What low handicap would shoot at 2024 Open Championship, according to pros
Tyrrell Hatton on Friday on the 11th hole at Royal Troon.
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To start our story, we scroll down.
Past Shane Lowry. He’s at the top of the Open Championship leaderboard after two rounds. Past Justin Rose and Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay. They’ll be among those fighting this weekend for the Claret Jug.
Keep going.
Eventually, you’ll see Cam Smith, the 2022 Open champion. Over 36 holes, he shot rounds of nine-over 80 and three-over 74. You also see Tiger Woods, the 15-time major winner, who went 79-77. You also see Wyndham Clark, last year’s U.S. Open champ, who went 78-80.
Ugly, right? But that’s what Royal Troon does. It’s pretty to look at, but it packs a punch behind its humps and bumps, its fescue and gorse, its ever-changing wind and its rain.
And you wonder:
What would you, the non-pro, shoot at Troon under Open conditions? If the world’s finest are making a mess, how the heck would you fare?
Maybe we can answer that.
To begin, let’s check in with Ewen Ferguson, who’s playing this week in his home country of Scotland. He said he hasn’t played Troon since he was 18 — when he said “it was not really that difficult.”
“You can hit driver and bomb it into places where there’s no rough really and still you’re hitting wedge,” he said.
So what changed?
“But you can’t now,” Ferguson said, “because you hit driver in there, it will make you lose your ball.”
“It’s really difficult. Also they put a lot of new tees in that are a lot farther back, which makes things tougher. I never played from there before. And really smartly placed bunkers, like on 1, where you can probably sneak driver down there and have a 60-degree in your hand — now you’re like, can’t really do that. So you have it in with a 6-iron. It was really difficult.”
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A few other pros agreed.
On Thursday, the DP World Tour social-media team helped our endeavor by asking some players this:
What would a scratch player have shot at Troon during Thursday’s first round?
A lot, they said.
Said Jason Day: “Probably in — let’s do the average. I reckon probably somewhere in the 80s. Low 80s, probably.”
Said Gary Woodland: “95. I played with Ernie [Els] today. You know, Ernie’s probably a plus-six, so yeah, I’d say 95. It’s tough out there. You miss one shot and you’re going to have a big number. Especially you throw the crowds out there, maybe 100.”
Said Rasmus Hojgaard: “Hmm. A scratch golfer would probably shoot — I’m struggling to see them break 80 around here. Eighty to 85, on a good day.”
Said Corey Conners: “A scratch golfer would have shot 88 today. You know, might have been able to sneak in a birdie, but definitely a lot of bogeys and others out there.”
Said Victor Perez: “On a half-decent day, I’d say 83, 82? I think it’s just the course kind of wears on you. I think it’s really difficult to kind of just keep on. It’s not like you have a stretch of four or five holes difficult and you actually get a breather. It’s like quite difficult for five and a half hours, so I would say a solid 83 on a half-decent day.”
Said Adrian Meronk: “83. Because it was just tough. I mean, the front nine was brutal. I was hitting my 8-iron 120 yards. It was just quite tough.”
This was also notable.
On Friday, Sky Sports compiled the worst-ball score among players on Friday. Here’s what that looked like:
Hole 1, 366-yard par-4: 7
Hole 2, 376-yard par-4: 6
Hole 3, 381-yard par-4: 6
Hole 4, 598-yard par-5: 9
Hole 5, 215-yard par-3: 6
Hole 6, 603-yard par-5: 7
Hole 7, 394-yard par-4: 6
Hole 8, 120-yard par-3: 8
Hole 9, 436-yard par-4: 7
Front-nine score: 62
Hole 10, 450-yard par-4: 6
Hole 11, 488-yard par-4: 7
Hole 12, 452-yard par-4: 7
Hole 13, 473-yard par-4: 9
Hole 14, 197-yard par-3: 9
Hole 15, 502-yard par-4: 7
Hole 16, 564-yard par-5: 7
Hole 17, 235-yard par-3: 5
Hole 18, 447-yard par-4: 5
Back-nine score: 62
Total score: 124
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