Tuesday At The 153rd Open
Portrush price gouging is halted. Plus, players opine, groupings are released, and Tuesday's wind from the north highlighted a potential direction that will add to the intrigue at Royal Portrush.
The healthy fescues have begun turning a glorious grayish-yellow hue. And thanks to Royal Portrush dodging most of Tuesday’s rain, the magnificent links is rounding into idyllic form for The Open Championship.
Sure, some lower lying fairways are not quite running as fast as others and the same could be said of some greens compared to those more exposed to the wind. But it’s these little dimensions that add to the fun and importance of practice rounds to soak up the local knowledge rewards. Players even partook in the free rounds at one of golf’s greatest links! Hallelujah!
The greens and surrounds appea on track to give The 153rd’s field a robust test. Like last time, expect a double-digit-under-par winning score. But please, oh please, do not equate a one next to, say, a five, with a minus sign in front as some sort of free pass.
To those who track such things—the greens were double cut at 3.75mm on Tuesday morning just before Rory McIlroy teed off early and before most of the field sampled the links for at least nine holes. The average green speed readings following the morning cut Stimp’d out at 10 ft 8 inches. This was a 1-inch increase from yesterday and nearly a foot faster than the weekend speeds in 2019.
Average green firmness reached 0.362 inches, a whopping 0.001 inch firmer than yesterday. (This measures how deeply a ball penetrates the green surface and is a nice number to be at on a Tuesday).
As for the championship, the closest thing we have to a controversy involves price gouging by the Ramore Restaurants Group, purveyors of Portrush’s sensational Harbour Bar, Ramore Wine Bar, Basalt and Neptune, and Prawn. According to BBC’s Davy Wilson and Mike McBride, who first reported the price gouging, the group “listened to feedback” and will throttle back. Just a little. It took a social media beating and AI images of Rory looking at the menu to force the change.
Now, the chicken and bacon burger, which went from £7.95 to £17.95, comes in at £13.95 for Open week dinners. The chilli chicken pasta, costing £14.95 earlier this month, had jumped to £27.95 before finding a sweet spot at the low, low retail price of £24.95. Hey, but you don’t have to tip here, lowly Mericans!
As for the reason we are in Portrush—crowning a Champion Golfer of the Year—Tuesday featured multiple player press conferences and the much-anticipated announcement of groupings. There was a notable theme to the tee times: if you’re a former Open Champion who jumped to LIV, prepare to meet people you’ve never heard of!
Hey Phil: you drew a former winner of the Investec Royal Swazi Open, the Vodacom Origins of Golf at Euphoria, the Mopani Redpath Greendoor Logistics Zambia Open in 2019, and the 2021 Kenya Savannah Classic. Four Sunshine Tour wins in a matter of months. Respect accordingly.
On that note, today’s Quad features the best of the press conference sessions, all of the tee times at your disposal, and two looks at closing holes in today’s edition from Portrush.
Groupings
As previously announced, Ireland’s Padraig Harrington will hit first at 6:35 a.m. Thursday.
O.J. Farrell will tee off last at 4:16 p.m. Never forget: Ivor Robson would have been there all day and would have nailed all of their names.
You can access the full list here at TheOpen.com. Or just look below.
Notables: Brooks Koepka (9:47), Xander Schauffele (9:58), J.J. Spahn (9:58), Jon Rahm (9:58), Scottie Scheffler (10:09), Shane Lowry (10:09), Ludvig Aberg (2:59), Viktor Hovland (2:59), Robert MacIntyre (2:48), Rory McIlroy (3:10), and Tommy Fleetwood (3:10).
Quotable
Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre on his first impressions of Royal Portrush this week. “It looks a bit greener than last week, so that's a positive for me.” (Monty would be so proud of his fellow Scot!)
MacIntyre on what he loves about Royal Portrush. “It's how the golf course flows. It's not so much the holes. It's not nine holes one way, nine holes the other way. There is everything on this golf course visually. It's obviously enclosed by the dunes either side. So you've got visuals off the tee. I played it when it was in the Home Internationals. Obviously 17 and 18 have changed since that. As newly designed golf holes in the modern game, I think these are as good as it gets when they've been redesigned.”
Jon Rahm on his favorite hole at Royal Portrush. “It's not there anymore. Would have been the old 17. I think my caddie Adam is sick of me telling him how the old 17 used to be. This is where the tee box used to be. With this wind yesterday, the wave bunker* would have been in play. That was definitely my favourite when I played the Amateur here. It was just striking.” *Nelly. But “wave” is fun, too. Here she is this week amidst the trailers and cranes, as detailed in yesterday’s Quad:
Rahm on someone to watch for who, not coincidentally, is a member of LIV’s pink and black brigade known as 13 Lesions Who Died Cruel Deaths. “Tom McKibbin should be really looking forward to this week, being a member here and being from Northern Ireland. He's a fantastic young man. For a 24-year-old to be as calm and collected as he is is quite phenomenal. He's quiet by nature, but even in competition, when things go wrong, he stays quite calm, and it's just remarkable and an incredible gift to have for a young player. I don't think I can relate to that whatsoever, so I'm a little bit jealous of that.”
Scottie Scheffler on what he likes about Royal Portrush. “The pot bunkering here is also very different than the other links courses that I've played where, in terms of these bunkers, I think it's going to be quite rare for you to see guys with one foot out of the bunker with their knee up on the side…whereas these there's a lot more slope into the bunkers where the ball kind of funnels into the middle. I would argue that might be a little bit more fair than two guys hitting a similar shot and one guy has to putt it back into the bunker and the other guy has a clean lie.”
Scheffler on turfgrass shades. “This golf course is greener, but that doesn't mean it's not firm. It's just the grass, I'd say, is slightly different.”
Bryson DeChambeau on the state of his game. “The times I've been over here, for some reason, my golf swing hasn't been where it needs to be. Right now it feels as good as it's ever been. Hitting it far, hitting it straight as I can, and learning how to putt better on these greens in windy conditions and rain and all that. It's just figuring it out. It's just going to take time and something that I never really experienced growing up in California.”
DeChambeau is conducting a wind study to determine if it really is “heavy” here. “I'm still working on that. We're doing some testing right now, going to continue to working on how heavy -- how different types of wind affect the golf balls. It's something I'm working on on a personal project, and it's going to take time to understand it. From terminology, yeah, heavy wind is a great way to describe it. It's thick.”
DeChambeau on his current state of mind. “I'm not happy every day. Some days it goes up and -- you know, working them in. I struggled a little bit last week the last day, and I just had a good team meeting and solved some stuff. I just feel like I'm in a really good spot right now with everything going on and where I'm headed with equipment and life in general and business, my health, and whatnot.”
DeChambeau on YouTube trick shots and various other pre-packaged stunt videos. “I personally care about the game and the health of the game, and as time goes on, I'm not going to be here forever. What footprint do I want to leave? I think it humbles me and almost makes me more passionate about what I'm doing off of the professional golf course…that's what continues to inspire me, continues to make me want to go film content and create, and be the person that I know I am.”
Xander Schauffele on the less-crispy turf this week compared to the Scottish Open. “From last week to this week, we actually have divots flying this week. Last week was ball mark-less and divot-less.”
Schauffele on his Claret Jug celebrations after winning last year at Troon. “I know the celebrations go a little bit deeper here than maybe what I'm even accustomed to or used to. I had a cigar. I had my family. I had a few phone calls. Austin was with us as well. It was a nice celebration for us.”
On how the Champion Golfer of the Year status changed him. “I feel like my life hasn't changed at all. When I go to a normal golf course, I would see the same people, and I treat them the same and they treat me the same.”
Schauffele on where he displays his Olympic Gold Medal. “I actually have no idea where that is to be completely honest.”
The 17th As A Drivable Four
The northerly wind during Tuesday’s practice turned the 408-yard 17th into a very long par-3. A few players even drove through the green with maybe 75 yards of roll after clearing the hill. We may see that wind again Saturday and Sunday, thus turning the generally underestimated penultimate hole into a fascinating character who could decide The 153rd. Here’s a video look from Tuesday:
One other note: I highly recommend these grandstands if you’re looking for a seat that provides plenty of viewing possibilities.