Champions, The 153rd Open
The best of a special week at Royal Portrush
The winners from a terrific week in Ulster….
Scottie Scheffler. Take your pick of astounding numbers. He’s 111-under-par in majors since beginning of 2020—46 shots better than anyone else in that span—and now the holder of four majors in the same 1197-day span as Tiger Woods (nice stat from NBC, I believe). Then there’s the remarkable 59/63 make rate from inside 10 feet. That Scheffler found putting peace he once enjoyed as a scrappy kid who made everything has to be depressing for his peers. For all the technique talk, at Portrush his attitude carried the day. With so-so greens at the Scottish Open, Scheffler reverted to weirdly immature mode that appears to be a giant waste of energy. Not at The 153rd. With perfect surfaces and a lot of work both on course and in practice to dial it in, he took his generally outstanding ballstriking and put on his most impressive major performance to date. Too much was made of his early week comments, and he mercifully clarified that he’d picked up some of the takes from fans, press, and even veteran players like Padraig Harrington and Laura Davies to wonder why winning was unsatisfying. In the happier setting of Sunday’s Champion Golfer of the Year press conference, Scheffler gave an incredible answer:
“I think we live now in a day and age where clickbait is kind of what people look for. You can shorten a five-minute clip into three words. I think it really underestimates what I was trying to communicate. Maybe I didn't do as effective of a job as I hoped to in communicating that.
“At the end of the day, I have a tremendous amount of gratitude towards moment like these. I literally worked my entire life to become good at this game and play this game for a living. It's one of my greatest joys of my life to compete out here. To be able to win The Open Championship here at Portrush is a feeling that's really hard to describe.
“I'm very fortunate to be able to come out here and live out my dreams. I just grew up a kid in Texas that wanted to play professional golf. I grew up wearing pants to the golf course because that's what I wanted to do. I saw professional golfers like Justin Leonard, Harrison Frazar, those types of guys on TV wearing pants, and I was like, I want to be like those guys. So I used to wear pants to grow up to play golf. It would be 100 degrees out. I'd be way too hot. People would make fun of me. But that's what I wanted to do; I wanted to be a professional golfer, so I wore pants.
“I don't know why I'm so lucky that I get to live out my dreams, but it's something I'm very grateful for. If somebody was going to listen to the comments I had this week, I would encourage them to listen to all of it, and I hope I did a good job communicating that, yeah, this is amazing to win the Open Championship, but at the end of the day, having success in life, whether it be in golf, work, whatever it is, that's not what fulfills the deepest desires of your heart.
Am I grateful for it? Do I enjoy it? Oh, my gosh, yes, this is a cool feeling. I can't wait to get home and celebrate this championship with the people that have helped me along the way. But at the end of the day, it doesn't fulfill the deepest desires of my heart.
It's just tough to describe when you haven't lived it. It's something I actually talked to Shane [Lowry] about this week was just because you win a golf tournament or accomplish something, it doesn't make you happy. It doesn't -- maybe for a few moments, maybe for a few days, but at the end of the day, there's more to life than playing golf. I'm pretty excited to go home and celebrate this one.”
Harris English. Losing regular bagman to visa issues did not discourage one of the game’s best putters and most underrated tacticians from quietly picking apart Portrush. Working with a fill-in caddie who is also his coach, English delivered a second major championship runner-up finish this year to Scottie Scheffler (PGA, T2). The 35-year-old secured a Ryder Cup spot and has evolved into a big stage player. By making all four cuts and finishing -5 in 2025’s majors, English saw only four players play better: Scottie Scheffler -32, Rory McIlroy -11, Xander Schauffele -10, and Jon Rahm -6.
Haotong Li. He’s played 12 majors since a third-place finish at Birkdale in 2017 and done nothing of note in Grand Slam events or leading into this one. A final round 63 at Birkdale back in 2017 should have him pumped for a return there next year after finishing T4 at Portrush. Six birdies on Sunday produced a 70 while playing alongside Scheffler. “It was actually super calm and he's such a lovely guy to play with,” Li said. “We did a joke about each other a little bit and just so nice to play with him.” A charming character who smiles more than most of today’s rocket surgeons, Li said the banter with Scheffler included asking if he can practice with him if he returns to the PGA Tour. “He said yes. but I said, ‘when I text you, you better reply to me,’ and he goes, ‘Haotong who?’ That was actually funny. Just a lovely guy to play with, and I enjoyed.” Thanks to his finish Li will receive a coveted Masters invite for the first time since 2019. “Overall it's just a very good week for me.”
Chris Gotterup. An incredible two-week run has made him a household name among golf geeks and doubled his career earnings account. After being known as a raw talent, the 2022 Haskins and Nicklaus award winner showed he has a refined game and continued a recent run of Americans many would not have picked as a future links champion. “I expected to play well, but I don't think I expected quite this well,” he said after locking up third place. “I don't know what's going on over here, but maybe my European blood in me a little bit has come to life.” His dad is of Danish descent and he’s visited his grandparents’ home country. And now he’ll be back in The Open at Birkdale.
Rory. The home favorite energized the place, played beautiful golf and tipped his cap to the Champion Golfer of the Year in classy fashion while thanking fans for the intense support. “I feel so thankful and just so lucky that I get to do this, I get to do this in front of this crowd,” he said after a T7 finish. “Hopefully I'll have one or two Opens left here, if the R&A decide to keep coming back, probably one while I'm still competitive and another one while I'm more gray than I already am. It's just been incredible to come back here and to play and at least feel like I had a chance today going out there. Just an awesome week.”
Matt Fitzpatrick (T4). It’s been a struggle since winning the 2022 U.S. Open and the 30-year-old from Sheffield is on record as no fan of brown-adjacent links. But his first top 10 finish in 10 Open tries could set up a resurgence and newfound appreciation for links golf. Ish. “I like this golf course,” he said. “I think it's a very fair test, I think. It rewards good golf shots. I think sometimes links doesn't do that to you, and there's plenty of courses that we play or I've played at links golf that don't necessarily do that.” Ok so there’s still some educating to do.
