Monday At The 153rd Open
The Jug is returned, Rory and Shane talk, Stefan says too much, No. 7 green, the Spidercam is going to be bold, a visit with Nelly (the bunker), This, That and Weather.
We’re off to a fine start if you ignore than two (practice round weather) play suspensions on Monday at Royal Portrush. Covered in today’s Quad:
The great Irish hopes were in good form Monday. Rory Mcllroy and de facto course defending champion Shane Lowry sat before the assembled content creators to answer questions. As always there were nuggets.
The Champion Golfer of the Year, Xander Schauffele, returned the Jug one day after eius pater Stefan was quoted in The Times making a few aggressive statements and setting up his son to blame the media for twisting the remarks.
In an exciting development that should bolster their confidence to forecast more than two days out, the Met Office nailed Monday’s prediction. As they suggested was possible, play had to be stopped twice due to the threat of thunder and lightning nearby. The course received rain but nothing substantial.
The Quad will touch on all of those stories, throw in more looks at the course, and warm you heart via a moving reunification story revealing a groomed (but still fenced off) bunker Nelly.
Schauffele Returns The Claret Jug
The 2024 Champion Golfer of the Year delivered golf’s oldest trophy after pulling up in a Jug-matching silver Mercedes-AMG S 63 E Performance Saloon.
Xander Schauffele’s ride this week features 1,430 NM of system torque. This will come in handy transporting precious cargo like the Claret Jug while navigating the winding, remote farm roads where the littering of “no-parking” cones only adds to the dangers players are facing.
Additionally, this particular edition offers a healthy 802 of horsepower—perfect for eluding HotelPlanner Tour types pursuing the Claret Jug. The Saloon also does 0 to 62 m.p.h. in 3.3 seconds for those necessary clean getaways on Sunday nights when a two-time major champion might need to avoid his controversy-prone father.
One last anecdote: a longtime scribe who was here for the 1951 Open noted that the crash commercialization of golf’s oldest trophy shows how far the Champion Golfers of the Year have come. For the 1951 Open, the great Bobby Locke was instructed to knock on Portrush’s clubhouse door and then take at least ten steps back when returning the Jug so as to not come close to a member.
Oh what the great South African would have given to be exploited for a Mercedes Benz advert!
Stefan Schauffele Opines
In a wide-ranging and tabloid-dreamy chat with the Sunday Times, Father Stefan emerged from his shipping container to offer some hot, necessary and fictional adjacent takes ahead of his son’s Open defense.
On the 2025 Ryder Cup. “I’m not going to the Ryder Cup either. I’m afraid of what’s going to happen in New York. I was there [at Whistling Straits] when they called Shane Lowry’s wife a w---- in front of him. I couldn’t believe my ears.”
On the 2023 Ryder Cup when caddie Joe LaCava lost his mind admidst the various talk of money and media rights driven almost entirely by his son and Patrick Cantlay. “I saw what happened in Rome. That was utterly disgusting claiming this money bulls--- and Rory behaved disgustingly in my opinion [when he confronted LaCava in the car park]. It’s only going to get worse. It’s ruined my appetite for the Ryder Cup. It becomes unwatchable.”
Claiming a $200 million offer was made to his son to join the Saudi-backed LIV. “They could’ve doubled the money and we still wouldn’t do it.”
McIlroy Offers Upbeat Assessments
Arriving at his hotel room around 1 a.m from the Genesis Scottish Open, Northern Ireland’s great hope teed off at 7 a.m. Monday. That was almost two hours before the next group (at least of those officially signing up). After more post round practice, McIlroy kicked off the week’s press conferences with an upbeat assessment of his game, memories of Portrush, and this week’s opportunity to cap off the Career Grand Slam year in grand style.
On returning to Portrush. “To be here, to see a lot of familiar faces, even some of the -- every hole on the course has a different team of marshals from different golf clubs, and just to see people that I've met throughout the years out there this morning was really nice.”
On the importance of this one. “When I was looking at the calendar for 2025, this was the tournament that was probably, I don't know, circled, even more so than the Masters for different reasons. It's lovely to be coming in here already with a major and everything else that's happened this year.”
On what he’s picked up from Shane Lowry, the 2019 champion here. “How he is able to separate his family life and his normal life from his golfing life…it's definitely a place that I strive to be in, to be as comfortable getting away from it as he is in a way and enjoying the fruits of your success and sharing that with your loved ones…one of my New Year's resolutions was to have more fun. I think Shane is very good at having fun, and I need more of that in my life.”
On his 61 here as a 16-year-old. “When I shot that 61 when I was 16, I had a little bit of a clue of what I was doing, but I certainly didn't have as much of an understanding of the game or of my game as I do now.”
On what’s changed since then. “I think in that 20 years, technology has evolved. I don't even think TrackMans were a thing at that point. There's a lot of different things that have happened to the game of golf that probably push you in the direction of a scientist more than an artist. But as we all know, The Open Championship and links golf, you need to show quite a lot of artistry to do well here.”
On what he saw of the course Monday. “I have a real appreciation for how well bunkered it is off the tee. It's like, okay, well, I can hit a 2-iron off the tee, but that brings this bunker into play. But then if I hit driver, it'll bring this bunker -- so you have to take on the shot. You have to say, okay, I'm going to commit to hitting this shot and I just know I'm going to have to avoid -- like some courses that we go to in the Open rota you can just take the bunkers out of play. You can lay up short of them or go beyond them. Here there's always one bunker or another bunker in play, so I think off the tee it provides a very, very good test.”
On the greens here. “The greens are quite slopey here for a links golf course. You compare that to even Renaissance last week where I had a lot of putts that were like right edge, left edge, not a lot of putts that were really outside the hole that much. You get here, you're having to play two feet of break, or it's a little bit different than maybe what you face on some other links golf courses.”
Lowry Commences His Portrush Defense
The 2019 Champion Golfer of the Year returned to the scene of his six-stroke win and after a rough start, settled in to offer a few insights ahead of his venue title defense.
Asked how he celebrated in 2019. “Interesting first question, isn't it? Here to talk about golf and all anyone wants to talk about is drinking. Yeah, I celebrated pretty well. Golf is a funny game like where you lose a lot more than you win, and I've always been a firm believer that when you win, you need to try and celebrate those victories. So I did that that night.”
On what his win translates to this week. “I know that's quite a while ago, and no matter what I done then, it doesn't give me any God-given right to do anything special this week. I just need to get my head down on Thursday morning and get after it and see what happens.”
On Royal Portrush. “Obviously I'm a little bit biased, but I think it's one of the best venues, and you look at it in this weather, and I think it's just incredible. The golf course, I played it this morning, I think it's perfect right now. I think it's ready for a great week of golf.”
On 2019 and nerves for Irish golfers. “I reckon that first tee that morning in 2019 was the most nervous I've ever been on the first tee of a tournament. All you want to do is get the ball down the fairway, and obviously Rory didn't do that. I remember talking to him a little bit in the lead-up to that, and he did put a lot of pressure on himself, talking about it being the biggest tournament he's ever going to play and stuff like that. You live and you learn, and I'm sure he's not going to do that this week.”
On Troon last year and Monday’s mix of rain, sun and wind. “I'm getting old and soft, so I like nice weather. I think today is perfect. I think that's a perfect Open test out there today. The problem is when it gets showery and really heavy downpours, get them on the wrong holes, you can kind of get a little unlucky at The Open.”
The Improved Seventh Green
The seventh green has been modified since the 2019 Open in an attempt to better match the subtle contours found elsewhere. Here is my impression upon seeing it for the first time—with a local knowledge observation thrown in for good measure.
Spidercam Will Be Something
I happened to stumble upon testing for the new 18th green Spidercam and my is it aggressive! The visuals should be stunning. And I will stipulate that this is Monday, so testing might be taking this to the max before the operator’s tone things down during the competition. My look: