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For all the Open Championship Sunday buzz around Collin Morikawa’s poise, Jordan Spieth’s near-miss and Louis Oosthuizien’s latest heartbreaker, it was easy to overlook the fact that Brooks Koepka recorded yet another top-10 finish in a major. If you’re keeping score at home, that’s 12 top-10s for Koepka in his last 16 major starts, a staggering 75% hit rate. (For context, King Louie — a major savant in his own right — has “only” six top-10s in his last 16 major appearances.)

These days, perhaps the only thing less surprising than Koepka finishing near the top of a major leaderboard is his reaction to not closing the deal. The man has set impossibly high standards for himself.

Instruction

“Doesn’t really matter what I finished today,” Koepka said Sunday afternoon after torching the already crispy Royal St. George’s with a three-birdie-one-eagle 65 that would ultimately land him in a tie for 6th. “I didn’t have a chance to win. That’s disappointing.”

With disappointment in golf comes diagnosis, and Koepka was quick to identify what most prevented him from prevailing: his iron play, in particular his iron play in the third round when he made four bogeys en route to a two-over 72, his worst score of the week by three strokes. “I was pulling shots with my irons just making poor swings,” he said.

Here’s the thing with Koepka, though: While he may overthink his beef with Bryson, the same can never be said of his swing. This is a guy who has said his “mind goes blank” when he’s standing over his driver. Same goes with Koepka’s iron play: he keeps it blessedly simple.  

“It’s never really swing mechanics,” he said Sunday. “It’s always setup. So I got lined up a little right and usually when I do that, believe it or not, I tend to pull it knowing that the target is left.”

Instruction

Koepka said that through the first three rounds he also struggled to get the ball to the hole on the slowish Royal St. George’s greens — a mistake he was committed to not repeating on Sunday. “I told myself no matter what I was going to get it to the hole,” he said. “Didn’t care if I three-putted, but the ball was going to get to the hole.”

Align your feet at your target and get your putts to the hole: two sensible tips golfers of all abilities can and should apply.

As for the Open vibe last week, Koepka was all about it, especially the fans.   

“I’ve always said that it’s the one tournament a year where the fans actually know what a good shot is,” he said. “You could be 200 yards out and hit it 30 feet and they know there is a slope there you can’t miss it. Let’s say it’s left and you got to hit it 30 feet to the right and they know that’s where you’re aiming — they understand a good golf shot and they understand a good round.”

Like, say, a 65 to cap yet another major top-10.

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Check in every week for the unfiltered opinions of our writers and editors as they break down the hottest topics in the sport, and join the conversation by tweeting us @golf_com. This week, we discuss Collin Morikawa’s victory at the Open Championship, Royal St. George’s, Bryson DeChambeau and more.

1. Collin Morikawa, at just 24 years old, won the 2021 Open Championship to claim his second major title in eight career major starts. Morikawa outplayed Louis Oosthuizen and then held off Jordan Spieth to lift the Claret Jug. What most sticks out about Morikawa’s victory?

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Jessica Marksbury, multimedia editor (@jess_marksbury): His poise. He just didn’t miss a shot. Stayed even-keel. So impressive. I was among those who thought Louis’ extensive final-round-of-a-major experience would bring home the trophy today, but it was Morikawa’s talent and composure that ultimately prevailed. 

Sean Zak, senior editor (@sean_zak): That putter never wavered. I think we’ll come to learn a lot about his abilities the more years go by, but his bugaboo to this point was a balky putter. But you wouldn’t have known it watching Sunday. Or the rest of this week for that matter. He’s fully capable of playing that clinical, maddeningly boring golf that peak Tiger did so often. Simply better than you, do something about it.

Zephyr Melton, assistant editor (@zephyrmelton): He never made a mistake. Each time he hit a wayward shot, he immediately got back into position, finishing without a bogey for the last 31 holes. Just an impressive display from a player in total control of his game.

Alan Bastable, executive editor (@alan_bastable): His bludgeoning the course to death with one beautifully controlled iron after another iron is the obvious answer, but I also was struck by Morikawa’s Obama-like cool in victory — or, more to the point, after victory. What 24-year-old dedicates the first 20 seconds of his victory speech to the low amateur — complete with a pep talk?! That was such a cool moment. He was like Federer up there after his eighth Wimbledon win, not his first.

Josh Sens, senior writer (@joshsens): There’s supposed to be a steep learning curve in championship links golf. Talk about a quick study. I wouldn’t go so far as to say he didn’t make any mistakes. But he didn’t compound any of his mistakes. Great recoveries. No three-putts. The kind of patience of a guy twice his age with the un-scarred nerves of the youngster whom he is.

James Colgan, assistant editor (@jamescolgan26): How boring it was. Not in a bad way. Morikawa just had it in a vice grip from the second he took the lead. Speaking as a 24-year-old, it’s impressive someone my age could do anything that well.

Dylan Dethier, Senior Writer (@dylan_dethier): When he has a lead, this guy can just strangle the field because he can play “conservative” golf so well. It helped me understand Tiger Woods’ dominance better, strangely.

2. Morikawa entered this week ranked 172nd in Strokes Gained: Putting, yet was great on the greens all week and didn’t three-putt once. We know he’s a brilliant ball-striker and that his putting has been his weakness, so was this week the new norm or an outlier? What kind of Morikawa should we expect to see in future majors?

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Marksbury: This week seemed like an outlier in several ways — the hot, sunny weather, lack of wind, slow greens. Maybe that all contributed. But even we recreational players have days or even multiple rounds where putting just seems natural. Could have been one of those weeks for Morikawa, too.

Zak: Definitely the outlier, but Tour players play for outlier weeks. Weeks where it all clicks. They try to make sure their tee-to-green game is airtight so that the flatstick can get hot and carry them. That’s kind of how winning is most often done on that level.

Melton: One week does not make for a trend. It was definitely a great week with the flatstick, but I still think it will be his weakness heading forward. 

Bastable: The new norm? Looked like the old norm to me. Nothing we’ve seen from Morikawa since he burst on to the pro scene two years ago suggested he wasn’t capable of this kind of week. Guess the next big question to address is can he win a U.S. Open and green jacket wielding two putting strokes?

Sens: Golf is fickle. Putting might be the most fickle part of it of all. We’ll see much more of this from Morikawa. In every major? No. But often.

Colgan: He’s either set to become the best two-grip putter of our generation, or he’s in the process of becoming the guy he eventually wants to be. My bet is on the latter.

Dethier: Slow greens change things, and these were slow greens. Also, Morikawa’s caddie suggested a putter grip tweak at the beginning of the week — standard, rather than “saw grip,” on longer putts. Good call!

3. Bryson DeChambeau created a lot of tournament chatter when he criticized his driver after his first-round performance (he later apologized) and shot 65 on Sunday for the lowest major round of his career. Between this and a feud with Brooks Koepka, among other things, how much do you suspect off-course distractions or noise impact DeChambeau’s play?

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Zak: Bryson definitely concerns himself with the noise, and you can’t blame him. There’s a lot of it. And certainly some of it is self-created. I think he might be learning a bit, too, that his pursuit of perfection through distance is just running into some barriers. Some of that is architecture-based. Some of it is luck. Some of it is inexplicable. Does he push through? Probably. Could he get wrapped up in the wrong thing, perhaps? Totally! It’s tricky. 

Marksbury: It’s hard to imagine it not affecting him at this point. I like Bryson, and I think it’s clear that it’s important to him to be liked. I’m not a fan of all the negativity involved in this feud with Brooks, manufactured or not. It might be in Bryson’s best interest to take an extended break from everything for a much-needed reset. But, with the Olympics and FedEx Cup and Ryder Cup looming, it doesn’t look like that will happen for a while yet. 

Melton: I’m sure it had some sort of effect on his play this week, but part of being a great athlete is blocking out the noise. As Jess said above, maybe it’s time for Bryson to step back and reset. Everyone needs a break once in a while. 

Bastable: If you take Bryson at his word, the Brooks stuff doesn’t bother him at tournaments — he says he loves the banter from the galleries. Radspeedgate this week surely was a bigger distraction, and I think that came across in his apology. I genuinely don’t believe DeChambeau was trying to railroad Cobra. I think he just got caught up in his own frustrations, as he’s wont to do, and lost the plot. Presumably he had some bridge-mending to tend to with the Cobra folks, and it likely rattled him for a day or two.

Sens: It couldn’t have helped him. But that wasn’t all he had working against him this week. Bryson had also missed the cut in two of four previous Open appearances. And Royal St. George’s was not exactly suited to a bomb-and-gouge approach. Epic length was not a clear advantage. As much as anything, Bryson might just need more time to crack the links golf code.

Colgan: The distractions do affect his game, no doubt. But I’m also of the opinion that the Open will be the hardest of the four majors for Bryson to contend at. His game isn’t quite built for this style of play, and his ability might not be so overpowering as to supersede those limitations.

Dethier: One line stuck with me from DeChambeau this week: “I continue to keep making mistakes, unfortunately.” I think this has all had a huge effect on his play and mindset, and I think he must be exhausted, ready for a break and re-evaluating a whole bunch of things in his personal and professional life. That’s hard work, too.

4. Brooks Koepka was blunt when accessing Royal St. George’s early in the week, saying “quite a few blind tee shots, kind of hitting to nothing. Fairways are quite undulating. I don’t know, it’s not my favorite of the rotation, put it that way.” Your thoughts on Royal St. George’s as a major venue?

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Zak: It’s fine by me. Keyword: fine. Average links golf weather would have made for worse scoring conditions. I really enjoyed the long par-3s. Great variance on those. Offset by the short 16th. But is it England’s finest? No. And that’s OK. Remember, we just visited Torrey Pines.  

Marksbury: I agree, Sean. It was fine. The fact that it didn’t feel particularly linksy or Open Championship-y with this year’s perfect weather maybe worked against it. But it’s not my favorite of the rotation, either.

Melton: Thirded. I’m fairly indifferent about Royal St. George’s. I’m just glad it identified a truly great champion.

Bastable: Not linksy, Jess?! The rumpled fairways, sandy turf and salty ocean breezes would like a word! I will say, I would have liked to see the greens browner and firmer. Perhaps, with many of the holes cut on knobs and other tricky spots, that wasn’t feasible, but it was a bummer seeing guys spin back balls instead of being forced to let them release to the hole. I think what hurts RSG is that it lacks the visual drama of, say, Portrush or Turnberry, or the hard-against-the-town charm of St. Andrews. But it’s still a fine test.  

Sens: It’s way more than fine. It’s a great test. The crowned fairways can be maddening for some, especially when you can’t see shots land. But how many grotesquely unfair bounces did you see? Was there a wildly unlikely winner as a result? Brooks gives reliably good press conferences, but he’s not immune to contradictions. The irony of him dissing St. George’s for blind shots and then praising the Old Course in the same breath is that the Old Course has plenty of blind shots for the pros, among many other charms. More unruly weather would have made things more fun this week. But that was obviously no fault of the course.

Colgan: Time and time again, we’ve learned that the most important factor in the toothiness of a major setup is the weather. Royal St. George’s is surely a phenomenal golf course and worthy Open test. It wasn’t quite that this week, but that can be owed almost entirely to the sunshine.

Dethier: Oh, I loved the entire thing, my favorite part being the family watching from a little shed beside the 4th hole. (The Open doesn’t officially start until you see a local in his or her backyard, drinking a cup of coffee). But I would like disaster lurking slightly closer, and we didn’t see much disaster at all. Still, better than “fine.”

5. What was the biggest surprise of the week?

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Zak: That complaining about the travel restrictions ceased so quickly. I thought that storyline would dominate early in the week and even as 32,000 fans showed up. But that’s the power of the Open. All pros appreciate these lovely European fans. They understand the game better, and it doesn’t take long to notice.

Marksbury: Morikawa’s win is a huge surprise for me! I didn’t “pick” him specifically because I thought, well, he has no Open experience. It’s a different game overseas. Kind of like going to Augusta for the first time. But boy, did he prove me wrong.

Melton: The weather! Has there ever been an Open Championship with such docile conditions? I’ve seen more blustery conditions during the Florida swing.

Bastable: We’ve learned not to expect things out of Phil Mickelson when we’re expecting things out of Phil Mickelson, but I still thought he’d find a way into the conversation in Sandwich. Instead, he packed his bags after an unseemly 12-over performance. Didn’t see that coming. 

Colgan: Other than Guido Migliozzi’s MC? Probably the third consecutive major championship top-three finish for Louis Oosthuizen. Three legs of a grand slam would be enough to send the golf world into a tizzy. Three legs of a top-three slam? Slightly less impressive, and significantly less regarded.

Dethier: Rory McIlroy’s continued malaise. Maybe it didn’t surprise you non-believers, but I truly thought this was a week well-suited for a free-wheeling McIlroy win. He’s just not sharp enough right now to keep up with the game’s most precise players, and I hope he gets closer soon.

6. Morikawa replaced Shane Lowry as Champion Golfer of the Year, an honor Lowry held for two years since last year’s Open was canceled. What did you miss most about the Open?

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Zak: Dirt explosions popping up off the turf-like firecrackers. You don’t see that in America. But on the British Isles, approaches from the firm fairways have little dirt explosions. I love that.

Marksbury: The thing I’m still missing: crazy wind! A bit of rain! And some linksy carnage.

Melton: The creativity that links golf promotes. There’s nothing better than courses that accommodate all types of shots

Bastable: Ending my workday at 6 p.m. ET. 

Sens: Koepka’s Saturday stumble was a surprise. He was right in the hunt. It’s not like him to falter when he smells blood in a major.

Colgan: I missed the fans, who unanimously appear to be regarded as the best in the sport. As a night owl, I will decidedly not miss the early morning wakeups.

Dethier: Everything.

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The post Collin Morikawa pairs precision with poise to win 149th Open Championship appeared first on Golf.

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How was your Sunday? Maybe you were one of the 30,000 there, at Royal St. George’s. (Lucky you.) More likely, and like us, RSG came to you through TV magic. Coastal England, funny-bounce golf, for evil and for good. The breeze down, the sun out. Greens as slow as your shower mat. Ye olde jug, etched with all those famous names, waiting for someone to come on home. Blokes you could root for, up and down the yellow board.

How you like me now?

Yes, a win at the Masters gets you in the club forever, and that’s neat. Yes, the U.S. Open, at least by tradition, is the most demanding of the golf’s Grand Slam events. But the British Open, the Open Championship — The Open! — percolates grandeur. No matter the weather, the venue, the leaderboard.

Jordo.

Kid Collin.

King Louie.

Jordan Spieth was in the penultimate twosome. After the missed shorty at the end of his Saturday, a l-o-n-g wait, to “on the tee, from the U.S.A.” and his 2:25 p.m. start. Then the final twosome 10 minutes later: Collin Morikawa, two shots ahead of Spieth, and Louis Oosthuizen, your 54-hole leader, a shot ahead of Morikawa.

Oosthuizen, the Sunday morning leader last month at the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, was looking for his first major-tour win since his seven-shot victory at the 2010 Open at St. Andrews. Yes, no matter how many times you say it, it doesn’t seem possible.

Morikawa won last year’s PGA Championship at Harding Park, his first Grand Slam win. He’s 24. And if he could win a second major at that age? He’d be in another conversation — he’d be living life, at least his public, professional life, at another level.

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As for Spieth — we know you were rooting for him. His root-for-me numbers are off-the-charts. Four long years ago, he was on the mountaintop. Sunday, July 23, 2017: the memorable day when he won the Open from Royal Birkdale’s dunes. It was his third Grand Slam title, along with a Masters and a U.S. Open. And then he slid on down, talking all the while. The champ became the underdog.

But that’s not why we were pulling for him on Sunday. You were rooting for him as you might have rooted for Phil Mickelson or Arnold Palmer, because he, like them, looks like he has no real plan. And we can relate. Most of us have no idea what we’re doing.

OK, on the basis of those bio blurbs, the winner all-along had to be —

Before we get there, one necessary observation from the BarcaLounger:

Tiger, in his prime, would have won this 149th Open by a field goal, if not more. Nicklaus, in his, would have won by one — because he had to contend with Tom Watson and Lee Trevino and others who knew how to hit some club in play off the tee, how to hit an iron hole high, how to hit a lag putt firmly enough to get it to the hole. 

That formula sponsored by LinksGolf, your source for this-is-how-we-do-it golf since 1860 (Willie Park over Old Tom by two).

Yes, easy to recite the recipe from the easy chair. As Padraig Harrington, two-time winner of this great event, says, “We’d all be much better players if we were able to talk about our golf rather than play it.” Chat’s cheap. A bunker shot over a wall of laminated slabs of sod takes talent, practice, effort, athleticism, trust, mechanics, intelligence. Sounds like a certain 2019 Cal grad, doesn’t it?

Still, this really should have been a Sunday owned by Oosthuizen, with his classic fairways-and-greens swing. At the end of the day, though, that’s not enough. At a major, you have to get your thinking game around both the mechanical problems golf presents, from start to finish, and the mental ones, too. Nicklaus and Woods owned both categories. And by half-seven Sunday night, British Summer Time, Collin Morikawa showed that he has those qualities, too.

He was playing in his first Open. He said upon arrival, in a Golf Channel interview and not in any way bragging, that he was there to win. Spieth came home in 32, and put heat on Morikawa all through the back nine. Morikawa hit it on the face, with every club, from his best club (driver) to his least good (putter). He didn’t need to do anything exceptional, so he didn’t. Paging Tiger.

It’s hard not to page Tiger, right here, right now. Morikawa has played in eight majors and has won two of them. Next month, he’ll play in the Olympics, in Japan, the country of his ancestors, representing the United States, the country of his birth. In September, he’ll represent the United States at the Ryder Cup. He’s doing the thing he wants to do. He’s playing professional golf. He’ll seek to get better and maybe he will. But he’s not going to reinvent the wheel to do it. He’s too smart for that.

The victory remarks, as the Champion Golfer of the year, like Willie Park and Ben Hogan and Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods before him, were a study in maturity. The nods to the spectators. To Matthias Schmid of Germany, the tournament’s low amateur. To the R&A staff, and the RSG staff. To his birthday-boy caddie, to his fellow pros, to his parents and brother and girlfriend. He’s 24. You almost can’t believe it. Jordan Spieth is 27 and you can.

Some of you will remember Tiger in his 20s. This guy is something like Tiger and nothing like Tiger. Morikawa is a smart, collected, athletic son of California. He’s not as strong as Tiger. He doesn’t have Tiger’s putting game. (Nobody, really, ever has.) He doesn’t seem to have Tiger’s smoldering intensity, or Tiger’s OCD tendencies for playing golf and practicing golf. He speaks of his internal life with an ease Tiger never could.

But he doesn’t live his life under a microscope. He and Spieth were picked up on a hot mic at the Players, talking the way kids do, and the moment came and went. Nothing Tiger ever does goes away. As Morikawa said at the trophy presentation, “I feel the love.” It seemed so simple, the way he said it, what he meant by it. What a gift that is, that feeling. He’s not playing golf looking for it. He’s playing golf because he loves it. It’s so obvious. He’s quiet, cool — a calm kid. But you were watching, wherever you were. You saw it. His inner-life was pulsating.

Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com.

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Most golf-course designers like to ease you into a round.

Not Laidlaw Purves, a Scottish-born aural and ophthalmic surgeon who in 1887 conjured the design for what would later become Royal St. George’s. Some of Purves’ routing has evolved, but not the shin-kicking tee shot on the 442-yard par-4 1st, which all these years later — including at the Open Championship this week — still gives players fits.     

Travel

On Friday, the field found the rumpled ribbon of a fairway — which works left-to-right and pitches left-to-right, often into a left-to-right wind — only 35% of the time. Thus far on Saturday, that number is hovering closer to 30%. For context, the field this week has been hitting about 60% of the fairways overall. Contributing to the difficulty of the shot at 1 is the fact that players can’t see much of the fairway from the tee. You have to trust your target, and really trust your swing.

Tee ball after tee ball has either caught the right side of the fairway and bounded into the rough, or flown directly into the tangly stuff. When playing partners Jon Rahm and Cameron Tringale both managed to find the fairway, Golf Channel broadcasters Terry Gannon and Justin Leonard could hardly believe it.   

‘Have we seen this?!’ Gannon said.

“Two balls in the fairway at 1?” Leonard said. “No.”

The hole has a notorious history in the Open. Tiger Woods lost his tee shot here in 2003 — it was believed to be the first time Woods lost a ball in competition — and made a 7. A decade earlier, Jerry Kelly carded a cool septuple-bogey 11. Here’s how Dave Anderson of the New York Times described that episode:

His adventure evolved after his tee shot hooked into the left rough. With a lob wedge, he moved the ball about 15 feet, then he wedged across the fairway into the right rough. After four hacks moved the ball only a few feet each time, he took an unplayable lie.

”I made a mistake off the tee and we hadn’t felt that wet grass this week,” Kelly said. ”I’ve hit shots out of that grass all week and they’ve come out fine. I just hit six of ’em that didn’t come out.”

On Saturday, all those missed fairways have been taking a toll on the field. The 1st is playing a quarter stroke over par, making it the third-toughest hole of the day.

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If watching this year’s Open Championship has you salivating at the idea of playing Royal St. George’s, well you’re in luck! In the U.K., it’s far less common for courses to be completely shut away from public play, and as such you can walk in the footsteps of the game’s greatest golfers.

Royal St. George’s has served as Open host 15 times now dating back to 1894. The course may look largely the same, but the greens fees have swollen somewhat.

Royal St. George’s Greens Fees

The course welcomes visitors, who are charged between 160 GBP and 250 GBP (approximately $220-$345) per person for 18 holes, depending on the time of year.

Through October 2021, fees are listed at 250 GBP, while in the winter they drop to 160 GBP.

Visitors were also welcomed to play the course in the lead-up to the 2021 Open, but did so largely in a “play off mats” policy to protect the sanctity of the turf. In the lead-up to the Open, visitor play was also limited to 18-hole bookings.

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Rules for Royal St. George’s Visitors

One particularly intriguing regulation: for a golfer to play Royal St. George, that golfer must show proof of an 18.4 handicap or below.

Royal St. George’s website also provides others rules for visitors, which covers things like golfing attire, use of mobile phones and more.

When can you play Royal St. George’s?

The course also offers a visitor timetable, which lays out when outside play is allowed. Visitor two-balls are allowed on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. onwards. Tuesdays are more open, with visitor play allowed in three- and four-balls available from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. or from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Weekends are typically reserved for members and their guests. Visitors are recommended and in some cases required to take a caddie.

For more information on Royal St. George’s rates, click here, and to look into booking your own tee time, click here.

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If you are tuning into the 2021 Open Championship at Royal St. George’s and wishing you can check out the course yourself, you are in luck. You can.

Royal St. George’s, located in Sandwich, Kent, England — about 80 miles east of London — is a private club but allows public play during certain times and days of the week, albeit with one stipulation. Handicap verification is required upon check in, and all players must own a handicap index of 18.4 or less. So if you have that taken care of, you are good to go.

According to Royal St. George’s website, 18-hole rates from March to October of this year are £250 (or $347), and from November 2021 to February 2022 it’s £160 (or $222). Those who have played the course in the months before the 2021 Open Championship have also received a slightly reduced greens fee, since they had been hitting off mats in preparation for The Open.

Royal St. George’s has a rich history. Founded in 1887, it has hosted 14 Open Championships, with the 2021 edition to be the club’s 15th. The first was in 1894, won by J.H. Taylor, and the most recent up until this year was in 2011, when Darren Clarke won. Harry Vardon, Walter Hagen, Sandy Lyle and Greg Norman have all won Open Championships at Royal St. George’s.

For more information on Royal St. George’s rates, click here, and to look into booking your own tee time, click here.

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At their core, the major championships are a breeding ground for golf’s greatest characters. With so much history tied into the outcome of golf’s four elusive championships, it’s easy to understand why it seems the finest characters have a habit of appearing when the lights shine brightest.

On Wednesday at the Open, a new major championship hero was birthed. His name is Paul Larsen.

Larsen is head greenskeeper at this year’s Open Championship host, the famed Royal St. George’s. He is also owner of one of golf’s most aspirational looks, as he proved in an interview spot on Golf Channel during Wednesday’s practice round. The greenskeeper rolled into his interview rocking blackout sunglasses, long, dark hair and the energy of a man who’s spent far too much time obsessing over grass types, and social media loved it.

Larsen’s social media accounts say he has been head greenskeeper at Royal St. George’s since 2010, meaning he was in charge when the Open last made its way to Sandwich, Kent in 2011.

It’s possible, and perhaps even likely, that Larsen was around to enjoy his Twitter star explode this morning. He is an active user of the platform, sharing videos and photos from his work on the course ahead of the final major of the 2021 golf season.

In a video interview with Golf Digest, Larsen broke down the process of preparing for a major championship and explained his role in bringing the course into peak conditions.

“It started seven years ago really,” he said. “Since 2018 leading into 2019 and even 2020, we’ve been working so hard trying to get the fescue grass coverage back. The one question that always comes back to me is that we want to see the rough thick, we want to see it tough. So really, the secret will be you’ve got to keep it straight. If it all comes down to the weather, and you think it’s going to be quite windy, we’ll guard against getting the greens too fast.”

From his perspective, there are a few elements of the golf course to keep in mind as you tune into this action at Royal St. George’s later this week.

“The tees are to die for. Pure fescue, so I love them. The greens are very good, we’ve got a combination of fescue and [bentgrass], though probably a bit more bent than I’d like,” he said. “The fairways, when I think how they were in 2018 to how they are now, it’s amazing, it’s mind blowing. And then the semi-rough is fantastic. I’m very proud of the guys, we did it the old-fashioned ways of hand-dressing and seeding. So really, I need to buy them a glass of champagne to say thank you.”

It’s still too soon to tell how the best players in the world will fare against Paul Larsen’s masterpiece in the Open Championship at Royal St. George’s, but this much is clear: at least one hero has emerged from the men’s final major of the year.

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The post 9 golf courses that star in popular films, from ‘Tin Cup’ to ‘Happy Gilmore’ appeared first on Golf.

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His name was Bond, James Bond, and the match he played in Goldfinger against the titular villain ranks among the most famous golf scenes in movie history. Though the scene was shot at an English club called Stoke Park, historians of golf (and cinema) agree that the inspiration for the course we see in the film was Royal St. George’s, where author and Bond creator Ian Fleming was a member. With a nod to the 149th Open Championship at Royal St. George’s this week, here are 9 golf courses that have enjoyed cameos on the silver screen.

1. Cypress Point in My Favorite Brunette

In this 1943 film noir parody, all zaniness breaks out when Bob Hope pegs it with a man who plays golf with an imaginary ball. Turns out the guy is mentally ill. The scenery is insane, too, as the sporting action takes place on the seaside par-3 15th hole at Cypress Point.

2. Rolling Hills Golf Club in Caddyshack

Cinderella story. Outta nowhere. In 1979, little-known Rolling Hills Golf Club took a star turn when Billy Murray and Co. descended on the Florida course for 11 madcap weeks of filming. That, anyway, was the venue’s name back then. Today, the course is known as Grande Oaks Golf Club.

3. Kingwood Country Club in Tin Cup

Though Roy McAvoy didn’t seem too bothered by all those water balls, he might be bummed to learn that the hole he played as the par-5 closer in the movie was a par-4 in real life. As in, the par-4 4th hole on the Deerwood Course, one of five tracks at Kingwood Country Club, in Houston.

4. Ocean Course at Kiawah in The Legend of Bagger Vance

If The Legend of Bagger Vance isn’t Phil Mickelson’s favorite movie, it should at least be in his queue. The film about a mystical caddie was shot in part at the site of Mickelson’s near-mythic PGA Championship win.

5. Kanawaki Country Club in The Greatest Game Ever Played

An unwritten rule at The Country Club is that members’ names should only appear in the newspaper when they die. Appearances in movies aren’t encouraged, either. No surprise, then, that for the cinematic adaptation of Francis Ouimet’s historic U.S. Open win, the hush-hush Brookline club itself had a stunt double. Kanawaki CC, in Montreal, did the stand-in duties.

6. Pitt Meadows Golf Club in Happy Gilmore

Happy Gilmore is a film about an ex-hockey player who takes up golf. Pitt Meadows is a golf course in hockey-obsessed Canada (just east of Vancouver). Seems fitting, eh?

7. Bandon Dunes in Golf in the Kingdom

The movie version of Michael Murphy’s best-seller didn’t enjoy much critical acclaim. The same cannot be said of Bandon Dunes, where the film was shot.

8. Kawaguchiko Country Club in Lost in Translation

No movie magic was required to place Mt. Fuji in the backdrop in the scene where Bill Murray’s character ambles to the tee and strikes a drive in a hypnotically beautiful setting. The fleeting moment was filmed at Kawaghuchiko Golf Club, outside Tokyo, which sits in the shadow of the iconic peak.

9. Riviera Country Club in Pat and Mike

With Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy in leading roles, this 1952 romantic comedy packed plenty of star power. Same goes for the celebrated L.A. course where parts of it were shot.

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Ben Curtis, at the 2003 Open Championship, rolled in an 8-foot par putt on 18, waited to see if his final-round lead would stand and, when it did, was greeted by fans’ cheers and players’ congratulations. It was his first-ever top 10, let alone win, let alone major championship win. 

A handful of yards away from it all, a 13-year-old boy slept.   

“We got the opportunity — I must have been — I don’t know what I was in, fifth, sixth grade, something like that — just to come over here and play St. Andrews, Carnoustie, come watch I think the final round of the Open,” Brooks Koepka said. “Me, my mom and my little brother, we came over, I think, a couple days early from when the whole thing was going to start and just got to play links golf. I thought it was so much fun. That’s kind of when I fell in love with it.

“It was cool getting to — I remember my brother at the time, he thought it was so cool. Tiger was playing on 13 and my brother had said something and Tiger said something back to him, and we thought it was the coolest thing at the time.

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“It’s kind of funny, I think with about three holes left, I remember Thomas [Bjorn] took a few out of the bunker, and I think Ben was maybe a group or two behind him, but I ended up falling asleep right in the little pavilion to the right of 18 and didn’t even see the finish.

“I remember getting yelled at by my mom. ‘I didn’t bring you over here to fall asleep’ kind of deal.”

Eighteen years later, Koepka’s eyes haven’t opened much. 

Royal St. George’s was the host in 2003. It’s the host this year, with the tournament beginning Thursday. Maybe it wasn’t Ben Curtis that put Koepka to sleep. 

The course in Sandwich, England, Koepka said, is “not my favorite of the rotation, put it that way.”

“Like I said, playing St. Andrews is probably my favourite place in the entire world to play,” said Koepka, who added that he played just the front nine before Tuesday’s press conference. “Portrush two years ago was — I don’t know, I love that place. I thought that was just such a good Open. A fun golf course to play. Really enjoyed that.

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“This one, it’s just not as exciting. I don’t know why. Whether it be a couple shots to nothing, a couple blind — I don’t want to say — a couple blind tee shots or shots in where you can’t really see much. I’m not too big of a fan of that.”

Still, while Koepka may hate the player, he doesn’t hate the game. He “loves” links-style golf. “I think it takes a lot of creativity and imagination,” he said. “In the States a lot of times, you just throw it up high in the air and the ball is going to stop, where you’ve really got to pay attention where the ball is going to bounce into the green. You might have 50 yards, but you’ve got about six clubs you could play. I think that’s fun.”

And, put the Masters, the PGA Championship, the U.S. Open and the Open Championship on Mars, and the four-time major champion will put on a Nike space suit and, at worst, top-10. 

“Yeah, it doesn’t matter,” Koepka said when asked if his opinion of Royal St. George’s will affect his outcome. 

“I’ve won on golf courses that I’m not a big fan of before. It has nothing to do with it. Still got to get up and go hit the shot and do what I’m supposed to do, so that doesn’t bug me. I don’t care whether I like the place, don’t like it. You’ve still got to play good and go hit the shots.”

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The post A different kind of Open will unfold this week, but take heart — it’s still The Open appeared first on Golf.

This hurts, filing this little stick of words from our Philadelphia bureau and not from a seaside tent. The first British Open I ever attended, in 1985, was at Royal St. George’s, and this week it’s there again. That’s the lede, buried or otherwise, in any of a hundred stories you might read this week: the British Open is being played. It’ll be a little different, but they’re going to play this thing.

Unfortunately, without Tiger. He’s not been out and about since his February car crash. Also, no Bubba, who withdrew after being exposed to Covid-19, or Zach Johnson, the 2015 winner at the Old Course, who tested positive for the virus. No Ben Curtis, either. The 2003 winner at RSG hasn’t played in an Open since 2016. No Matthew Wolff on the tee sheet. He didn’t cite a reason but he did speak openly about his mental-health issues at last month’s U.S. Open, his return to Grand Slam golf after missing the PGA.

Still: Come Sunday night, somebody will lift the old jug. Somebody will be anointed as the Champion Golfer of the Year. Somebody will win this 149th British Open.

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Save your virtual ink, folks. I hear you, I hear you: It’s the Open Championship, it’s the Open Championship, it’s the Open Championship.

OK, it’s the Open Championship. In truth, across the British Isles, it’s not even that. It’s just The Open, period. The world’s oldest golf championship. And, it says here, the grandest. But here, Stateside, the British Open is totally appropriate upon first reference, and then, simply, the Open after that.

Our Open was won, handsomely, last month, by an Arizonan by way of Spain: Mr. Jon Rahm. Arnold won the Open in 1960. He won two British Opens, and put the event back on the map for millions of Americans. Ben Hogan played in one British Open — and won. (In 1953, at Carnoustie.) Sam Snead played in only four Opens, wining in his first appearance, in 1946, at St. Andrews. Famously, he played in 31 U.S. Opens with 12 top-10s and no wins. Phil kind of knows what that’s all about.

Did you watch the men’s tennis on Sunday, from Wimbledon? Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal each have a record 20 Grand Slam singles titles — and now Novak Djokovic does, too. Djokovic has won the Australian Open nine times, the French Open twice, Wimbledon six times and the U.S. Open three times. Twenty. Big Jack has 18 wins in golf’s four Grand Slam events, the Masters, the PGA, the U.S. Open, the British Open. Our Grand Slam. It’s a term of bridge. Tiger has 15. He and Nicklaus each have three career Grand Slams. Neither has the single-year Grand Slam. Tiger has something every bit as astounding, just not as tidy: the Tiger Slam: the U.S. Open, the British Open and the PGA of 2000, followed by the Masters in April 2001. “Call it what you want,” Tiger used to say. “I got the four trophies on my mantle.”

Everybody knew which four. The four modern Grand Slam events, dominated by the best golfers in the world, virtually all of them professionals, touring and trained.

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So here it is, glory’s last chance, to borrow a phrase straight outta Palm Beach Gardens. Our fourth Grand Slam event of 2021. Last year, with an asterisk on the whole thing because of this damn pandemic, only three Grand Slam events were played, each out of its normal calendar slot. This year’s has been better. Next year will be better yet.

We often speak of majors. Rory has four majors. Jordan’s won three majors. Jon Rahm got his first major at Torrey. 

Well, ink is practically free these days, here in cyberland. With all due respect to various major golf events — to the Players, to Tiger’s tournament (L.A.), to Jack’s (Memorial), to Arnold’s (Bay Hill), to the British Masters, to the Australian Open, to the Omega Dubai Desert Classic — golf has four majors, four Grand Slam events.

The Ryder Cup is a major golf event. So is the U.S. Amateur. But only four events comprise the Grand Slam. (I’m going to be typing those nine letters a lot more often, from here on out.) And here comes the last of them: the British Open. You know, The Open. Start the coffee, find the remote, put on a jumper, just to get in the mood. It’s going to be cool.

Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com

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