Reflections on The Open: Scheffler affirms his greatness with a champion's composure

Khaleej Times

2 days ago

With world-class conditions, a pristine setup, and picture-perfect weather, Royal Portrush delivered the dream scenario every tournament organiser hopes for as the game's biggest stars battled it out atop the leaderboard with a record-breaking 278,000 fans flooding through the gates.
That was the story of the 153rd Open Championship - a showcase of elite golf at its finest.
It is hard to recall a stronger leaderboard in recent Majors. The Champion Golfer of the Year, and World Number One, Scottie Scheffler, showed his current class with a four-shot win and collected the third leg of a career Grand Slam, and he's still only 29 years old.
It was not always filled with too much drama, but there was certainly an appreciation of his current dominance in the world of golf. How long can he keep this run of form going?
The golf course punished the poor shot and generally rewarded the good shot. As always with the game of golf, especially links golf, margins are small, but there were not too many hard luck stories, just a lot of frustrations.
However, perhaps over 72 holes, the good luck and bad luck will hopefully balance themselves out.
There was little or no advantage or disadvantage with the draw for the first two days, with the weather far kinder than it might have been, according to some forecasts.
Glimpses of inspiration came from the KT tips: Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood and Shane Lowry, but in all honesty, from day one there was only one real champion — Scheffler with rounds of 68, 64, 67 and 68 for a 72-hole total of 17-under par, 267.
To see 'shorter' hitters make the cut must be a positive for modern golf. Congratulations to Justin Leonard, the 1997 champion, who at 53 years old made the 36-hole cut, which fell at +1.
The game is not just about hitting it far, especially when the potential winners are only the longer hitters.
Game Beyond the Money
The purse was $17 million, the same as in 2024. In an era where money seemingly means everything in sport, it was a strong message from The R&A that they are keen to remind everyone of their responsibility to the global game, investing in development around the world.
An interesting fact is that nine amateurs were in the field, but none made the cut.
The last time no amateurs made the cut was in 2019 when it was last hosted at Royal Portrush. With the amateur game seemingly so strong these days, that was somewhat of a surprise.
Slow play reared its ugly head once again, especially in round one. Can a six-hour round ever be justified?
There are always excuses - drivable par 4s and reachable par 5s - but it is something that still needs to be addressed by the game's authorities.
Is this really the last golf Major of the year? It has come around too soon once again.
We still have The Ryder Cup and so much more golfing drama to come later in the year, but let's put in our diaries next year's 154th Open Championship, to be held at Royal Birkdale Golf Club, from 16th to 19th July — we cannot wait!