Rory McIlroy sees the British Open as little more than the next opportunity to end 10 years without a major, not atonement for his late collapse in the U.S. Open.
It's the last opportunity this year, not only for the hard-luck McIlroy but everyone else who earned a spot at Royal Troon, the links course along the Ayrshire coast of Scotland that first hosted golf's oldest championship a century ago.
For Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele and Bryson DeChambeau, it's a chance to join five other players in the last 25 years who have won two majors or more in the same season. For Patrick Cantlay and Tommy Fleetwood, it's a chance to get their first one.
And when another name is engraved onto the silver base of the claret jug, and the R&A introduces “the champion golfer of the year,” it will be 263 days until the next major.
So much anticipation for the Masters when the major championship began in April. So much desperation just three months later.
“It's hard to explain and it sounds negative, but it's like, ‘If I don’t win this, it's another year without a major.' It's just the unfortunate reality,” Justin Thomas said. “We only get four tries in a year. And then once it's done, all right, got to wait until next year.”
Justin Rose won his first major at Merion in the 2013 U.S. Open and it only gave him stronger belief that he could pick up another by the end of the year. What impressed him was Phil Mickelson losing the 54-hole lead at Merion — his sixth runner-up at the only major he never won — and then winning the claret jug a month later.
“To turn yourself around quite quickly within that month takes a fair effort,” Rose said.
So where does that leave McIlroy?
He has been stung before in the majors, as long as 13 years ago when he lost a four-shot lead in the Masters, as recently as two years ago when he shared the 54-hole lead at St. Andrews only to two-putt every green in the final round.
The finish at Pinehurst No. 2 was harsh. Leading with three holes to play, he missed two par putts so close he could practically see the bottom of the cup and finished one shot behind Bryson DeChambeau.
He wound up with the silver medal. It felt like it should have been a purple heart.
“It will be hard, for sure,” Rose said. “But I think he's probably got the bit between the teeth. I've always felt that way about Rory. When he gets criticized, when people start to doubt him, that's when he starts to play his best.”
The 152nd Open returns to Royal Troon for the 10th time, a beautiful links and classic in the sense that eight of the nine holes go south along the Firth of Clyde and before heading back into the prevailing wind toward the clubhouse.
The exception is No. 8, the signature at Royal Troon, a 123-yard hole known as the “Postage Stamp.” It's the shortest hole in the current British Open rotation, and it is two holes after the longest par 5 (623 yards) of any Open course.
Most curious about these links is the par 4s are relatively short going out with the wind, and they are quite longer coming back into the wind.
“You've got make your score on the front nine and hang on,” McIlroy said.
Colin Montgomerie, whose father was the longtime secretary at Royal Troon, summed it up years ago: “If you're not under par when you make the turn, you may as well head over to Prestwick for lunch.”
McIlroy had a decent finish when the Open was last at Royal Troon in 2016. He tied for fifth, though that was one finish in a major that might require an asterisk.
“It felt like I wasn't in the tournament,” he said.
Henrik Stenson and Phil Mickelson delivered a duel for the ages, Mickelson opening with a 63, Stenson closing with a 63, neither of them separated by more than two shots over 40 straight holes until Stenson birdied the last for a three-shot win at 264, still the lowest score in major championship history.
Golf has seemed like a one-man show for so much of the year, and it starts with Scheffler. He already had six PGA Tour victories before the end of June — the last player to do that was Tom Watson in 1980. One was the Masters. Another was The Players Championship. The other four were signature events against the strongest fields.
The consistency from tee-to-green is at a level not seen since Tiger Woods in his prime. Woods typically won multiple majors when he had his best seasons. Scheffler winning a second this year would put this season in truly elite category. He is assured of being No. 1 in the world longer than any player since Woods in the late 2000s.
Woods has not been at Royal Troon since 2004, the year he was going through a swing change. This will be the first time since 2019 — the year he won the Masters for the fifth time — that he plays all four majors. He made the cut at the Masters for a record 24th straight time. He hasn't come close to making the cut in the other two majors, and that has been his only competition. He is walking fine, weighed down only by rust.
“It's pick your poison, right?” Woods said at the U.S. Open. “Play a lot with the potential of not playing (majors), or not playing and fight being not as sharp.”
Woods has not broken par at a major since the second round of the 2022 PGA Championship.
The Paris Games are two weeks after the Open, though the royal and ancient game remains relatively new in the Olympics. Then the emphasis shifts from medals to money with the FedEx Cup playoffs on the PGA Tour.
The season is not over. But there is a feeling of finality about the last major of the year.
“I think it's a different perspective whether you've won one or not. Some guys who haven't won get that question. Thankfully, it's not what I have to worry about,” said Collin Morikawa, already a two-time major champion.
“It's amazing how quickly the major season goes by,” he said. "You only get four a year, and you can't take that lightly."
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