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      At Chaotic Season’s Close, PGA Tour Banks on Patience and Its Stars

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      At the Tour Championship in Atlanta, the PGA Tour has rolled out a more muscular rebuttal to LIV Golf. The exodus may continue anyway.ATLANTA — The conversation happened two days after Cameron Smith charged into Rory McIlroy’s lengthening catalog of letdowns.First, McIlroy recounted this week, he wanted to congratulate Smith for capturing the claret jug at July’s British Open, ruining McIlroy’s own Sunday on the Old Course at St. Andrews. But with rumors rife that Smith would defect to LIV Golf, the breakaway series financed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, McIlroy also wanted to make a case for the PGA Tour to Smith, the world’s second-ranked golfer.“Guys that are thinking one way or another, honestly, I don’t care if they leave or not,” McIlroy said at the Tour Championship in Atlanta. “It’s not going to make a difference to me. But I would at least like people to make a decision that is completely informed and basically know: ‘This is what’s coming down the pipeline. This is what you may be leaving behind.’”Smith may indeed leave the PGA Tour behind: He has not denied a report in The Telegraph, the London newspaper, that he will start playing with LIV as soon as next week in exchange for at least $100 million. The last stretch of the PGA Tour season, though, has shown how, with the sport splitting into bitter camps, certain players have assumed starring roles in the effort to stabilize the establishment ranks.The campaign’s anchors have plainly been Tiger Woods, who went to Delaware last week to meet with players, and McIlroy, who wound up paired with Smith for the first two Tour Championship rounds. But others have lent support; this week in Atlanta, for instance, Jordan Spieth said he intended to be “as useful as I’m wanted and as behind the scenes as I’m wanted.”The top players who are among the tour’s remaining stalwarts — other leading figures like Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson have aligned themselves with LIV — are almost assuredly acting for a complex mix of reasons.There are financial explanations, of course, because a PGA Tour stocked with a greater share of the world’s finest players makes its product far more appealing and far more lucrative, for its organizers and its athletes alike. Some players harbor a measure of disdain for LIV Golf’s patron. And, even by the brooding standards of 2022, it is too cynical to discount players when they complain that LIV’s 54-hole, no-cut events, with shotgun starts, are putting a modern blemish on the ancient game they have spent decades trying to conquer.Whatever the players’ motives, their response is coming into greater focus as the tour moves beyond finger-wagging and suspensions. The blended strategy is unlikely to end the exodus, but it could curb it.The plans emerged alongside the Tour Championship, the finale of the FedEx Cup Playoffs, at Atlanta’s stately East Lake Golf Club, where a 29-man field is driving, chipping and putting in pursuit of the $18 million prize that will go to the winner. (Although the nuances and rigors of the competitions make for an inexact comparisons, Scottie Scheffler, who finished his round on Friday with a two-stroke lead over Xander Schauffele, earned $2.7 million for his April victory in Georgia’s other golf mainstay, the Masters Tournament.)But at the end of a season marked more than any other by such open flashes of betrayal and power, appeals to tradition and the allure of money, the ritual talk of the tour’s future is not automatically a plaudit-laden sideshow. Instead, it has become a showcase for the flotilla of life rafts that the PGA Tour and its allies are deploying.Beyond any peer pressure, there will be an avalanche of cash, with a dozen tour competitions next season designated as “elevated events” that will offer purses averaging $20 million each. Moreover, the tour’s Player Impact Program, which debuted last year and relies on metrics like mentions of a player in the news media and internet searches, will play a far larger role in determining compensation and fortifying tournament fields.McIlroy, left, and Tiger Woods are backing a new “tech-infused” team competition that will feature PGA Tour players beginning in 2024.Paul Childs/ReutersMcIlroy, who was nine shots off the lead and in seventh place on Friday, suggested this week that the new model, which is expected to more or less promise the presence of elite, popular players at a wider range of tournaments, would strengthen the tour by offering clearer assurances of who fans — and sponsors — could expect to see in tee boxes everywhere from Hawaii to Orlando, Fla.“I think if you’re trying to sell a product to TV and to sponsors and to try to get as many eyeballs on professional golf as possible, you need to at least let people know what they’re tuning in for,” said McIlroy, seeming as much a corporate pitchman as a player at some points this week. “When I tune into a Tampa Bay Buccaneers game, I expect to see Tom Brady throw a football. When I tune into a Formula 1 race, I expect to see Lewis Hamilton in a car.”Tour executives are also dangling other rewards, like guaranteed payments to players of $500,000 for a season and a pool of $100 million — up from $50 million — that will be divvied up based on the impact program rankings.And McIlroy and Woods are also backing what Mike McCarley, the chief executive of their shared venture, described as “a tech-infused team competition” that they expect will feature televised Monday night matches, beginning in 2024. McIlroy and Woods both intend to compete in some of the events, which the company said will be played in a custom arena and “combine a data-rich virtual course with a state-of-the-art short game complex.” (Setting aside decorum or any PGA Tour dynamics, it is not hard to imagine why the men did not announce this particular endeavor at the Old Course last month.)The events, McCarley and McIlroy said, will be “complementary” to the PGA Tour and have been in development for about two years. Now they amount to another lifeline.Perhaps it is unsurprising that golf, of all sports, is reinforcing the notion that patience is a virtue, and the possibility of swift forgiveness does not appear to be available for now. Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour commissioner, pointedly said that he would not be instantly willing to welcome defectors back into the fold.“They’ve joined the LIV Golf Series and they’ve made that commitment,” Monahan said. “For most of them, they’ve made multiyear commitments. As I’ve been clear throughout, every player has a choice, and I respect their choice, but they’ve made it. We’ve made ours. We’re going to continue to focus on the things that we control and get stronger and stronger.”Whether that will bear out remains to be seen, and those ambitions could take a quick hit with another wave of defections from players like Smith, who is 13 shots behind Scheffler and tied for 15th in Atlanta.But at least for the moment, some players and some newfound nimbleness have an old order looking a little less bedraggled and besieged. More

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      PGA Stars Seek ‘Some Sort of Unity’ With LIV After Meeting With Tiger Woods

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      Adding to the drama, the LIV golfer Patrick Reed filed a defamation lawsuit against Golf Channel and the commentator Brandel Chamblee, seeking $750 million in damages.PGA Tour stars, including Tiger Woods, met on Tuesday to grapple with the LIV Golf series, which has lured away tour players with staggering sums of money, and emerged feeling positive but unwilling to detail how they planned to fend off the rebel golf start-up or live somewhat peacefully alongside it.The meeting was the latest turn in what has been an uncharacteristically antagonistic year in golf, and it came just a week after a federal judge ruled that the PGA Tour can bar LIV golfers from the FedEx Cup playoffs, which conclude at the end of August.Ahead of the BMW Championship, PGA Tour players on Wednesday were reluctant to share specifics about the meeting, held in Wilmington, Del., that attracted Woods, who flew in from his home in Florida to attend. Rory McIlroy, the world No. 3, described the meeting to reporters on Wednesday as “impactful.”McIlroy said Woods’s leadership at the meeting was crucial as players discussed how to improve the PGA Tour and contend with the rift in the golf world since the emergence of the Saudi-backed LIV Golf Invitational series. (The PGA Tour announced in June that it would suspend players who joined the LIV series.)“His role is navigating us to a place where we all think we should be,” McIlroy said of Woods’s presence. “He is the hero that we’ve all looked up to. His voice carries further than anyone else’s in the game of golf.”While players were quick to praise Woods, they demurred when it came to sharing any actionable steps that came from the meeting.“What’s the short-term? What’s the medium-term? What’s the long-term?” McIlroy said. “That’s something that we have to figure out.”Xander Schauffele told reporters on Wednesday that he wanted to see a resolution that ended in “some sort of unity.”“It was a really nice meeting. It was great. It was exciting. It was new. It was fresh,” Schauffele said. “I am very hopeful with what’s to come.”Schauffele, the world No. 6, told reporters there was “a little bit of a code” to keep quiet.“I think I’d be pretty unhappy if I saw one of those guys from last night just blabbering to you guys what we talked about,” Schauffele said. “That would be really frowned upon, and you probably wouldn’t get invited back to the meeting.”Justin Thomas, the world No. 7, said at a news conference that the meeting was “productive” and that the players who attended “just want the best for the tour and want what’s in the best interest.”“I’d just hope for a better product,” Thomas said. “I think that’s the hope in general of anything, is just to try to improve ourselves, where we’re playing, everything the best that we can.”Thomas said that having Woods present gave the meeting added credibility.“I think if someone like him is passionate about it, no offense to all of us, but that’s really all that matters,” Thomas said. “If he’s not behind something, then, one, it’s probably not a good idea in terms of the betterment of the game, but, two, it’s just not going to work. He needs to be behind something.”McIlroy said that in addition to dealing with LIV Golf, the PGA Tour would also eventually have to handle a world without Woods on the tour.“The tour had an easy job for 20 years,” McIlroy said. “They’ve got a bunch of us, and we’re all great players. But we’re not Tiger Woods.”Adding to Tuesday’s drama, Patrick Reed, the winner of the 2018 Masters who joined LIV Golf in June, filed a defamation lawsuit against Golf Channel and the commentator Brandel Chamblee, seeking $750 million in damages.The lawsuit, which was filed in a federal court in Texas, claims that the network and Chamblee have conspired with the PGA Tour to defame LIV players “with the intention to destroy them and their families professionally and personally” and eliminate LIV Golf as a competitor.According to the lawsuit, Golf Channel, Chamblee and the PGA Tour have conspired since Reed was 23, about nine years ago, “to destroy his reputation, create hate, and a hostile work environment for him, and with the intention to discredit his name and accomplishments.”For Chamblee and Golf Channel, “it does not matter how badly they destroy someone’s name and life, so long as they rake in more dollars and profit,” the lawsuit said.Larry Klayman, a lawyer for Reed, said that “we are confident of prevailing in court,” adding that “it’s a very strong complaint.”“While Chamblee’s and NBC’s Golf Channel’s never-ending defamation with regard to Mr. Reed, as set forth in the complaint is not new, with his joining of LIV Golf, it has reached new, intolerable heights,” Klayman said in a statement.Lawyers for Golf Channel and Chamblee could not be reached.The LIV Tour, which is financed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, has drawn much attention and criticism in recent months. Among those who have left the PGA Tour for LIV Golf are Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson. Mickelson sparked outrage in February when it was reported that he had said that the LIV series was a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” even as he called Saudi Arabia’s record on human rights “horrible.”Mickelson, who is reported to have received as much as $200 million to sign with the breakaway tour, is among 11 golfers who defected from the PGA Tour and then filed an antitrust lawsuit earlier this month against the PGA Tour, seeking to challenge its suspensions and other measures that have been used to discipline players who have joined LIV Golf. More

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      Henrik Stenson Stripped of Ryder Cup Captaincy as LIV Golf Rift Widens

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      Stenson was removed as he appeared set to join the Saudi-financed series. Former President Trump, whose course will host the next LIV series event, urged players to “take the money.”Saudi Arabia’s contentious effort to buy its way into professional golf created a new flash point in the sport on Wednesday with the announcement that Europe’s team for next year’s Ryder Cup was dropping its captain, Henrik Stenson of Sweden, just ahead of his expected move to the new Saudi-financed LIV Golf series.Stenson, who won his only major championship at the 2016 British Open, is set to become the latest player lured by the riches being offered by the LIV Golf series, which has upended the once polite world of professional golf since hosting its first event earlier this summer.By guaranteeing players more money than they could earn in the biggest tours and tournaments that make up the traditional golf calendar, the LIV series has created an ugly fissure in the golf world. The fight has split golf into two camps: a group of traditionalists that includes some of the sport’s titans, including champions like Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, and a growing band of rebels, a group that includes Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau and, soon, Stenson.“In light of decisions made by Henrik in relation to his personal circumstances, it has become clear that he will not be able to fulfill certain contractual obligations to Ryder Cup Europe that he had committed to prior to his announcement as Captain on Tuesday March 15, 2022, and it is therefore not possible for him to continue in the role of Captain,” Europe’s Ryder Cup team said in a statement. The announcement did not specifically reference Stenson’s expected defection to LIV.The Ryder Cup, a wildly popular event that pits a team of United States players against a European squad, is set to be played at the Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in Rome next September. European officials said Stenson’s ouster would take place “with immediate effect,” and that they would name a new captain soon.A Quick Guide to the LIV Golf SeriesCard 1 of 5A new series. More

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      Cameron Smith Overtakes Rory McIlroy to Win the 150th British Open

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      The Australian turned in a brilliant final round on the Old Course at St. Andrews to finish at 20 under par and capture his first major championship.ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — The wind, what little there was of it, finally seemed to be blowing Rory McIlroy’s way again at a major championship.He had a share of a four-shot lead with one round to go, and though he was not quite playing at home in the home of golf, McIlroy, a Northern Irishman, certainly must have felt as if he was playing on his terms and on his turf as he basked in the roars of the record crowd and walked his jaunty walk over the undulating fairways and double greens of the Old Course.McIlroy, at 33, has both charisma and game, with an elastic swing that provides him the sort of power usually associated with more muscular men and allows him to pound drives to faraway places.But the 150th British Open would come down to deft touch, not overwhelming force, and though McIlroy certainly did not choke away his chance to make history, he hardly seized the big moment by the lapels and shook it for all it was worth.That was left to Cameron Smith and his putter.Smith, an Australian with a wispy mustache and mullet, has a retro air, and though blazers and ties are the rule at the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, Smith still fit right in at the Old Course, holing birdie after birdie after birdie after birdie after birdie (yes, five in a row) on the back nine despite the pressure that goes with trying to win one’s first major.Smith, a 28-year-old from Brisbane in steamy Queensland, would make eight birdies in all on Sunday, shooting a brilliant, bogey-free closing round of 64 that put him at 20 under par and gave him a one-stroke victory over the American Cameron Young. McIlroy finished in third place, one more stroke behind, after shooting 70 on Sunday and producing par after par but no fireworks on the back nine.“The putter just went a little cold today compared to the last three days,” McIlroy said.Smith had no such difficulties, and he is the first Australian to win the British Open since Greg Norman in 1993 and the first Australian man to win any major since Jason Day won the P.G.A. Championship in 2015.Smith also maintained his nation’s tradition of winning special anniversary editions of the Open Championship at St. Andrews. The Australian Kel Nagle won here in 1960 on the 100th anniversary of the tournament.“That’s pretty cool; I didn’t know that,” Smith said. “I think to win an Open Championship in itself is probably going to be a golfer’s highlight in their career. To do it around St. Andrews, I think, is just unbelievable. This place is so cool. I love the golf course. I love the town. Hopefully we can keep that trend going with the every 50 years. That would be nice, wouldn’t it?”The victory was also, at first glance, a reaffirming moment for the traditional tours in their increasingly contentious rivalry with the breakaway, Saudi-backed LIV Golf series, which has used big checks and lighter workloads to lure major stars like Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and Dustin Johnson, all of whom have since been barred from competing on the PGA Tour but, for now, are still able to play the majors.The closest a defector came to victory at the Old Course was Johnson, who finished in a tie for sixth at 13 under. But Smith was hardly reassuring when asked about rumors that he was considering a jump to LIV. “I just won the British Open, and you’re asking about that?” he said, visibly uncomfortable, saying the line of inquiry was “not that good.”The reporter persisted, and Smith neither confirmed nor denied his interest in the new tour, which is headed by Norman, a fellow Australian. “I don’t know, mate,” Smith said. “My team around me worries about all that stuff. I’m here to win golf tournaments.”Peter Morrison/Associated PressSmith, if he does jump, is certainly in a stronger bargaining position after his week at St. Andrews, and he showed much more precision than emotion during his final-round surge that began on No. 10 when he made the first of his five consecutive birdies and began to reel in McIlroy and Viktor Hovland, who were the co-leaders after the third round.But Smith has learned some hard lessons at the majors with four top-five finishes, including a tie for third at the 2022 Masters and a tie for second there in 2020. “I’ve definitely kicked myself a couple of times over the last few years,” he said.He won the Players Championship in March, his second PGA Tour victory this season, also making a string of final-round birdies on the back nine. The Players, with its elite field and rich purse, has often been labeled the next best thing to a major, but the Open Championship is the real deal, and though the Old Course is far from the most difficult test on the rotation, it retains its power to inspire.Smith’s 20-under-par total score of 268 set a record for a British Open at St. Andrews, surpassing Tiger Woods’s score of 19 under when he won the Open here in 2000.Woods, then in his prime, won by eight strokes, turning the final round into a processional. But Smith’s victory went to the wire. He led the tournament after two rounds, but then fell four shots off the lead with a one-over 73 on Saturday, a round that included a double bogey on the par-4 13th when he went for an ill-advised second shot from the edge of a bunker.By Saturday night, McIlroy had the momentum, sharing the lead with Hovland, a former collegiate star at Oklahoma State who taught himself the rudiments of the game by watching YouTube videos and was trying to become the first Norwegian to win a major.Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland after putting on the 13th green. He let his lead slip away.Warren Little/Getty Images“You were born for this Rory! Come on!” shouted one Scottish fan as McIlroy headed for the 10th tee on Sunday.McIlroy won the 2014 British Open at Royal Liverpool and added a fourth major at the P.G.A. Championship later that season. He seemed set for a long run of dominance, but missed the British Open the next year, the most recent one to be contested at St. Andrews, because of an injury, and has faced years of final-round disappointments.Eight years later, the chase for the next major continues even though he finished in the top 10 in all four majors this season.“I’ll rue a few missed sort of putts that slid by, but it’s been a good week overall,” he said. “I can’t be too despondent because of how this year’s went and this year’s going. I’m playing some of the best golf I’ve played in a long time. So it’s just a matter of keep knocking on the door and eventually one will open.”This one opened for Smith instead. “Look, I got beaten by a better player this week,” McIlroy said. “Twenty under par for four rounds of golf around here is really, really impressive playing, especially to go out and shoot 64 today to get it done.”To get it done, Smith had to recover from a shaky second shot at the infamous Road Hole, the par-4 17th that played tougher than any hole on the course this year. But Smith produced a beautifully weighted putt uphill from off the green that left him with a 10-foot putt to save par. He made it and headed to the 18th hole, where Young, his playing partner, finished with an eagle that put him very briefly in a tie for the lead with Smith, at 19 under.Smith teeing off on the sixth hole on Sunday. He drew a crowd as he climbed the leaderboard.Andrew Redington/Getty ImagesBut Smith had already put his second shot on the par-4 18th just two feet from the hole.“Cameron was not going to miss that,” said Young, who had watched Smith drain so many pressure putts throughout the overcast afternoon.Young knew his man. Smith calmly positioned himself and stroked the ball into the cup to retake the lead at 20 under.The last chance for McIlroy to force a playoff was to make an eagle on 18, which Young had just proven was drivable. But McIlroy’s tee shot, like his round, came up short, and when he failed to hole his second shot, Smith was the British Open champion with his name engraved — in a hurry — on the claret jug.“All the hard work we’ve done the last couple years is really starting to pay off,” Smith said to his team, with the trophy in his grip and the tears starting to come. “And this one definitely makes it worth it.”But Smith, after composing himself, made it clear that he intended to put the claret jug to good use, although not at the moment for claret.“I’m definitely going to find out how many beers fit in this thing, that’s for sure,” he said. More

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      Rory McIlroy Has a Big Day at the British Open. Viktor Hovland Follows.

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      McIlroy leapfrogged to the top of the leaderboard with a stunning bunker shot on No. 10 for eagle. He and Hovland were tied heading into the final round on Sunday.ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — Standing in one of the Old Course’s 112 bunkers on Saturday, Rory McIlroy was about to be right where he wanted to be: atop the leaderboard of the British Open.His drive on the 10th hole had landed in trouble but not deep trouble, coming to a stop in the middle of the sand trap that defends the front of the green.McIlroy had room to swing freely, and his second shot flew over the lip of the bunker, bounced three times and then rolled a few more feet into the cup for eagle.The 27-yard masterstroke gave McIlroy a one-shot lead over Viktor Hovland, his playing partner.“It was skill to get it somewhere close,” McIlroy said. “But it was luck that it went in the hole. You need a little bit of luck every now and again, especially in these big tournaments. And that was a nice bonus.”It was the sort of pleasant surprise that can make the difference between winning or losing a major championship, and Hovland got a bonus of his own on Friday when he holed out from the rough from 139 yards for eagle on the par-4 15th.But Hovland, a 24-year-old Norwegian who excelled at Oklahoma State before turning professional in 2019, did not let McIlroy enjoy the lead alone for long. He quickly reeled McIlroy in with a birdie on the 10th that put them both at 15-under par, and they then dueled down the back nine of major golf’s most historic course.McIlroy, from Northern Ireland, was certainly the crowd favorite, but Hovland, a dynamic presence, did not shrink from the challenge. They finished with matching rounds of 66 and a share of the lead at 16-under par that put them four shots clear of the chase pack led by the American Cameron Young and the Australian Cameron Smith, who are both at 12-under heading into Sunday.Of the top four men on the leaderboard, only McIlroy, 33, is already a major champion, but the most recent of his four victories came in 2014 when he won the British Open at Royal Liverpool.Since then, he has experienced plenty of disappointing Sundays.“Nothing’s given to you, and I have to go out there and earn it, just like I’ve earned everything else in my career,” he said.Other major champions are also in range. Scottie Scheffler, the American who won the Masters in April and is ranked No. 1 in the world, is at 11-under, tied with Kim Si-woo of South Korea. Dustin Johnson, a two-time major winner from the United States who recently jumped to the breakaway LIV Golf series, is alone at 10-under after a mood-swinging 71 on Saturday.Matt Fitzpatrick, the Englishman who won this year’s U.S. Open, is at 9-under with Adam Scott, the 2013 Masters champion, and Tommy Fleetwood.But if McIlroy and Hovland continue to sparkle under pressure like they did on Saturday, they may not allow the pack much opportunity to close the gap.“There’s a lot of things that can happen,” Hovland said. “In these conditions and these pin placements, you can play fine and shoot around even-par, and then that brings a lot of other guys in, as well.”The weather is forecast to remain relatively benign on Sunday, with moderate winds and temperatures in the mid-70s. That could mean more of the low scores that have been the rule at St. Andrews in this 150th edition of the Open Championship.McIlroy, right, and Hovland sparkled under pressure on Saturday.Robert Perry/EPA, via ShutterstockSeveral players put on quite a show on Saturday, including Shane Lowry, who chipped in for consecutive eagles on 9 and 10; and Kevin Kisner, who barely made the cut but had the best round of the day: a 7-under-par 65 that put him into a tie for 13th place.“It’s just a fun place to stroll around and play golf, and when the putts are going in, it makes it even more enjoyable,” Kisner said.That seemed an apt summation of a good day on many a golf course, but success on the Old Course continues to have particular cachet even when the world’s best golfers are having their way with it.McIlroy is well aware of what winning on Sunday would mean to him and his public — perhaps too aware.“I love that I have got so much support,” he said. “But at the same time I need to sort of just stay in my own little world tomorrow and just play a good round of golf and hopefully that’s enough.”It was not quite enough to shake free of Hovland in the third round. Both started the day at 10-under and in the penultimate group, ahead of second-round leader Smith and first-round leader Young.Hovland set a torrid pace early, making four straight birdies, beginning with a 38-foot birdie putt on 3 and a 42-foot birdie putt on 4. But McIlroy made birdies of his own on Nos. 5, 6 and 9 before his eagle from the sand on No. 10 and another birdie on No. 15 that gave him back the outright lead.But he could not hold it as Hovland outscrambled him at the 17th, making par while McIlroy had to settle for bogey.Hovland, left, and McIlroy, tee off at 9:50 a.m. Eastern on Sunday.Russell Cheyne/ReutersAt 18, they finished the memorable round as they had begun it, tied and in buoyant spirits.“We sort of fed off each other and navigated the last few holes well,” McIlroy said.This was pure competition, but no grim-faced tussle. There were fist bumps and smiles and plenty of chatter through much of the round.“Talked about a whole bunch of stuff,” McIlroy said. “Talked about footwear. Talked about what he did the last couple of weeks. He went back home to Norway. He’s going back to Norway after this. Just kept it nice and loose.”McIlroy might be nine years older, but he and Hovland developed a good rapport after playing (and losing) on the same Ryder Cup squad for Europe last year. But though they will be back together on Sunday, they are no longer teammates.McIlroy is trying to end an eight-year major drought by prevailing at the ultimate Open venue. Hovland is trying to become the first Norwegian man to win a major.“It’s pretty crazy from where I grew up,” Hovland said. “I have to pinch myself, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to hold back tomorrow.” More

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      Could a Scot Please Win the British Open One Day? Is That Too Much to Ask?

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      The last golfer from Scotland to win the British Open was Paul Lawrie in 1999 at Carnoustie, and his victory was somewhat of a fluke.ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — They were having fun, perhaps too much fun, on the Old Course on Saturday at the British Open.With the wind and weather mild and Rory McIlroy and many more of the world’s best golfers in town, under par felt more like par during this rollicking third round brimming with birdies, clenched fists and big grins in the direction of the grandstands and fans packed behind the ropes.But local knowledge, as usual, seemed to count for little at the only men’s golf major played on this side of the Atlantic Ocean.St. Andrews, full of old stones and bones, has staged more Open Championships than any other course, but a Scottish golfer will once again not be winning it.Only three Scots were in the 156-player field, which was actually a threefold improvement over last year’s British Open at Royal St. George’s, when only one Scotsman, Robert MacIntyre, took part.That was a historic low in an event with a surplus of history. This is the 150th edition of a tournament that was first played in 1860 at Prestwick Golf Club on Scotland’s west coast. All 13 competitors were Scots that year, and until the early 20th century a majority of the participants in the Open continued to be Scots, along with quite a few naturalized Americans from Scotland.But no Scot, exported or domestic, has won the Open or any major men’s tournament since Paul Lawrie in 1999 at Carnoustie, and Lawrie’s victory, with all due respect to a fine player, was a minor miracle.Then ranked 241st in the world, Lawrie trailed by 10 shots heading into the final round and only made it into the decisive playoff because of one of the sport’s most excruciating (and memorable) meltdowns as the French golfer Jean Van de Velde blew a three-stroke lead on what really should have been the final hole.Scotland continues to wait in vain for a second lightning strike at the Open, and the two Scots who did make the cut at St. Andrews this year — MacIntyre and David Law — will not be the ones to provide it.Both are more than 12 shots off the torrid pace set by McIlroy and Viktor Hovland, who shared the lead at 16 under par heading into Sunday’s final round and who dueled from start to finish on Saturday. Both shot 66, although McIlroy had the shot of the day, holing from a bunker for eagle on the 10th hole.Robert MacIntyre of Scotland called the atmosphere at the Old Course “absolutely brilliant.”Phil Noble/ReutersMacIntyre, a promising 25-year-old from Oban who shot a 69 on Friday, found himself having to turn away from the 16th fairway at one stage during his round because there was so much commotion and emotion.“The fan support is absolutely brilliant, but I was feeling it,” he said. “There’s so many people supporting me, and it means so much to me.”“I wasn’t going to let them down,” he continued. “But I was trying almost too hard.”That has certainly been an obstacle for the Scots at home through the years. But in truth, the Scottish drought has gone on for too long to be considered a drought. Of the 33 Scottish men to win a major, only two have done so since World War II: Lawrie and Sandy Lyle, who won the 1985 British Open and the 1988 Masters.Demographics are an obstacle. Scotland, with 5.5 million people, has a much smaller talent pool than England, with its 56 million people, including Nick Faldo, who won six majors in the 1980s and 1990s, and Matt Fitzpatrick, who won this year’s U.S. Open. But Scotland has about three times as many inhabitants as Northern Ireland, which has produced three major champions in the past 12 years: Graeme McDowell, Darren Clarke and McIlroy.Bernard Gallacher, 73, a longtime European Ryder Cup player and a captain from Scotland, makes the good point that Scotland’s many great links courses are not the ideal places to grow champions.“It’s not a great training ground for great golfers to play on a seaside course every day,” Gallacher said on Saturday. “I know the wind is benign this week, but normally there’s a strong wind blowing and it’s not great developmentally to be playing your golf in strong winds all the time. So that’s why the really top golfers usually come from courses where they can develop their swings, like parkland golf courses in the U.K. Even Rory, who comes from Northern Ireland, was not brought up on a seaside course. His golf course, Holywood, is inland.”And though McIlroy did not do this, Gallacher believes Scottish golfers need to follow the prevailing winds by playing collegiate golf in the United States. “We just don’t have that system over here,” he said. “In my view, Scottish golfers stay at home too much. We have to break our way of thinking a bit.”David Law of Scotland teeing off on the fourth hole during the third round on Saturday.Warren Little/Getty ImagesLaw, a 31-year-old father of two from up the coast in Aberdeen, is making his first major championship appearance.“I’ve probably played the Old Course eight to 10 times, and first played it when I was 18,” he said. “But even if I played it 100 times, I’m sure I’d still get goose bumps.”Ranked 351st, Law has long been mentored by Lawrie, who is deeply involved in developing young Scottish talents and who hit the first tee shot here in recognition of past glories but never came close to making the cut at age 53.Lawrie is not the greatest Scottish player of the modern era. There is Lyle, as well as Colin Montgomerie, who could never quite win a major but was the longtime leader for the European Tour and European Ryder Cup team.But Lawrie is the only still-active Scottish major champion, and he may not play the Open again.“I will wait and see how I feel next year, but right now, it’s no,” Lawrie said. “I always said I wouldn’t ever take a spot if I didn’t feel as though I could certainly play OK and play four rounds.”Law struggled plenty himself in his third round on Saturday, shooting a 5-over-par 77 to drop to two over par for the tournament.“It’s not a regular tournament, but we’ve tried to make it as normal as we can,” he said earlier in the week. “I’m not just here to soak it all in.”There is, of course, plenty to absorb. St. Andrews not only has the R&A World Golf Museum, which sits just across the street from the Old Course. It is an open-air golf museum, as well, one where the American accents often outnumber the Scottish ones in the stores, pro shops and cobbled alleyways.Business and real estate are booming again after the pandemic lockdowns, and The Times of London reported this week that properties near the Old Course’s iconic 18th green are selling for up to 2,500 pounds (about $3,000) a square foot, that housing prices in St. Andrews are up 23 percent in the past year and that about 50 percent of the buyers in central St. Andrews are from abroad.It is not just the golf: St. Andrews University remains one of the most prestigious in Britain, with alumni that include John Knox, Thomas Bruce and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (better known as William and Kate). But golf certainly is at the core of the enduring attraction, and the shops on Golf Place, a road that borders the Old Course, are filled with golf trinkets and memorabilia, much of which feature Scottish golfers like James Braid, who won the Open five times in the early 1900s.Would a present-day Scottish champion really provide much of a boost in the marketing or the bottom line?“It might make a bit of difference, but being in St. Andrews, I’m not sure it would make a huge difference,” said Hamish Steedman, chairman of the St. Andrews Golf Co., which continues to manufacture traditional hickory clubs as well as the modern, metal versions. “Our visitors and customers come from all over.”They are back en masse now that travel restrictions have been lifted, and after the 2020 Open Championship was canceled, the international golfers are back in force, as well. The leaderboard on Saturday night was a mix of Europeans, Americans, Asians and Australians.What was missing were the locals. 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      At the British Open, It’s the PGA Tour Faithful Against LIV Golf

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      “Everybody, it feels like, is against us, and that’s OK,” said Talor Gooch, a LIV golfer tied for eighth at seven under after the second round. Cameron Smith held the lead at 13 under par.ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — Tiger Woods was finishing up at the Old Course on Friday, perhaps for good, and Rory McIlroy was just getting started.As they exchanged understanding glances and walked in opposite directions on parallel paths — Woods on the 18th hole, McIlroy on the first — it felt like a passing of the torch. But perhaps a passing of the lightsaber was more in order as McIlroy headed out to lead the charge against the dark side at this 150th British Open.That overstates it, of course. This is only golf, after all, and golf in a fine place, particularly in the clear and clement conditions that prevailed again for most of the afternoon, with banks of cumulus clouds standing watch over the greens and browning fairways of golf’s ancestral home.It was quite a panorama, as it has been for centuries, but the sport’s landscape is changing quickly, with new allies and enmities being created over the breakaway, mega-money LIV Golf Invitational series.Just a few months ago, there were only golfers. Now, there are golfers and LIV golfers, and though today’s rebels have a habit of becoming tomorrow’s establishment, for now the rebels are wearing the black hats because of their tour’s Saudi Arabian backing and the sense that they are grabbing the easy money no matter how uneasy it makes everyone feel.“Everybody, it feels like, is against us, and that’s OK,” said Talor Gooch, a LIV golfer who is tied for eighth at seven under par heading into Saturday’s third round. “It’s kind of banded us together, I think.”The bonding works both ways on and off the course. At the Dunvegan Hotel, the popular St. Andrews pub near the 18th hole, patrons were often booing LIV golfers on Friday when they appeared on the television coverage of the Open.There were plenty of them to jeer on the early leaderboard, and when McIlroy doffed his cap at Woods on the first hole and sallied forth, Dustin Johnson, the former No. 1 and highest-ranked LIV player, was the rebel in charge.The LIV golfer Dustin Johnson playing out of the rough on the fourth fairway Friday.Alastair Grant/Associated PressBut by the end of the second round, Johnson, at nine under par, had been reeled in by the PGA Tour (at least until the next round of defections).Cameron Smith, Australia’s top player, was on top at 13 under, followed by Cameron Young, the first-round leader from the United States, at 11 under. Tied for third at 10 under were McIlroy and Viktor Hovland of Norway who made the shot of the day by holing out from the rough from about 140 yards for eagle on the par-4 15th hole.“I was a little concerned it was going to go too far right,” he said. “But it straightened out and somehow landed on that side slope softly and just trickled in. That was unbelievable.”By such fine margins and lucky breaks are major championships won, but there will be plenty more unexpected bounces on the undulating and increasingly unforgiving fairways of the Old Course.“We had that on-and-off rain this morning, I think, which slowed us up just a touch,” said Smith, who had a middle-of-the-pack start time on Friday. “We were able to hit some shots that we weren’t able to hit yesterday, but I still think it’s going to get really firm and fast. This course bakes out so quickly. It’s going to be a challenge, for sure.”And yet Woods’s record winning score at St. Andrews of 19 under par in 2000 certainly looks under threat. He will not be the one to challenge it after shooting nine over par for two rounds and missing the cut, just as he missed it in 2015 in the most recent Open Championship at St. Andrews.But Friday was much more bittersweet: bitter because Woods at this diminished stage is nowhere near the player he once was in Scotland and beyond; sweet because he could sense the compassion and appreciation from the crowd and his colleagues.“As I walked further along the fairway, I saw Rory right there,” he said of the 18th hole. “He gave me the tip of the cap. It was pretty cool, the nods I was getting from the guys as they were going out and I was coming in, just the respect. And from a players’ fraternity level, it’s neat to see that and feel that.”Tiger Woods acknowledging fans as he crosses Swilcan Bridge on the 18th hole Friday.Paul Childs/ReutersMcIlroy, 33, grasped the symbolism but would have preferred another scenario as he embarked on what turned out to be a round of 68.“It would have been a cool moment if he was eight under par instead of eight over or whatever he was,” McIlroy said. “I just hope, everyone hopes, it’s not the end of his Old Course career. I think he deserves and we deserve for him to have another crack at it.”Woods, often grim and tight-lipped after poor performances, was expansive and forthcoming on Friday. After playing only to win for most of his career, it seemed that simply participating was enough for peace of mind after the car crash that severely damaged his right leg 17 months ago.“I’ve gotten pretty close to Tiger over these last few years,” said McIlroy, a Northern Irishman based near Woods in the golfing enclave of Jupiter, Fla. “I think we’ve all sort of rallied around him down there in Jupiter, and we all want to see him do well. He was all our hero growing up, even though I’m maybe a touch older than some of the other guys. We want to see him still out there competing, and this week was obviously a tough week for him, but we’re all behind him.”Woods said he had no immediate plans to compete again and was not sure that if and when he did return that he would be able to play a fuller schedule. In this minimalist comeback, he played in three majors and only three majors, beginning with the Masters in April.“I understand being more battle hardened, but it’s just hard to walk and play 18 holes,” Woods said. “People have no idea what I have to go through, and the hours of work on the body, pre and post, each and every single day to do what I just did. That’s what people don’t understand.”He was hardly the only golf luminary to fall short at the Old Course. Collin Morikawa, the reigning British Open champion, missed the cut by a stroke after failing to keep pace with McIlroy in their group and finishing at one over par.Louis Oosthuizen, the South African who won an Open at St. Andrews in 2010, will also miss the weekend. So will Phil Mickelson and Brooks Koepka, fellow members of the LIV tour and former major champions.The cards and stars have been reshuffled in a hurry, and no one knows how the game or this historic Open Championship will turn out. But what is clear is that if the final holes on Sunday come down to, say, Johnson versus McIlroy for the claret jug, it will not be perceived inside or outside the game as simply Johnson versus McIlroy.May the force be with them. More

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      For the Scottish Open, the Renaissance Club Toughens Up

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      After it first hosted the Open in 2019, some players said the course was too easy. Changes were made.There has been a certain amount of grumbling — justified or not — about how some European Tour courses play too easy, most notably in 2019 when Rory McIlroy criticized the playability at the Renaissance Club in North Berwick, Scotland, which has hosted the Scottish Open since 2019.“I don’t think the courses are set up hard enough,” McIlroy told reporters at the time after the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, also played in Scotland. “There are no penalties for bad shots.“I don’t feel like good golf is regarded as well as it could be. It happened in the Scottish Open at Renaissance. I shot 13-under and finished 30th [actually tied for 34th] again. It’s not a good test. I think if the European Tour wants to put forth a really good product, the golf courses and setups need to be tougher.”Other players soon voiced similar concerns. Ernie Els of South Africa said he agreed “100 percent” with McIlroy. “European Tour flagship tournaments and other top events need to be ‘major’ tough. Test the best!” Els said on Twitter.Edoardo Molinari of Italy, a three-time winner on the DP World Tour, said on Twitter: “Good shots must be rewarded and bad shots must be punished … it is that simple!”.Now, either from player input or owners simply making improvements, several courses have made changes in Europe and the United States, including the Renaissance Club, which is hosting the Scottish Open for the fourth time starting on Thursday.Padraig Harrington of Ireland, a three-time major winner who recently consulted with the course architect Tom Doak, admits it may have played easy at first.“The first year had low scoring, but that was because the European Tour didn’t know the golf course,” Harrington said about the initial year the club hosted the tournament. “They went very easy on the setup. That’s when the Renaissance Club’s owner, Jerry Savardi, said, ‘Let’s toughen up this course.’”Players like McIlroy were reacting to how officials set up the course for the tournament, Doak said. Consider the weather.“They’ve played the tournament there three years, and they’ve not had a normal weather year once,” he said. “It’s only been windy one or two days out of 12. It’s normally a windy place, it’s just like Muirfield next door. The conditions make a big difference.“But we don’t control the weather. You can’t build a links course and tighten it up so that it’s hard in benign conditions, because then when it’s windy the course is impossible to play. You have to have some leeway. So we’re going slow with the changes. We don’t want to overact.”Jon Rahm plays from the rough during the opening round of last year’s Scottish Open.Jane Barlow/Press Association, via Associated PressMost of the changes have been incremental.“The last two or three years we’ve mostly done little tweaks — fairway bunkers and contouring,” Doak said. “We’re just working around the margins. When I first designed the course [in 2008], we were just going to host an event once. You don’t really design for a one-time event, I design for member play.“But when you’re going to host a tournament on a repeated basis, then you need to think about the core function of the golf course and what we want to do differently because of that.”They’ve also let the rough grow. “We’re trying to get the rough rougher,” he said.The addition of fairway pot bunkers [deep with high side walls] far from the tee should present an increased challenge for players by forcing them to think more carefully about their shots and strategy, Doak said.“We never really thought about it when the course was first built,” he said. “I just never worried about players carrying 300 yards. But now a bunch of them can.”Other more significant changes were considered, like changing greens, or making them smaller.“It would be really difficult to change a green and get it back to the right condition before the next tournament.” Doak said. He is waiting to see how the course plays in more normal weather conditions. “Then we’ll see if we keep going with changes, or if we’re good where we are.”Harrington, who won the United States Senior Open last month, approached the changes from a player’s point of view.“As a player, you want those changes right now,” he said. “In a perfect world, all golf courses evolve. Golf courses are always changing. But you have to go slowly with these changes, and you can’t go into it making it tougher for the sake of making it tougher.A view of the 14th green at the Renaissance Club, which is hosting the Scottish Open for the fourth time.Andrew Redington/Getty Images“We’ve made subtle changes to separate the field a little bit,” Harrington said. “You have to make your golf course a stern test.“I love to punish the guy who doesn’t take it on, or chickens out and bails. But nobody wants to stop a player from playing well. We want to encourage them to play well, tease them, and ask them to hit more great shots. But we’re going to punish you if you take a shot and miss it.”Harrington also underscored how the changes will force players to more carefully select their shots.“We more clearly defined the penalties, and if a player wants to take them on, great,” he said. “But they separate the winner from the guy who finishes 10th. If you’re not playing well, there’s a lot of danger. But if you’re playing well, you’ll get rewarded.The goal of Savardi, the club’s owner. was simple. “I want a course that rewards the good shots, and punishes the bad ones,” he said. “No matter what the weather is.”Yet Savardi still has an eye on the weather.“The greens are bone dry, and our fairways are rock hard,” he said. “If the weather stays like this, this place is going to be on fire.” More