The 150th British Open began to play on the Old Course in St. Andrews on Thursday. Despite the ongoing fallout from the breakaway LIV Golf series, organizers wanted to keep the focus on a historic championship.
The R&A decided against banning the rebels, in contrast to the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour, and some players who joined the Saudi-backed tour are competing in this week’s Open.
Several LIV series competitors are in St. Andrews, including Sergio Garcia, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, and former Open champion Phil Mickelson. A victory for one of them this weekend may not do much to calm the sport’s tensions.
Martin Slumbers, the R&A’s chief executive, insisted that whoever triumphs on Sunday “will have their name carved in history, and I’ll welcome them onto the 18th green.”
“This event is a golf match. The Open needs to feature the best players in the world, so on Sunday night, I’m interested in seeing who shoots the lowest score.”
However, Slumbers also criticized the Saudi-backed series, which provides prize money of $25 million for each 54-hole competition, as opposed to a $14 million prize pool for this week’s Open.
“The LIV model is not in the best long-term interests of the sport as a whole and is entirely driven by money,” he claimed.
The merit-based culture and spirit of open competition that makes golf unique are undercut, he continued.
Rory McIlroy is among the players who have voiced opposition to the new series and the Northern Irishman would prefer not to see one of the rebels triumphs in St Andrews.
In his defense, he admitted, “I believe it would be better for the game.”
There is a long list of competitors hoping to succeed Collin Morikawa, who won at Royal St. George’s last year, whether they are connected to the new series or not.
Although US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick of England may disagree, McIlroy, who won 2014 Open at Hoylake, currently holds the top spot among the European candidates after finishing second at the Masters and fifth at the US Open this season.
Scottie Scheffler, the Masters champion and current world number one, is at the top of a long list of American competitors, but he claims to feel no additional pressure because of his position.
“Being the home of golf and the Open Championship amplifies things a bit, but that’s across the board,” the 26-year-old said on Wednesday.
“I think it doesn’t matter if I’m ranked number one in the world or number 50 in the world; I want to win this tournament as badly as or more than anyone else,”
With Tyrrell Hatton and Joaquin Niemann, Scheffler takes the first shot of the round.
The Olympic champion who won the Scottish Open last week, Xander Schauffele, plays alongside Morikawa and McIlroy.
The Open is anticipating record attendance for the week of 290,000, so the first championship following the lifting of pandemic-related restrictions will have a packed house.
For the first time since Zach Johnson’s victory here in 2015, when bad weather forced the finish to be moved to the following Monday, the course is hosting the championship for the 30th time.
Even though winds have picked up over the last two days and rain seemed to appear out of nowhere on Wednesday, there seems little chance that the weather will cause such havoc this time.
With Branden Grace’s 62 at Birkdale in 2017 holding the record for the best round at a major, stiff breezes may put an end to any hopes of a record low score being set.
“This golf course has withstood the test of time despite technological advancements. It’s still extremely challenging, and, weather-dependent “Tiger Woods, a two-time winner of the Open at St. Andrews, said.
The 46-year-old, who has been recuperating from serious leg injuries sustained in a car accident last year and missed the US Open, tees off with Fitzpatrick and Max Homa at 2:59 p.m. (1359 GMT).
Paul Lawrie of Scotland, who won the Open at Carnoustie in 1999, had the honor of hitting the opening tee shot of the competition in the calm but cool conditions at
