McIlroy and Spieth join Shane Lowry, Graeme McDowell, Jason Day, Dustin Johnson, Hideki Matsuyama, Marc Leishman, Adam Scott, Branden Grace, Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel and Fiji’s Vijay Singh in not travelling to Brazil to participate. If we’re lucky, it might be all four of them.
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“You’ve got to be on your game the whole day”.
Australian Day won the Players Championship for his 10th PGA Tour tournament win back in May and of course was victorious at the US PGA Championship previous year – his maiden Major title. Twelve months on and he seems like a passing fad.
“I didn’t get into golf to try and grow the game – I got into golf to win championships and win major championships”. Ahead of the 145th Open Championship, Stenson has the boost of a recent win at the BMW International Open in Germany which he followed with T13 in last week’s Scottish Open despite opening with a 76. In his British Open debut past year, he finished 30. “I’m just glad as a local and nearly a host that the course is great, everything’s set up in a very, very five-, six-star manner, and I’m very proud of it”. Not the three-putt from 12 feet that cost him a shot at the U.S. Open a year ago.
Another zinger from a player who has no intention of fading away.
A long stone’s throw from his childhood home, he quickly graduated to the municipal and Portland courses at the club where his father, James, was the secretary for more than 20 years and will soon become president. Spieth has been in Scotland since last Saturday and thorough preparation is often the difference between success and failure, especially in links golf.
That was rarely a problem for Nick Faldo, though he was an emotional wreck when he won his third Open title at Muirfield in 1992.
Average score for the hole the last time the Open came to Troon in 2004.
Nine months later, Willett was patiently creeping up on Jordan Spieth in the final round of the Masters.
Another solid performance could see him finally land a Major but it will most likely require more than the arduous consistency he continuously brings.
Another question: Has the attention as a major champion been hard to manage? Earl Woods died a month later. But the former world number one has cut down his schedule and been in pretty decent form of late.
“They had just done a trial run of the scoreboard, and my name was up there with maybe Darren Clarke”.
Lee Westwood practices his putting at Royal Troon Golf Course on Monday. In addition, three of the last five champions were over 40, while Johnson was 39.
Then, at this year’s U.S. Open, it was Johnson’s turn to shine. However, he comes to Troon with top-10 finishes at the US Open and Bridgestone Invitational behind him.
Hamilton was tied with Ernie Els for the championship lead at ten under after 72 holes. The champion golfer of the year is not expected to transform into Churchill or Kennedy.
On the European front, a decent outside bet is Germany’s two-time major victor Martin Kaymer.
The shortest the hole can play.
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420 – Square footage of the smallest green on the course.
