The Irish pair go into this week’s Open coming off the back of contrasting performances at the US Open last month but Montgomerie believes both will be primed to challenge in Scotland. And he left it short. When I say they’ve had it, it wasn’t for a day.
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At 86, James Montgomerie’s lineage to Troon goes back nearly 60 years, and his golfing heritage 20 years longer than that. It was the other way around over the weekend, and it began to shift on Monday on the first official day of practice with 25 miles per hour (40 kph) gusts straight off the Irish Sea.
Defending champion Zach Johnson is out in the next group, at 2.15, with Adam Scott and Henrik Stenson. “And my guess is, it could change again”.
The winds that blow in off the South Ayrshire coast serve as an unrelenting reminder that this is links golf at its best. This will be Henley’s first start in a major championship this season as he didn’t crack the field at the Masters or U.S. Open this year.
Pressure and expectation are par for the course in the cut-and-thrust of top level competition and nowhere is that cranked up more than in the Major championship arena. “We’re not going to win every single one”.
He was unable to get over the line in the end but Mongtomerie says Lowry will take heart from that week and the disappointment will make him even more determined to get hold of the Claret Jug.
” It sucked. It was really bad”.
“If they beat me just because they play better, that’s fine, but if I beat myself and let them beat me, that’s what is disappointing and frustrating”.
“You don’t fully understand the gravity of the Claret Jug or the weight of the tournament until you possess it. It is a handsome thing”, he said. “They didn’t have to lose one before they won one”.
“If I were ever lucky enough to win the claret jug, I would definitely call it “The Open” to show respect”, he said. “Maybe not. But that’s what I’m shooting for right now”.
“The chats that we have are all about how mentally tough he was”, said Day who has won seven times in the past 12 months.
“If you want to do as well as you can at Opens, you want to get off earlier the better”.
The jug for the previous year belonged to Johnson, who poured wine from it one last time on Sunday night at a house he is sharing with players.
Zach, however, did land in Scotland with a little cushion before he officially had to give it back on Monday.
“It was bittersweet”, Johnson said. “I guess a portion of that sweetness is you still have an opportunity to get it back”.
But now at 242 in the world rankings, the 46-year-old Els still has an exemption to play at the Open, and his fifth-place finish at the recent Quicken Loans National in the U.S. has given him some confidence going into Thursday’s first round, where he will tee up alongside 2013 champion Phil Mickelson of the United States and England’s Lee Westwood.
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Bubba Watson and Rory McIlroy have been drawn alongside each other for the opening two rounds of Royal Troon’s Open Championship.
