With over 250,000 fans set to descend on the Wirral this week as the 151st Open Championship roles into Royal Liverpool Golf Club, the stage is set for a grandstand finish to golf’s major season. But who will be left holding the Claret Jug once the dust has settled? Nick Bayly examines the likely lads to enjoy their moment.
After hosting one of the most visited Open Championships in history in 2014, the people of West Wirral are once again eagerly awaiting the arrival of golf’s best players, anxious to see how Royal Liverpool Golf Club stands up to the onslaught of modern technology and today’s big-hitting stars.
The organisers of this year’s championship are expecting a crowd in excess of a quarter-of- a-million over the four days of the tournament, which tees off on July 20 and comes to its typically dramatic conclusion on July 23.
With just a month to go before the player’s arrive, most of the grandstands are in place, and there is a real buzz around the club, which has hosted golf’s blue riband event on 12 previous occasions – the most recently nine years ago when Rory McIlroy notched up his fourth and, unbelievably, his most recent Major victory, and before that in 2006, when Tiger Woods romped to the 11th of his 15 major titles over the sun- baked links.
Few will forget the long, hot summer of 17 years ago, when a fully fit Tiger blazed the trail with his two-iron to capture his third Claret Jug before collapsing in the arms of his then caddy, Steve Williams, as memories of his father, Earl, who had died just weeks before, came
flooding back.
As things currently stand, Woods’s ability to defend the title he won in 2006 remains very much in doubt, with the former world No.1 having already dropped out of the PGA Championship and the US Open as he continues to recover from the ankle operation he had in April just days after he limped out of the Masters.
Even at 47, Woods’ absence is keenly felt at the Majors, but it will be even more of a loss to the venue where he triumphed in such spectacular fashion – albeit almost two decades ago. Whether he recovers in time or not, the world keeps on turning, and the 156 competitors that do eventually make the line up won’t be too concerned as there’s a Claret Jug to be won, and a $15 million prize fund to battle for, with or without the living legend in attendance.
As with all majors these days over the last decade or so, McIlroy finds himself at the top of the most betting lists at 8-1, despite his lengthy drought in professional golf’s biggest events, but it will be brave bookie who lengthens his odds now that he’s back on winning soil, albeit such a long time ago. Rory’s fans have had their patience stretched to the very limit of late, with the 34-year-old having notched up no fewer than 18 top-10 finishes in the last 31 majors that he has competed in since 2014, including top-five finishes in the four of the last six Opens.
Quite what he has to do to drag himself over the line only he knows, but his tendency to chuck in a poor round at the start or the end of a championship has certainly cost him dearly of late. Attempts to treat majors as just ‘regular’ events has clearly failed, and I fear for his sanity should he finish just out of the frame this time around.
These days, the lowest odds are also reserved for Jon Rahm (8-1), who has recorded seven top-10s in his last 17 majors and is coming off the back of winning the Masters in April. Although his ridiculously hot form has cooled of late, the swashbuckling Spaniard cannot be ruled out from proceedings on a course that will suit his game. A brilliant shot maker, he will have to be in complete control of his Callaway ball over Hoylake’s bone-dry fairways, and have a hot week with the putter, if he is to chalk up the third title of a career major grand slam, but he can be guaranteed not to leave anything out there.
My other big fancy is Viktor Hovland (25-1), Norway’s second-best sporting export behind Erling Haaland, who is destined to make as big an impact in golf as his countryman is doing in football. His recent win at the Memorial Tournament, on the back of his second place in the PGA Championship and 7th in the Masters, points to a man who is getting more comfortable on the game’s biggest stages. He got unlucky at the PGA, with a bad lie in a bunker derailing his chances in his battle against Brooks Koepka, but he’s got the game to win on any course and a relaxed temperament that borders on Zen.
And then there’s the defending champion, Cameron Smith (20-1), who is only being offered at such generous odds because he has been plying his trade on the LIV Golf circuit following his victory at St Andrews 11 months ago. Otherwise, he would surely be vying for favouritism. With no recent form to go on in 72-hole events baring a ninth place in the PGA Championship and 34th at the Masters, Smith is something of a dark horse despite his immense and well-known talent and 20-1 seems like an each-way steal. A win at a LIV event last week at Centurion shows that he still has the competitive fire in his belly, and he will be going all out to try and become the first player to retain the Claret Jug since Tiger Woods in 2005-6.
And you can’t ignore the chances of the winning machine that is Scottie Scheffler. The 25-year-old American has gone from zero to six PGA Tour wins in 15 months, won his first major championship title at last year’s Masters, and is now routinely among the favourites at every major. The current world no.1’s game can travel almost anywhere and that includes links golf, as he showed when he finished 8th at Royal St George’s and 21st at St Andrews in his first two attempts at The Open. Could he knock on the door of another major in 2023? You bet he can – at odds of 10-1.
As for the Hoylake course itself, the world’s elite will find several changes to the layout Rory tamed in 2014, including one completely new hole – the par 3 17th – on a course which is just 29 yards longer than it was nine years ago, up from 7,312 yards to 7,341. As with 2006 and 2014, The R&A has rearranged the normal order of the holes so that the final hole is the 16th, with the original 17th and 18th holes being used as the first and second holes for the duration of the championship. The reason for the redirection is that, as viewers of the 1967 Open will recall, the 560-yard, par five 16th has always had the potential to be a classic finishing hole, with out- of-bounds all the way down the right-hand side of the dogleg to offer the chances of disasters and eagles in equal measure.
Although it is not one of the longer layouts on the championship rota, Hoylake has plenty of other defences to protect its par, especially if the wind gets up, which it is apt to do on this stretch of the Lancashire coast.
The set-up will ensure that whoever walks off the 18th with the Claret Jug under his arm will be a deserving champion and will join some exceptionally hallowed company.