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    British Open: It’s the Short Holes That Often Befuddle Golfers

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    At the British Open at Royal Troon, a short hole called the Postage Stamp has ended many title runs.The British Open at Royal Troon in Scotland this week might help answer a question vexing professional golf. Is the antidote to golfers hitting increasingly long drives creating holes that are even longer? Or is it the opposite: incredible shortness?Troon, which is hosting its 10th Open this week, is famous for the Postage Stamp, the name given to its par-3 eighth hole, which is 123 yards on the card but may play under 100 yards this week if the tees are moved up and the pin is put in the front of the green. A tiny green surrounded by five bunkers, the hole has been a feature of the course since 1909.It’s also a hole length that any golfer can hit. But under pressure, with the wind blowing and a tricky pin position, it’s a length that tests the skill of the most elite golfers.This year, Troon will also have its opposite. It will have the longest hole in Open history, the par-5 sixth hole that will measure 623 yards. It beats by three yards the 15th hole at Royal Liverpool in last year’s Open.A view of the par-5 sixth hole at Royal Troon in Scotland last August.David Cannon, R&AIn some ways, lengthening holes for top pros is akin to billionaires competing to have the longest yacht: It doesn’t really matter at the end of the day. Pros hit the ball so far that length alone doesn’t deter them.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Rory McIlroy Crashed at the U.S. Open. Here’s How He Recovers.

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      Two performance psychologists explain the mental strategies that help push past blowing a lead at a major.LONDON — Rory McIlroy was hardly the first golf megastar to falter down the stretch of a major: see Arnold Palmer at the 1966 U.S. Open and Greg Norman at the 1996 Masters.But for all the illustrious company, blowing a lead is still misery. McIlroy had not missed a putt inside three feet all season on the PGA Tour, and yet, with a one-stroke lead and the U.S. Open on the line at Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina last month, he missed a par putt from 2 feet 6 inches on the 16th hole. He then missed a putt on the 18th from 3 feet 9 inches.Victory went instead to Bryson DeChambeau after a great escape from a bunker on the final hole.McIlroy, still trying to end his decade-long major drought, could only stare desolately at the screen in the scorer’s room with his hands on his hips and then trudge to his courtesy car without further comment that day.#Pinehurt quickly became a hashtag on social media.“Yesterday was a tough day, probably the toughest I’ve had in my nearly 17 years as a professional golfer,” McIlroy posted on X the next day.Arnold Palmer at the 1966 U.S. Open where, like McIlroy, he blew a lead at the end of a major. Palmer never won another major after that loss.Bettmann/Getty ImagesHe has since withdrawn from the Travelers Championship to regroup and is set to return this week for the Genesis Scottish Open to defend his title. He will then play in the next major: the Open Championship.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Ivor Robson, Golf’s Celebrated Voice at British Open, Dies at 83

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      For four decades he announced the names of players — Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and more — before they teed off. He rarely took a break.At the British Open, a Scotsman named Ivor Robson became one of the most distinctive and revered voices in golf by saying little. Called a starter, he stood at a lectern near the first tee at each round of that major championship, where his job was simple: to introduce each player.“On the tee, from U.S.A., Jack Nicklaus,” he would say in his slightly high-pitched, singsong brogue.Or, “On the tee, from Northern Ireland, Rory McIlroy.”Once he was at his post, around 6:30 in the morning, he didn’t leave until every golfer had teed off — 156 in all in each of the first two rounds. He did not eat or drink anything before he took his position or for the next nine or 10 hours.Nor would he take a bathroom break, at a “comfort station,” even if he had time between introductions.“No input,” he would say, “no output.”He explained his on-course restraint to Rick Reilly of Sports Illustrated in 1999: “I don’t want cups of water spilling over. I don’t want food around. I don’t have time to excuse myself. There’s no time!”When he was done for the day and back at his hotel, he would call room service for his only meal of the day.Mr. Robson, who retired from starter work in 2015, died on Oct. 15. The R&A, which organizes the British Open, announced the death but did not give a cause or say where he died. He was 83 and lived in Moffat, Dumfriesshire, in Scotland.Mr. Robson, who was born in England in 1940, was a golfer himself, having competed on the Scottish pro tour in the 1960s and ’70s and worked as a club professional in Scotland.He began his four-decade run at the Open Championship, as the event is officially known, in 1975, at Carnoustie, Scotland, at the invitation of the golf shaft company that hired the tournament’s starters. He went on to perform the role at the other links courses where the Open is played, like St. Andrews, Turnberry, Royal Birkdale and Muirfield.“Nobody told me how to do it,” he told the golf website Bunkered this year. “I just had to work it out for myself when I started in 1975. ‘What do I do here?’ Just keep it simple, where are they from, the name of the player, and let them go.”Mr. Robson endured heat, chill and rain and said he did not eat, drink or take bathroom breaks while on the job as a starter.Andrew Redington/Getty ImagesMr. Robson’s job was similar to that of public address announcers at baseball games. But they work from protected press boxes. Mr. Robson endured heat, chill and rain while always formally dressed in his blazer and tie. (A sought-after announcer for 41 years, he also played the starter role at other golf events, including the DP World Tour in Europe.)“That voice — that smile in his eyes and that lilt in his voice — was unmistakable,” Mike Tirico, an NBC sportscaster who anchored British Open coverage for ESPN and ABC, said in a phone interview. “If you mentioned his name to a player, they’d imitate how he pronounced their names, with his inflections.”Mr. Robson would often chat with players before they took their swings and witnessed them face pressure, especially in starting their final round on a Sunday.“You can see the tension,” he said in a video interview with Golfing World magazine in 2019. “They’re not listening to you. They’re speaking to you, but you know they’re not really sure what to say. The club head is shaking as they’re addressing the ball.”Tiger Woods was among the many famous golfers whose names Mr. Robson announced. “Thank you Ivor for making each one of my Open starts so memorable,” Woods wrote on social media.Tom Pennington/Getty ImagesHis final British Open, in 2015 at St. Andrews, was also the final one for Tom Watson, who had won the tournament five times. “He gave me an 18th-green flag, which had a message on it,” Mr. Robson told Today’s Golfer magazine in 2022. “‘We have traveled this long road together. All the best in your retirement. Tom Watson.’”After Mr. Robson’s death, Tiger Woods wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, “Thank you Ivor making each one of my Open starts so memorable.” Woods won three British Open titles.Mr. Robson’s survivors include his wife, Lesley; his daughter, Julia; and his son, Philip.When the R&A chose Mr. Robson’s replacement, they picked two men: David Lancaster, to do most of the work, and a backup, Matt Corker, to fill in when Mr. Lancaster takes a break or two.“I believe the vocal cords need to be soothed by drinking water at some point,” Mr. Lancaster told The New York Times in 2016. “Fortunately, the R&A understood.” More

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      LIV Golf Has Embraced Trump, but Others Are Keeping Their Distance

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      LIV Golf has embraced the former president. But much of golf’s establishment is keeping its distance, even as LIV and the PGA Tour seek a détente.Walking toward a tee box in Virginia in May, former President Donald J. Trump offered an awfully accurate assessment of the way many golf executives viewed him.“They love the courses,” he said, forever the salesman for his family company’s portfolio of properties, “but I think they probably consider me a little bit controversial right now.”As much as some leaders of men’s golf are trying to patch the rupture created by the Saudi-backed LIV Golf circuit, a tour Trump has championed, they seem to be in no rush to end the former president’s exile from their sport’s buttoned-up establishment. Even in an era of gaudy wealth and shifting alliances in golf, Trump remains, for now, a measure too much for many.The consequences have been conspicuous for a figure who had expected to host a men’s golf major tournament in 2022. Now, his ties to the sport’s elite ranks often appear limited to LIV events and periodic rounds with past and present professionals. Jack Nicklaus, the 18-time major champion, caused a stir in April when he publicly stopped short of again endorsing a Trump bid for the White House.Nevertheless, on Thursday, when he was playing a LIV pro-am event at his course in Bedminster, N.J., Trump insisted he was in regular conversations with golf executives about top-tier tournaments.“They think as long as you’re running for office or in office, you’re controversial,” he said.Golf has been a regular respite for Democratic and Republican commanders in chief. But no American president has had a more openly combustible history with the sport than Trump, and perhaps no president besides Dwight D. Eisenhower, who is thought to have averaged about 100 rounds annually when he was in the White House, has had so much of his public image linked to golf.In the years before Trump won the presidency, he had at last started to make significant headway into the rarefied realms of golf.Trump watched his shot from the fairway.Doug Mills/The New York TimesIn 2012, the U.S. Golf Association picked the Bedminster property for the 2017 U.S. Women’s Open. Two years later, the P.G.A. of America said it planned to take the men’s P.G.A. Championship to the course in 2022. Also in 2014, Trump bought Turnberry, a mesmerizing Scottish property that had hosted four British Opens, and he imagined golf’s oldest major championship being contested there again.Once in the White House, Trump played with a parade of golf figures (though some of them appeared more attracted to the magic of the presidency than to Trump himself): Tiger Woods; Rory McIlroy; Ernie Els; Jay Monahan, the commissioner of the PGA Tour; and Fred S. Ridley, the chairman of Augusta National Golf Club.Trump’s 2016 campaign and presidency had given some in golf heartburn. But it was the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol that most clearly chiseled away at his golf dreams. The P.G.A., which is distinct from the PGA Tour, which has dueled with LIV for supremacy over men’s professional golf, immediately moved its 2022 championship from Bedminster. The R&A, which organizes the British Open, made clear that it would not be bound for Turnberry anytime soon.LIV soon emerged as something of a life raft, an insurgent league with a craving for championship-quality courses and plenty of money to spend. It did not hurt that Trump had been strikingly cozy with the government in Riyadh whose wealth fund was ready to pour billions of dollars into LIV — and let some of those dollars, in turn, roll toward the Trump Organization for reasons that have been the subject of widespread speculation.Trump became a fixture at LIV events held at his courses, routinely jawing about the PGA Tour with variable accuracy. (He did, however, predict something like the planned transaction between the wealth fund and the PGA Tour.) This week’s event in New Jersey is his family’s fourth LIV tournament, and a fifth is planned for the Miami area in October.But the budding détente between the Saudis and the PGA Tour does not seem to be leading to an immediate one between Trump and the broader golf industry, which the Saudis could have enormous sway over in the years ahead.The PGA Tour has not publicly committed to maintaining the LIV brand if it reaches a conclusive deal with the wealth fund, and the tentative agreement says nothing about the future of men’s golf’s relationship with Trump. The PGA Tour has a history with Trump but ended its relationship with his company during the 2016 campaign. Tim Finchem, who was the tour’s commissioner then, denied at the time that the decision was “a political exercise” and instead called it “fundamentally a sponsorship issue.”To no one’s surprise, the tour’s 2024 schedule, which the circuit released on Monday, features no events at Trump properties. And although Trump said a few months ago that he thought the Irish Open might be interested in his Doonbeg course, the DP World Tour, which is also a part of the agreement with the Saudi wealth fund, has said the course is not under consideration.Other top golf figures who are not bound by any deal with the Saudis somehow appear even less interested.Trump Turnberry in Scotland won’t be hosting the British Open anytime soon, according to the chief executive of the R&A.Mary Turner for The New York Times“Until we’re confident that any coverage at Turnberry would be about golf, about the golf course and about the championship, until we’re confident about that, we will not return any of our championships there,” Martin Slumbers, the chief executive of the R&A, said on the same day last month when he signaled that the Open organizer might be willing to accept a Saudi investment.Seth Waugh, the P.G.A. of America’s chief executive, declined to comment this week, but the organization has given no signal that it is reconsidering its thinking about Trump courses. The U.S.G.A. said it did not have a comment.Some players, many of whom at least lean conservative, have suggested they would like to see Trump courses be in the mix for the majors.“There’s no reason you couldn’t host P.G.A.s, U.S. Opens out here,” said Patrick Reed, who won the Masters Tournament in 2018 and played with Trump on Thursday. “I mean, just look at it out here: The rough is brutal.”Even a sudden rapprochement, which would require executives setting aside the views of players like Reed that politics should not shape sports decisions, would almost certainly not lead to Trump’s strutting around a major tournament in the near future.The next U.S. Open in need of a venue is the one that will be played in 2036; Trump would turn 90 on the Saturday of that tournament. P.G.A. Championships are booked through 2030. Between last month’s announcement that the 2026 British Open will be held at Royal Birkdale and the R&A’s sustained public skepticism of Trump, the last major of the calendar year seems unlikely to head to a Trump property anytime soon. And the Masters, which is always played at Augusta National in Georgia, is not an option.Women’s golf offers a few more theoretical possibilities since its roster of venues is not as set, but Trump would face much of the same reluctance.Trump has mused about the financial wisdom of golf’s keeping its distance from him. A few months ago, he argued that avoiding his courses was “foolish because you make a lot of money with controversy.”He may be right.But it seems golf is reasoning that it is making plenty of money anyway. Its political bent, some figure, might be better managed outside the glare of its major tournaments — and, moreover, beyond the shadow of Trump.Trump has mused about the financial wisdom of golf’s keeping its distance from him. Doug Mills/The New York Times 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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      The Five Players to Watch at the Scottish Open

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      Many of the top golfers will be in Scotland. Here are a few hoping to break into their ranks.A major title won’t be up for grabs — that will come a week later at the British Open — but the Genesis Scottish Open, which begins on Thursday at the Renaissance Club in North Berwick, should generate a lot of attention given the caliber of contenders playing.Eight of the top 10 players in the world rankings, including No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, No. 3 Rory McIlroy, and No. 4 Patrick Cantlay, will be in the field. Attempting to defend his crown will be No. 6 Xander Schauffele, who won by a stroke in 2022.Here are five others to keep an eye on.Tommy Fleetwood has had his moments in the Scottish Open, finishing second in 2020 and in a tie for fourth last year.Kevin C. Cox/Getty ImagesTommy FleetwoodOvershadowed during last month’s final-round battle in the United States Open at Los Angeles Country Club between the eventual champ, Wyndham Clark, and McIlroy was the seven-under 63 fired on Sunday by England’s Tommy Fleetwood, 32, who became the first player to shoot that score twice at the Open. His other 63 came in 2018 at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton, Long Island.Nonetheless, Fleetwood, now ranked No. 22, failed on both occasions to win the trophy, and in more than 100 starts has yet to capture a tournament on the PGA Tour. He came very close the week before the U.S. Open, losing in a playoff to Nick Taylor of Canada at the RBC Canadian Open. In May, he tied for fifth at the Wells Fargo Championship.Fleetwood, a two-time member of Team Europe in the Ryder Cup, has had his moments in the Scottish Open, finishing second in 2020 and in a tie for fourth last year.Justin Thomas, 30, won the 2022 P.G.A. Championship but has fared poorly in this year’s other majors. Stacy Revere/Getty ImagesJustin ThomasWith his tie for ninth at the Travelers Championship last month, his first top-10 finish since March, it seemed Thomas, one of the game’s top players, was back on track.Or not.A week later, he missed the cut at the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit.Thomas, who has dropped to No. 20 in the world, struggled mightily in the second round of the U.S. Open. He hit just five fairways on his way to shooting an 11-over 81, missing the cut by 12 strokes.“It’s pretty humiliating and embarrassing shooting scores like that at a golf course I really, really liked,” he said.Thomas, 30, who won the 2022 P.G.A. Championship, has also fared poorly in this year’s other majors. He missed the cut at the Masters and tied for 65th in the P.G.A.With the British Open a week away, this would be a good time for him to regain his old form.Rickie Fowler’s victory two weeks ago at the Rocket Mortgage Classic was his first in four years.Cliff Hawkins/Getty ImagesRickie FowlerSpeaking of old form, with his victory two weeks ago at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, his first in four years, Fowler, 34, is officially back.It was no surprise given how well Fowler, one of the tour’s most popular players, was performing in recent months. He has finished in the top 15 or better in nine of his 11 tournaments since mid-March.In the U.S. Open, he started off with a record-setting 62 and was tied for the lead after three rounds. Although he faded in the final round with a 75 to tie for fifth, he played well the next week at the Travelers Championship, tying for 13th. In the third round, Fowler, who is ranked No. 21 after starting the year at No. 103, flirted with a 59 before shooting a 60. A week later came the triumph in Michigan.A lot was expected of Fowler, a star at Oklahoma State University, when he turned pro in 2009, and he didn’t disappoint. In 2014, he finished in the top five of each of the four majors. In 2015, he won the Players Championship.The U.S. Open gave Wyndham Clark, ranked No. 11 in the world, sudden fame.Andy Lyons/Getty ImagesWyndham ClarkIt wasn’t too long ago when casual golf fans were probably saying to themselves: Wyndham who?The U.S. Open changed that, giving Clark, ranked No. 11 in the world, sudden fame.The question is: Was his performance a fluke — other less-heralded players have claimed major championships only to vanish soon afterward — or will Clark, 29, be a force on the tour?Clark picked up his first victory at this year’s Wells Fargo Classic and has the game to win more tournaments, including majors. He hits it a long way, and how he was able to hold off McIlroy down the stretch at the Open in Los Angeles was something to behold.“It’s been a whirlwind few weeks and an amazing season so far, all coming together in L.A. a few weeks ago,” Clark said. “I’m looking forward to keeping things going over the summer.”In June, Viktor Hovland, 25, captured his fourth tour victory and biggest yet, the Memorial Tournament.Darron Cummings/Associated PressViktor HovlandIn three of the past four major championships, Hovland, ranked No. 5, has been in the hunt. Sooner or later, he’s bound to break through.Hovland, who would be the first man from Norway to win a major, was the co-leader with McIlroy heading into the final round of last year’s British Open. He faltered with a 74 to finish in a tie for fourth.At this year’s Masters, he opened with a 65 and, though he had his troubles the next two rounds, was still only three back going into the final round. For the second straight major, however, he closed with a 74 to finish in a tie for seventh, failing to make a birdie until the 13th hole. A month later, he tied for second in the P.G.A. Championship, two behind the winner, Brooks Koepka.In June, Hovland, 25, captured his fourth tour victory and biggest yet, the Memorial Tournament, in a playoff over Denny McCarthy. Hovland knocked in a 30-footer on 17 and saved par from five feet on 18 in regulation. In the playoff, he made a seven-footer for the win. More

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      The Genesis Scottish Open Rises in Stature

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      The course is considered a solid testing ground for the British Open, a major played just down the road a few days later.The Renaissance Club, the site of the Genesis Scottish Open that begins on Thursday, looks like it’s been there for hundreds of years, like so many other great links courses in Britain.Like all true links courses, it winds along the coast with few trees; wind, rain, heat and cold become issues for players. It has firm fairways that can kick a well-hit drive forward an extra 50 yards or punish an equally well-struck shot with an unlucky bounce.The course has high golden fescue grass that waves in the wind. Brown-tinged greens undulate subtly in the center and strikingly on the edges. And of course, deep bunkers swallow balls careening toward their targets.It’s in the best neighborhood in town for golf. Muirfield, home of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers and regular host of the British Open, abuts the course. And down the road is North Berwick Golf Club, where the sport has been played since 1832.But the Renaissance Club, now in its fifth year of hosting the Scottish Open, opened in 2007 after two American brothers developed the club. The tournament course is the product of an extensive renovation in 2014, which opened up some of the holes with views of the water.Yet its architect, Tom Doak, is not known for building courses that host professional golf championships. This was his first.So how did the Renaissance Club come to host a tournament that has been growing in importance? (It offers entry into the British Open for players who place in the top five spots, and it is sanctioned by the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour, meaning more money and ranking points.)The change began in 2011 with a broader strategy to play on conditions that would approximate the British Open often held a few days later. The Scottish Open had been around, off and on and under various sponsors, for about 50 years at that point.The organizers partnered with Visit Scotland, the country’s tourist board, to find venues that would also capture a tourist’s imagination. While Scotland has a variety of topography for its golf courses, Scottish golf conjures up images of wind-ripped, bouncy courses.“We kicked off a links strategy in 2011 and decided to move from Loch Lomond to Castle Stuart,” said Rory Colville, the Genesis Scottish Open championship director. “We decided that it was in the players’ best interest to play links golf the week before the Open Championship. The economic benefit of the first Scottish Open at Castle Stuart was said to be in excess of 5 million pounds [about $6.3 million]. That’s a really positive thing.”Loch Lomond, which had hosted the tournament for more than a decade, was a parkland course on an estate with streams and trees that dated back centuries. It’s ranked as one of the best courses in the world. But its trees and streams don’t conjure up the same images of Scottish golf.Castle Stuart, like the Renaissance Club, is a modern course built to look like it has been on the land forever. The difference was in the design team.Opened in 2009, it was designed by Gil Hanse, an American architect who restored courses for the United States Open and the P.G.A. Championship, including Los Angeles Country Club and Southern Hills in Oklahoma. On Castle Stuart, Hanse worked with Mark Parsinen, who found the land, to build a course in the Highlands with wide vistas, firm fairways and deep bunkers.“Although at the time Castle Stuart was a relatively young golf course, it highlighted all you would want from a new links course as a venue,” Colville said. “It was a fair test of golf, but it was also the right type of test in the warm-up to the Open,” in that it was not set up to be overly penalizing.“Players don’t want to get beaten up going into a major championship,” he said. “Castle Stuart was the right type of golf course. Also, it had this fantastic scenic setting to showcase golf to the world. It was a really rewarding experience to take the Scottish Open up to the Highlands.” And it produced solid champions: Luke Donald, Phil Mickelson and Alex Noren.The strategy in those years was to use a rota, or schedule, of courses akin to what the British Open does in moving the championship to a set number of venues. For the Scottish Open, these included Royal Aberdeen, Gullane and Dundonald.“We had an exceptional experience at Royal Aberdeen,” Colville said about the tournament in 2014. “Justin Rose won there in great style. Rory McIlroy played there and went on to win the Open the week after that.”Gullane had the advantage of being close to the capital, Edinburgh, which increased the number of spectators.But top players balked at a rota before the official Open Championship rota. It meant they would potentially have to learn a new course each year. There were also economic reasons to host an event at the same stop with the same infrastructure planned out.The Renaissance Club is a true links course that winds along the coast with few trees to protect players from the elements. The course was extensively renovated in 2014, which opened up some of the holes with views of the water.Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images“At Loch Lomond, we built an event year after year,” Colville said. “We needed to find a home to make it the scale it needs to be. That’s tricky when you’re looking at a member club, with a larger number of members who don’t want the annual interference of golf course closure and interruption of their day to day golfing.”The Renaissance Club had been founded by the brothers Jerry and Paul Sarvadi. Paul is the chief executive of Insperity, a human resources company, and Jerry spent his career in aviation fuel.On the club’s 10th anniversary in 2018, Paul Sarvadi talked about his commitment to continuing to host the Scottish Open. “While proud of our first 10 years, we are even more excited about our next 10 years,” he said.Colville said the brothers had a passion to create a home for the Open.“They’ve built a long-term TV compound and parking facilities,” he said. “They’ve built the infrastructure that makes it feasible to hold the event year after year. They’ve made it a viable event.”They’ve also allowed tinkering to the course. “Our agronomy team has worked very closely with the club to improve the conditions and refine the golf course.”Doak, who declined to comment, is better known for designing destination venues on remarkable plots of land, like Barnbougle in Tasmania, Cape Kidnappers in New Zealand and Pacific Dunes in Oregon. He has largely eschewed commissions or restorations of courses that will host tournaments.“I never really thought I’d do tournament golf courses,” he told the Golf Channel in 2019. When asked what he did to create a course tough enough for the professionals, he added, “It’s a little bit getting inside their heads. You want to do things that make them think and make them play a little safe.”Since the Renaissance Club course was renovated in 2014, Doak has been less involved in year-to-year changes. The ownership group brought in Padraig Harrington, a three-time major champion and past Ryder Cup captain, to consult on the course from a tournament player’s perspective.“You get the perspective of someone with his links credentials to help refine the golf course and improve it,” Colville said. “He’s added some subtle design features to make the rough more penal and changed a lot of the fairway cut lines.”In the five years since the course began hosting the event, the Scottish Open has achieved elevated status with its sanctioning by the PGA and DP World tours. It has secured Genesis, the luxury-car company, as a title sponsor.And the field has grown stronger. Last year’s champion, Xander Schauffele, was the fifth-ranked player in the world after his victory.“We expect to be the best attended Scottish Open this year, with more than 70,000 spectators,” Colville said.“This year we have eight of the top 10 players in the world. That’s a vote of confidence that they like the golf course and like the facilities.” More

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      Xander Schauffele Returns to Scottish Open Looking to Repeat

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      He won four tournaments, including the Scottish Open, in a strong 2022, but has not won in a year.This time last year, Xander Schauffele was on a tear.He won the Travelers Championship on the PGA Tour. The next week, he won the JP McManus Pro-Am. He beat Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas and Rickie Fowler by five shots and the newly minted United States Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick by 17.When Schauffele showed up at the Renaissance Club for the Genesis Scottish Open, his solid play continued. He won the tournament by a shot, for his fourth victory in 12 months.“It was probably one of the better months I’ve had in my career,” said Schauffele, who went to San Diego State University and exudes a Southern California calm.He returns to Scotland this year a bit cooler, but still ranked sixth in the world. He hasn’t won in a year, but he has continued to play strongly.The following interview has been edited and condensed.You were on a roll last year. What was that like?I played the Travelers, then JP McManus Pro-Am in between, where I played really well, and then I won the Scottish. I was in a really good mind-set. I was hitting a lot of shots I wanted to hit, hitting a lot of putts the way I wanted to. I felt like I was doing my best, and that was good enough to win. It was that calm feeling attached with really good golf.How do you translate winning at River Highlands, one of the PGA Tour’s stadium courses, at which a lot of earth was moved to create the course, to the Renaissance Club, where the architect Tom Doak took a more minimalist approach to the land and the terrain?At River Highlands, you go from greens that are slower and have a lot more break to greens that are faster and more nuanced. With Renaissance, it’s a little bit more relaxed coming in. It’s not as penalizing as River Highlands [home to the Travelers] with all its contours. The only thing that would translate is confidence.Let’s talk scoring conditions. How do you adjust from going from plus 2 at the U.S. Open, (when minus 6 won it), to minus 19 at the Travelers and minus 7 at the Scottish Open?It’s definitely something you take into account before the week starts when you’re coming into different greens. It’s the mentality. At River Highlands, when you make six or seven pars in a row, you have to stay patient because you know other players are reeling off birdies. You have to beat the course each week. That’s something that comes into play. You have to stay patient. It doesn’t always go your way. Overseas you sometimes feel bad making par. But then you realize par is going to win.You shot a record-tying 62 in the opening round of this year’s U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club and a 70 the next day. Every golfer has done the equivalent of that. What was it like for you?A 62 at that club definitely wasn’t something you anticipated. It was a setup thing. Through two rounds there were a lot of low scores. Rickie [Fowler] and I doing it early made people feel it was out there. The most impressive round was Tommy Fleetwood shooting 63 on Sunday. I was off to a heck of a start, but no round was the same. I didn’t adjust accordingly. I got off to a fast start, but then I started leaking oil.What’s your plan to defend at the Scottish Open this year?I’m close to some good form. I’ve been scratching at the surface. When I come to a site where I play well, I really don’t try to think too much about whether I won last year or not. I’m excited to be back here. I typically like to play on hard golf courses. But I’ve worked to make myself a believer that I could play well on any property. More