Beef and brains are on the menu at the British Open
Hit Brother
Beef is back on the menu at the British Open, and Andrew Johnston can only hope there’s as much sizzle to be found at Royal Birkdale as there was last year when he made an entertaining run on the weekend at Royal Troon.
There are brains here, too, thanks to a last minute win Sunday by Bryson DeChambeau, who defies golf convention with his swing thoughts and has physics formulas stamped on the back of his wedges.
Golf in what seems now to be a permanent post-Tiger era remains alive and somewhat well. That’s especially true on this side of the pond, where huge crowds will turn out this week for the 146th version of what they prefer here to call simply The Open.
The winner on Sunday will be crowned championship golfer of the year. Based on the small sample size of recent major championships, it is likely to be someone you know little about.
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The last seven major championships have been won by players who had never won a major in their lives. That could go to eight this week if an up and coming player the likes of John Rahm who dominated the Irish Open in his last outing can win this Open.
Or maybe local resident Tommy Fleetwood, who didn’t exactly come in through the front door of the pro shop when he played a few holes here and there growing up.
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“It was a course I would have crept on now and again,” Fleetwood said.
The revolving cast of new winners is part of the reason this Open and golf itself seems to be struggling for a story line. The course may be the best in England and the field full of great talent, but even the bookies here can’t figure out who should be favored.
Gone forever are the days when Woods dominated and every conversation in the sport revolved around what he was doing.
“It shows the quality of golf that everybody plays at right now,” said Sergio Garcia, the Masters champion who is still looking for his first Claret Jug. “It’s a really high level and it doesn’t matter if you’ve won a major or not, everybody can definitely do it.”
That everybody certainly includes Garcia himself, who spent the better part of the last two decades tantalizing fans with his talent but never delivering in a major before a brilliant back nine comeback gave him the green jacket at Augusta National this year.
His Open career began as an amateur at Royal Birkdale in 1998, and he’s had several legitimate chances to win the Open, only to kick them away. But he’s now a major champion and, with a wedding set for next week, he could be a storybook champion should he emerge with the iconic jug engraved with winners of years past.
“Obviously I am excited about it,” Garcia said. “I am confident about my possibilities but I can’t tell you if I’m going to be right up there on Sunday with a chance. I’m hoping that I will be, but unfortunately it doesn’t work like that every week.”
The player nicknamed Beef certainly understands that. The bearded, portly Johnston entertained the crowd at last year’s Open, nearly upstaging a tremendous duel between Phil Mickelson and eventual winner Henrik Stenson in the final round before finishing eighth.
But Johnston has struggled to make cuts ever since, as did DeChambeau until he came through Sunday with a blistering back nine to win for the first time in the John Deere Classic.
That gave him the final qualifying berth in the Open, and a chance to demonstrate some unusual theories he has about golf, including using the same length shaft in all of his irons.
A win here would be an extreme longshot, but strange things can happen in golf. That’s especially true at a tournament where just a few years back 59-year-old Tom Watson came within a par of winning before losing to Stewart Cink in a playoff.
So maybe the search for a new hero will focus on the hometown kid with the flowing bangs who used to sneak onto Royal Birkdale to play a few holes while his dad walked the dog around the course perimeter.
A win for Fleetwood now the No. 1 player on the European Tour might even get him noticed in the town where he grew up. So far, his appearance here has been welcomed with a collective shrug.
“There’s nobody fainting in the street as I walk past,” Fleetwood said. “So I’m still waiting.”
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British Open 2017: Nine interesting things about this year’s event at Royal Birkdale
The 146th Open Championship takes place this week at Royal Birkdale, and Dustin Johnson is an unconvincing favorite. The Open is the oldest, and often most intriguing of the four men’s major championships, and this week is no different.
Birkdale has delivered some great history (and tremendous drama) over the years, and I expect much more of the same this time around. Here are nine of the most interesting facets to this third major of 2017 and 10th overall at what is often called the fairest test in the Open rotation.
1. Seven straight first-time major winners: They say the first time is always the most special, and Jason Day, Danny Willett, Dustin Johnson, Henrik Stenson, Jimmy Walker, Sergio Garcia and Brooks Koepka can attest to that. We have never seen a streak like this in the history of golf. The last time we even saw four first-time major winners in the same year was 1969, and now we’re on the precipice of two straight seasons of it (with Day’s 2015 PGA Championship to boot).
The fascinating part of all of this is that none of it is surprising. Would anyone be stunned to see Rickie Fowler, Thomas Pieters, Justin Thomas, Daniel Berger, Jon Rahm and Matthew Fitzpatrick reel off the next six majors in a row giving us three (!) straight seasons of first-time major winners? I wouldn’t. Which means we’re probably going to get a repeat of 2015 when Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy held all four of them at one time.
2. Look to Scotland: The Scottish Open has had a recent history of producing Open Championship-winning golfers. Potential candidates this year: Rickie Fowler, Matt Kuchar, Jason Dufner and Adam Scott.
6 of previous 7 winners of #TheOpen played in Scottish Open the week before. Zach Johnson in 2015 is the lone exception in that span.
3. Only one European has won Birkdale: Padraig Harrington is the lone golfer not from Australia or the United States to raise a Claret Jug on this course. Granted, there have only been nine of these things played at this course in the history of this tournament, but you would still think a single European would have won one of the other eight. Many got close (Seve Ballesteros among them), but none prevailed.
4. Breaking par will be tough: Nobody has broken par at Royal Birkdale in the last two Opens there. The closest to do it were Mark O’Meara and Brian Watts who tied at even-par 280 in 1998 before O’Meara won in a playoff. That year, the weather was so nasty in the third round on Saturday that nobody could crack a score of 70. If the weather is like it was on Monday for the practice round, the winning score will be well under par. If it howls and gusts like a proper Open, it will not be.
In terms of scoring average, Stenson has been the best.
6. Age is just a number? After watching Tom Watson nearly win The Open in 2009, I’m convinced anything can happen at this tournament. If you look at the recent history of old man winners (Phil Mickelson, Darren Clarke, Henrik Stenson and Ernie Els), it’s clear that anything has happened. One for the home crowd that will be beyond a fan favorite this week? I’m going with 44-year-old Lee Westwood.
7. A title defense? The last time a golfer successfully defended the major he won the year before was in 2008 at Royal Birkdale when Harrington did it. He was coming off his 2007 Open win at Carnoustie in a playoff over Sergio Garcia. That means little this week, but maybe Henrik Stenson will take a bit of encouragement from it.
8. Who can (almost) get to No. 1? Dustin Johnson will protect his No. 1 spot in the world this week no matter what, but a whole host of other top 10 golfers can reach career highs in the Official World Golf Rankings (including Rickie Fowler).
9. What will the weather be like? As of now — and this changes by the minute in England — there will be rain daily and 10-20 MPH winds. That’s not bad for an Open, but what will interest players and viewers alike is who gets the wrong side of the draw on Thursday and Friday.
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