Scottie Scheffler and Shane Lowry on Open Thursday.
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PORTURSH, Northern Ireland — It’s just after 9 p.m. and nearing the end of a marathon Thursday at Royal Portrush. Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Thomas finished a six-hour round. And I’m finishing off this story, nervous whether there’s anywhere in Portrush that’ll still serve us dinner.
But I’m invigorated by the opening round of this year’s Open Championship. We have a fascinating leaderboard, we have a terrific golf course and we have a whole bundle of storylines unfolding in the coming days. So let’s get to 10 sights, sounds and stories from Thursday’s main characters.
(Sidenote: Covering the Open in midsummer leads to some funny decision-making. It’s light until 10:30 or later, but plenty of small-town local kitchens close at 8:30 p.m., which means after a long day’s work, it’s easier to go sneak in nine holes than it is to find a meal. This is not a complaint — golf for dinner is a delightful treat.)
1. Matthew Fitzpatrick’s new coach is working wonders.
Matthew Fitzpatrick says his game hit rock bottom at the Players, where he missed the cut and split with longtime caddie Billy Foster. But he has been working with Mark Blackburn since the week after the Masters and, interestingly, his approach play has been terrific since the week after the Masters. His last three results pre-Open: T17-T8-T4. His position at this Open: T1.
What Fitzpatrick said: “[The Players] was the lowest I’ve been, I felt, in my career. Statistically it could be the worst, as well, run that I’ve played as well. I just didn’t feel good or know where it was going … RBC, that’s when I saw Mark for the first time, and with advice from my trainers Andrew and Luke, on how my body is — like, I have really long arms, so that’s got to be factored in in what we’re working on … at that point, kind of everything changed, with my approach play anyway.”
2. Jon Rahm released some tension
Jon Rahm hit a wayward tee shot on the par-4 11th and then snapped at a fan in frustration after they’d caused a disturbance mid-tee shot. That video quickly went viral, with Rahm lashing out at the fan:
“Really? Whistling?” he chirped. “Great time. Right in my backswing. Very smart — whoever it was.”
"Really? Whistling, great time. Right in my back swing."
It was interesting, then, to hear a calmer Rahm address the situation after finishing off a round of 1-under 70, offering a window into his frustrated mind in the process.
What Rahm said: “I mean, if I were to paint a picture, you have the hardest tee shot on the course, it’s raining, into the wind off the left, it’s enough. I know they’re not doing it on purpose. It just seemed like somebody trying to get a hold of someone for whatever it is. It was bad timing.
“I think I just used the moment to let out any tension I had in me. Really that’s not — it is what it is. To be honest, it probably didn’t affect as much as I made it sound like. It was a bad swing as well. Just a difficult hole. I mean, it’s frustrating, but it is what it is. It’s an everyday thing in golf.”
3. Phil doesn’t want to talk politics. Or Grant Horvat
…but he does want to play some good golf.
Mickelson shot an opening-round 1-under 70 and had praise for Open fans, links golf and the specific setup at Royal Portrush.
What Mickelson said: “I just find that it’s a very rewarding course if you hit good shots and a very penalizing course. It seems to be consistent with the degree of how good or bad you hit it.”
Reporters haven’t gotten a crack at Mickelson in a while, so it wasn’t a shock to hear their lines of questioning take a couple swerves. But they hit dead ends on the future of the Open at Muirfield (“I don’t really get into the politics on that. There’s some things I get in politics on, but not that.”) and the controversy surrounding YouTube golfer Grant Horvat’s decision not to play a PGA Tour event because of rights issues. (“I’m not going to go into the weeds on that. I just really like [Grant].)
4. Scottie Scheffler likes playing better than talking.
But he’s still quite good at both. Scheffler’s Tuesday press conference resonated well outside our little golf bubble because his comments about the fleeting nature of success — and of winning, specifically — were so fascinating. After he shot 3 under par on Thursday, he was asked about the response to those comments.
What Scheffler said: “This week I’m trying to play good enough to win the golf tournament. I think I’ve made that pretty clear over the course of my career. As far as my comments or anything like that, Doug always asks too many questions, so I blame him.”
[“Doug” refers to Doug Ferguson of the AP, a well-respected reporter who has a terrific relationship with most top pros — this was said with a grin.]
“No, I mean, I think I try to be as honest as I can with y’all, with the stuff that I’m willing to kind of say. At times I feel like maybe I should be a little less honest. Maybe I shouldn’t have said the stuff I said yesterday because now I’m going to get asked about it more.
“But really it’s just a matter of perspective, and I’ve had some players come up to me and say that they feel and think the same things. If anybody has disagreed with me, they haven’t said it to my face yet, so I don’t know what the reaction would be. But overall just glad to be out playing golf and competing again.”
It was only fitting that Scheffler wrapped up his press conference with a one-word answer. Asked if there were any shots that stood out from his day, here’s what he said:
“No.”
5. Shane Lowry’s happy — and relieved.
The Irishman won the Open the last time it was at Portrush, and he’s been excited but also openly apprehensive about his anticipated return. After an opening round 1-under 70, his dominant emotion seemed to be relief.
What Lowry said: “Everything is great. I’m happy,” he said. “I’ve fought with this round of golf in my head for a few weeks now. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. The 1st tee shot wasn’t that easy. I wasn’t feeling very comfortable there. I felt like I managed to handle myself very well. Crowds were amazing. Everything about this tournament has just been great.
6. That first tee shot? It’ll test you
We know this from Rory McIlroy in 2019. We know it from Padraig Harrington on Thursday morning. We’ve seen O.B. left and O.B. right, and we saw several guys hit really bizarre tee shots on Thursday morning, with at least three traveling less than 175 yards. But my favorite dose of post-round honesty came from Richard Teder, the first Estonian to ever play this event:
What Teder said: “A bit crazy on the 1st hole. I thought I was going to black out. I told myself it’s another golf shot. It’s a 2-iron, my favourite club. But the whole day was just unbelievable. The crowds, the fans. It was special.”
7. There’s a monk near the lead.
If you were picking somebody to thrive under major-championship pressure and L.A. traffic-level pace of play, you’d do well to choose a monk. As far as I know, only one person sits at the center of the pro golfer-monk Venn Diagram: Sadom Kaewkanjana.
What Kaewkanjana said: “Yeah, it’s my responsibility in Thailand, so I think it’s a new experience being a Monk. They help like more concentrate on the golf course or outside the golf course. It’s made me a lot of focus. Forget everything outside, just live in the present. So I really enjoy being a Monk.”
8. Jason Day was tough on himself.
Day is obsessed with process, and on Thursday, he referred to his process as “quite horrific.” Links golf can test you. Wind and rain can test you. Major-championship pressure can test you. It’s understandable that staying in your process would be that much tougher, given the circumstances.
What Day said: “I’ve been professional too long to get this wrong. To work hard coming into this week and then to go out there and have poor process is not acceptable, especially in my eyes.
“There’s no one else other than myself that I have to blame because I put in the hard work and I go out there and have a poor process. Don’t get the correct numbers, start making bogeys, that’s all on me unfortunately.
“I’ve got to do a better job of it and hopefully come back tomorrow and do it again, play better.”
9. Sometimes it’s just nice to get some applause.
Dean Burmester says he’s obsessed with links golf because he’s obsessed with hitting his 1-iron, and the two go hand-in-hand. But he also has a deep appreciation for Open Championship fans. His reasoning? They don’t know who he is.
What Burmester said: “You know what, I feel like the fans here appreciate a good shot. They clap you onto the tee box. They clap you on a lot of the greens you walk up. I want to say 85 percent of the fans here don’t even know who I am. For them to do that, they must be doing that for everybody. For me, it’s special. That’s what makes them the greatest fans in the world.”
10. Xander Schauffele’s caddie got a special bib.
This was something fun I didn’t know: the Open’s defending champ gets a special caddie bib. If the Tour de France has the yellow jacket, the Open has the non-yellow jacket. Anyway, Schauffele finished the day exactly where he started: Even par. And he served up a reminder that as long as you’re in shouting distance, there’s a lot of golf left.
What Schauffele said: “It’s Thursday of a major. It’s a positioning battle. If you’re getting good clubs and this and that, you can kind of go out there and shoot a nice number, but it’s really just trying to position yourself come the weekend. Maybe then [being defending champ] will be an advantage. As of right now, the same nerves, the same kind of everything for a normal major.”
Dylan Dethier is a senior writer for GOLF Magazine/GOLF.com. The Williamstown, Mass. native joined GOLF in 2017 after two years scuffling on the mini-tours. Dethier is a graduate of Williams College, where he majored in English, and he’s the author of 18 in America, which details the year he spent as an 18-year-old living from his car and playing a round of golf in every state.
