is special, but they’re all great. I hated Troon the first time just because I played badly.You can play the Open until you’re 60. Why not play it?One, I don’t want to put the work in. And, two, I’m not going to show up just to shoot a pair of 78s, 79s. It’s not fair to the other guys. You’re basically taking a spot away from a kid at a qualifier or somebody who is trying to play for the first time.I know what it takes to play well. I can go out here and play OK. But when you play 10 times a year, it’s a totally different thing.You last played a tour event in 2017. Was it hard to walk away, or was it liberating?A little bit of both. I think I could have a couple of years earlier and just kept hanging on and playing like crap, to put it frankly. Once I did, it was great.“When I teach, it’s not always about X’s and O’s and hitting it to this spot or in this swing plane or whatever,” Curtis said.Daniel Lozada for The New York TimesWhen did you recognize that you didn’t want that chaotic tour life anymore?When the kids got to school age. When they were young and you could take them with you, it was great. Then they went to school and their schedule is limited, and you’re traveling and playing in these tournaments, and you’re alone.I never played a huge amount, but when you’re used to having them out for about 20, 22 events a year and suddenly it’s only for six or seven, and now you’re out there for 20, 22 events on your own, it becomes tough. It doesn’t matter how nice the resort is. Every hotel room, it doesn’t matter whether it’s a Ritz-Carlton or a Courtyard Marriott, it’s a rectangle room with a bathroom in it. And it’s tough on the family at home, too, because they want me home.A lot of retired golfers live in beachfront towns in Florida. You chose Ohio. Why?If you’re in Jupiter, you’re among your peers. Up here, we’re alone. The people are great, down to earth, and we wanted that for our kids. It’s just who we are and where we’re at. This is home.When you left the tour, did you think you wanted to coach high schoolers?No.Think you wanted to run an academy?It took some time. For the rest of 2017, I was thinking about what I wanted to do, and that’s when the academy came about. Ohio has a rich history of golf, and it seems like all of the greats come through here at some point in their careers. You look at Jack Nicklaus, growing up in Ohio, and Arnold Palmer lived in Cleveland for a while.I just started reflecting on how I grew up, and I was thinking, “Who around here is going to help these kids navigate the dreams that I had?” I had to rely on my parents, and then luckily I went to a college where the coach was super involved.When I teach, it’s not always about X’s and O’s and hitting it to this spot or in this swing plane or whatever. I have these good kids, and they want to swing it like Koepka. I’m like, “Listen, swing it like you. What your swing looks like now is not going to be what it looks like when you’re 25.”What persuaded you to coach the high school team?My son was on the team, and the coach decided to retire. I got a call from the athletic director and I was like, “Well, who do you have in mind?” And they were like, “You, and that’s it.”I asked them to take a couple of days and try to find someone. I didn’t want to put that pressure on my son, but he was like, “coach, Dad, coach.”What errors are you seeing that weren’t really a thing when you were learning to play?Kids are more worried about their swing technique and the way it looks than how it performs. As long as you shoot a 72 on the scorecard, it doesn’t matter how you shoot 72. It’s a good score! Just worry about that.Twenty years ago, you said that if you hadn’t been playing the Open, you “probably” would have been watching the tournament on TV. Will you be watching this time?It’s funny: It’s been seven years since I played, but I wake up now and realize it’s almost over. You totally forget. You get up and start doing your stuff, and it’s 2 o’clock and you think you’ll see what the golf is — and then it’s over.The first three years were like that, and I totally missed it. Now, I’ll watch it, and I enjoy it. More

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      Cameron Smith Will Try To Defend His British Open Championship

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      Smith, defending a major tournament title for the first time this week, is happy not to get too worked up about much of anything.It is possible that one of last July’s customers at the Dunvegan Hotel, which fancies itself only a 9-iron away from the Old Course, remembers more of Cameron Smith’s British Open than he does.It would not take much, because Smith recently recalled roughly this about the Sunday that left him a major tournament champion: teeing off, missing a putt on the ninth hole, learning he had seized the lead, then finishing to “the feeling of not really joy, but the feeling of relief.”He considers this, a memory mostly unburdened by brilliance or blunder, a strength.“That’s one of my greatest assets: hitting a golf shot and forgetting about it,” Smith said in an interview. He has friends, as every professional golfer does, who can “remember every single shot from every single tournament they’ve played in.”“But that’s something,” he continued, “I’ve never been able to do.”He is the one who has spent the last year filling the Open winner’s claret jug with beer — Australia’s XXXX Gold, he concluded, tastes best — and passing it around.Now comes his first major title defense, which will begin on Thursday at Royal Liverpool, the English course that is the site of the 151st Open.Assessing Smith’s year so far is an exercise in choose-your-own-adventure analysis. The Masters Tournament, where he had finished in the top 10 for three consecutive years, yielded a letdown in April, when he tied for 34th at the only major tournament where he has never failed to make the weekend.But Smith’s May outing at Oak Hill was his best P.G.A. Championship performance of his career (a tie for ninth), and after missing three U.S. Open cuts in five years, he left Los Angeles with a fourth-place finish. Less than two weeks ago, he won a LIV Golf tournament near London, his second individual victory since he joined the Saudi-backed circuit last summer. The event was, perhaps, exceptional preparation for the taunts and terrors of Royal Liverpool, even for a past Open champion.“And for sure, the last couple of majors it’s started to feel really good,” Smith said.Paul Childs/Reuters“The wind is very different, I feel like, in England and Scotland,” Marc Leishman, one of Smith’s LIV teammates, observed this month. “It’s a lot heavier. Getting used to that is pretty important, taking spin off the ball. Cam is very good at that time, and throw his wedges and putting on top of that, and he’s a pretty formidable opponent.”Smith’s slump — a relative term — at the year’s start probably had its origins in a holiday break that was the longest of the 29-year-old’s career. He had won the Australian P.G.A. Championship, missed the cut at the Australian Open and was desperately in need of a reboot after years of pandemic tumult and a rush into the global spotlight. Even now, he says, he is a professional athlete who would “prefer that people don’t know me.” If he had his way, he’d probably be out fishing.And so though the hiatus was a fine, vital salve for his mind, it was, at least in the interim, a hex on his golf game. Once he returned to competition, the shortcomings of his preparation were clear. He had middling finishes in two of the first three LIV events of the year, and he missed the cut at a tournament in Saudi Arabia.He still preferred to practice putting off a mirror in his Florida office (there, instead of on a green, “because I’m lazy”) but accepted, however begrudgingly, that his driver was in need of greater work. By the time he arrived in Los Angeles for the U.S. Open in June, he was eagerly embracing an old-school approach: Don’t worry too much about distance, try to land the ball in the fairway, have a chance for birdie.He finished 50th in driving distance but had 19 birdies, tied for second in the field and equal to the winner, Wyndham Clark. At Augusta, he had been 31st in driving distance and tied for 37th in birdies, with 13.“I feel like I worked on that quite hard, and the golf has been really good, and then it was just a case of letting go and letting stuff happen,” he said of his resurgence. “And for sure, the last couple of majors it’s started to feel really good.”But Smith’s at-ease sorcery, so plain to anyone who goes online and spends a minute watching him conquer the Road Hole on the Sunday he won the claret jug, flows in large part from his equilibrium. He draws it from his mother, he thinks, perhaps not surprising for a player whose early PGA Tour years were marked by homesickness.The pandemic did not help. When he won the tour’s Players Championship in March 2022, his mother and sister were at T.P.C. Sawgrass, having just reunited with Smith after more than two years of border restrictions. Six months later, he was ranked second in the world and was one of LIV’s most hyped signings.But he has so far managed to avoid being viewed like quite so much of a villain, even before last month’s surprise announcement of a potential détente between the warring circuits. He has spent only so much time airing grievances in public. He has acknowledged shortcomings in LIV’s fields compared to the PGA Tour’s. When his world ranking tumbled, which was inevitable since LIV tournaments have not been accredited, he did not lash out because his shot at reaching No. 1 was fading.“I made my bed, and I’m happy to sleep in it,” he said in an interview in March. Now, with a tentative peace perhaps taking hold in professional golf, he is wondering whether he will have a shot, after all.“Don’t get me wrong: I want to beat everyone else,” he said. “But there’s no reason why you can’t do it with a smile on your face.”He will face 155 other men this week, all of them clamoring to deny him another year with the claret jug. Now ranked seventh in the world, and preparing for a field that includes more than a dozen fellow Open winners, he has a backup plan for his beverages.“The Aussie P.G.A. Trophy is pretty cool,” he said. “You can definitely fit a lot more beer in that one.”Still, he said this week, his eyes welled with tears when he returned the claret jug to the Open’s organizers.“I wasn’t, like, not letting it go,” he said at a news conference on Monday. “But it was just a bit of a moment that I guess you guess you don’t think about, and then all of a sudden it’s there, and, yeah, you want it back.” More

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      Women’s Golf, and Its Players, Sees Rise in Money

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      Prize money has been growing, and players are landing sponsors. “Elevating purses continues to elevate everyone,” said the L.P.G.A. commissioner.When second-year L.P.G.A. player Allisen Corpuz tapped in her final putt on the 18th hole at Pebble Beach Golf Links this month, she won the United States Women’s Open with a memorable final round, overtaking the leader and holding off a surging challenger in Charley Hull.Corpuz also cashed a $2 million first-place check, which was more than double what Annika Sorenstam won for all three of her U.S. Women’s Open victories combined.Despite losing ProMedica, the health care company, as presenting sponsor for the Open, the United States Golf Association increased the total prize purse by $1 million to $11 million this year.It’s part of a broader move in women’s professional golf to increase sponsorship for tournaments as well as for individual golfers. Over the past few years, purses have risen at tournaments, new sponsors have sought out golfers and even players who are not at the top of their careers have reaped the benefits.“Elevating purses continues to elevate everyone,” said Mollie Marcoux Samaan, the L.P.G.A. commissioner.At the tour level, the L.P.G.A. has been increasing prize money for players up and down the tour ranking. This year, the total purse for 36 official events is more than $100 million. Ten years ago, that number was $49 million, but even in 2021 it was around $70 million.Charley Hull, who made a charge at this year’s U.S. Women’s Open, has cultivated support from a significant number of sponsors over the years.Harry How/Getty ImagesLast year, 27 L.P.G.A. players earned $1 million in prize money (up from 15 the year before). That number still pales in comparison with the men’s PGA Tour, where, last year, 126 players earned more than $1 million. (Only 125 players have fully exempt status on the PGA Tour, meaning even players who couldn’t play every event or who qualified for all of the majors earned more than the top L.P.G.A. players.)Yet Samaan and other leaders are also focused on the individual players. The L.P.G.A. said that from 2021 to 2022, the No. 1 player in the world earned 22 percent more, but the 50th ranked player saw her earnings rise 44 percent. The 100th ranked player got a 30 percent raise, to $167,000 from $128,000.While the top players in any sport will always be compensated well, golf is unique in that many of the players in each tournament get cut and sometimes don’t get paid anything for the week.“We’re also looking to our partners and not just how to grow the purses, but also for help on the expense side,” Samaan said. “Some of the challenges our players face is half of them don’t get to play on the weekend each week. Some sponsors include miss cut payments. Some offer stipends or travel bonus to cover basic expenses.” But not all of them.Another factor driving increased interest — and money — in women’s golf is the desire among companies to sponsor both men and women. Whereas a journeyman player on the PGA Tour has rarely wanted for a sponsor, women, even those just below the top ranks, have often struggled.Many companies, as part of broader efforts at diversity, equity and inclusion, are looking to add female players. Early to this was KPMG, which broke ground — and set a new standard — by continuing to pay Stacy Lewis under her sponsorship contract when she had her daughter in 2018.Stacy Lewis holding her daughter after finishing the Drive On Championship in March. She was among the first players to continue being paid under her sponsorship contract while out on maternity leave.Darryl Webb/Associated PressPreviously, golfers had to play a certain number of events in order to receive all of their sponsorship dollars. Instead, KPMG opted to do what it would have done for an employee who went on family leave. Many other sponsors have followed suit.Aon, the risk management consulting firm, now offers the same prize money to men and women for its yearlong Aon Risk Reward Challenge, which assesses a player’s overall score on a challenging hole at each week’s tournament.Lizette Salas, ranked 80th in the world and in her 12th year as a professional, is sponsored by Aon. She said the conversations she’s had with sponsors were radically different today from when she began.“In the beginning the conversations were short,” she said. “I was pretty much pitching myself, as opposed to an agent or manager doing it. Now as the investments become bigger, the conversation between player and sponsor has changed. It’s created a more personal relationship between the executives and the player. I’m a big person in diversity and inclusion. A lot of the companies I’m sponsored by have taken that big step in their companies, too. It’s refreshing.”Smaller companies have also gotten in on supporting L.P.G.A. players. Cozen O’Connor, a law firm based in Philadelphia, has sponsored players on the PGA Tour for several years. This year, it added Ally Ewing, who was the L.P.G.A. Rookie of the Year in 2016, finished 11th at this year’s U.S. Women’s Open and is ranked 36th in the world.“When we decided sponsoring players was part of our branding strategy, we wanted to make sure it was inclusive, said Michael Heller, executive chairman and chief executive of Cozen O’Connor. “We wanted it to represent our firm and our clients. It was important to add a female player.”The firm selected Ewing because of her story: battling through Type 1 diabetes, and succeeding at every level of the game.Law firms, like insurance and financial-service companies, are natural fits for the L.P.G.A., given the history in those industries of using golf for entertainment and marketing.Hull, the British golfer who made a charge at the U.S. Women’s Open, has a significant social media presence that has allowed her to cultivate support from a variety of sponsors, including traditional golf brands like TaylorMade, the financial adviser Hachiko Financial and a wellness supplement.“My early sponsors were brands that were already in golf and who were looking to activate their partnerships, like Ricoh around the Women’s British Open, or Omega around the Olympics,” Hull said. “Now I feel my sponsors are more personal to me, such as Drink Mojo which is a supplement I use, or Hachiko, who are helping to educate me on investment.”Hull said her sponsors have changed as she’s grown as a player, and she’s fine with that.“As I’ve grown up and matured, so have my sponsors, and that’s not always just on my behalf,” she said. “A sponsor might be looking for a specific type of person to fit their ambassador role, so as I get older I might grow out of the type of person they’re looking for.”Jessica Korda was the first female player to sign a deal with FootJoy to wear its apparel from head to toe.Mike Stobe/Getty ImagesThe top players — who have the ability to transcend the sport — have the most power in negotiating deals with their sponsors. Jessica Korda, who was ranked 14th in the world last year before a back injury, signed a deal with FootJoy to wear its apparel from head to toe. She was the first female player to sign such a deal with FootJoy.She particularly appreciates the sponsors who were with her when she started.“My rookie year [2011], I played in 14 or 15 events,” Korda said, and she made about $50,000. “So having a sponsor really, really helped to cover my cost. We don’t have health care. We have to pay a lot out of pocket. Expenses are quite high.”Korda, who has made $7.6 million on the golf course, said that she’s hopeful for players coming out of college now, in a different sponsorship environment.“It allows them to play with a bit less pressure and not go paycheck to paycheck. Having that comfort was huge for me back then. Now it’s aligning with brands I really enjoy.” More