Because the mud settles on a memorable Open Championship at Royal Troon, we glance again on what made it such every week to recollect for golf followers.
1. The course
Royal Troon sits thirty second within the Prime 100 Golf Programs rankings, with solely Royal Liverpool (forty second) of the opposite Open programs under it. All of the others on the roster are comfortably above it and it’s typically seen as one of many unsexier Opens.
Hopefully which may change slightly after the previous week. Right here we had an ideal check on a course that required ball putting, accuracy and endurance in nearly equal measure. It wasn’t overpowered, there weren’t gamers prospering by thundering drivers everywhere in the property and the successful rating (one thing we obsess about an excessive amount of) was 9 beneath.
On the par 5s we had Jon Rahm fail to make a single birdie. By the top of all of it we had 9 gamers in pink figures and most of us questioning if a par 3 that was performed at 100 yards on Sunday is the very best quick gap on the earth.
2. A worthy winner
Xander Schauffele is the whole lot you need from an Open champion and the kind of golfer you need coming again yr after yr. This was the kind of set-up the place it appeared like a double-bogey or worse was simply across the nook and he solely had six bogeys in 4 rounds.
The PGA champ barely missed a shot and, when he did, he recovered brilliantly. Today he’s added extra size and, no matter he’s been doing to assist along with his psychological sport, it’s labored a deal with. Not so way back he was taking pictures a final-round 70 at The Gamers to be overtaken by Scottie Scheffler and he seemed nothing just like the nearer that he did in Ayrshire on Sunday.
Now he’s formally the second greatest participant on the earth and, regardless of the ridiculous season that Scheffler’s having fun with, we’ve one other participant who may pip him because the Participant of the 12 months.
READ MORE: The actual story of how Xander Schauffele received the 2024 Open Championship
3. The climate performed ball
It’s at all times extra satisfying than it must be to get not less than one depressing day at an Open. On day one many had been taken without warning within the switching of the wind, however that paled into insignificance after we obtained the winds of Saturday afternoon.
Shane Lowry moaned about barely with the ability to attain a few fairways and we noticed Scheffler and co fail to succeed in the 502-yard par-4 fifteenth with a pair of drivers. The seventeenth was additionally a driver until you had been Scheffler who hit perhaps the shot of the Championship when he muscled a knee-high 3-wood to kick-in distance.
And nonetheless the gamers obtained it round in one thing like stage par and Schauffele one way or the other shot essentially the most comfy 69. This was what anybody who didn’t have a membership of their hand wished to observe.
4. The love of hyperlinks golf
You sometimes marvel if we get too carried away by hyperlinks golf. Whether or not it’s in our Prime 100 rankings or the way in which we view The Open, different forms of course barely get a glance in. The week of the Scottish Open at Renaissance is a really welcome break from the norm, however the course wouldn’t be within the high 5 within the East Lothian area after which we get every week like The Open and all of it turns into clear once more.
If you get a very world-class hyperlinks set-up there actually is nothing prefer it. After we get the appropriate climate, to observe the perfect gamers on the planet craft slightly 6-iron in there from 120 yards is nearly as good because it will get. Conversely, Xander Schauffele hit one of many photographs of the Championship – a wedge from 172 yards – when he made the one birdie on the eleventh on Sunday.
We noticed irons and drivers in equal measure off the tees and all method of photographs from across the greens. Troon’s placing surfaces are typically considered greens the place you may gap a load of putts and, when it mattered, Schauffele knocked them in.
5. Hurray for Remaining Qualifying
Justin Rose was the star title from qualifying at Burnham & Berrow and he very practically pulled it off at Troon. It’s been stated 1,000,000 instances, however these gamers who do make their solution to the sport’s oldest Main by way of this 36-hole route deserve the whole lot they get.
At West Lancs it was chilly, blustery and good and right here we had Dan Brown tipping his season on its head by holing a sizeable putt on his ultimate gap. Having spoken to him there he revealed that he had by no means performed Troon earlier than – now he’s nearly the story of the week.
Rose simply performed effectively sufficient to carry the Claret Jug and Brown performed effectively sufficient to inform himself that he’s able to doing a little nice issues within the sport. A variety of the qualifying routes for The Open are very questionable, Remaining Qualifying ticks each field.
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