Royal Troon’s Old Course is a breathtaking Scottish seaside links layout that since 1989 has hosted the British Open four times. Yet the winners aren’t exactly a who’s who of golf’s elite: Henrik Stenson (2016), Todd Hamilton (2004), Justin Leonard (1997) and Mark Calcavecchia (1989).
None of the four had previously won a major championship, and none has won one since.
Beginning Thursday, however, eyes will be locked on three of the world’s most decorated golfers as they tackle the par-71, 7,385-yard course in the last major championship of 2024.
There is Rory McIlroy, the consensus runner-up by oddsmakers, which seems fitting after he finished second to Bryson DeChambeau at the U.S. Open a month ago, failing to close out his first major victory in 10 years by missing two extremely short putts on the last three holes.
Yet no player has more top 10s in major championships over the last few years than McIlroy, and since winning the Open at Royal Liverpool in 2014, he has five top 10s in seven Open starts. He is seeking his fifth major championship and first since winning the Open in 2014.
“I’d much rather have these close calls because it means I’m getting closer,” McIlroy said Tuesday. “But yeah, absolutely, I’d love to be able to play golf and get one over the line, but as soon as I do that, people are going to say, well, when are you going to win your sixth? So it’s never-ending.”
McIlroy freely admits that Tiger Woods was his childhood hero and how grateful he is to have become his friend. So it was cringey-funny when he said that after his U.S. Open meltdown, he inadvertently ghosted Woods by not returning his text message of encouragement.
“Full disclosure, I changed my number two days after the U.S. Open, so I didn’t get it until he told me about it today,” McIlroy said. “I was like, ‘Oh, thanks very much. So I blanked Tiger Woods, which is probably not a good thing.
“I met Tiger when I was 15 years old, and I’ve built up a great relationship with him, his whole family. He really enjoys spending time with my mom and dad as well. So, yeah, it means a lot. It means a lot that he reached out.”
Yes, there is Woods, who arrived in Scotland to questions about when he might retire, a topic raised somewhat oddly by Colin Montgomerie a few days ago in an interview with the Times of London.
“I hope people remember Tiger as Tiger was, the passion and the charismatic aura around him,” Montgomerie said. “There is none of that now. At Pinehurst, he did not seem to enjoy a single shot and you think, ‘What the hell is he doing?’ He’s coming to Troon and he won’t enjoy it there either.”
Metaphorically, Montgomerie set his comments on a tee for Woods to crush. After all, Montgomerie never won a major, finishing second five times. Most memorably, needing a par to win the 2006 U.S. Open, he drilled his tee shot on No. 18 down the middle only to stumble to a double-bogey and lose to Geoff Ogilvy.
Or perhaps, even more memorable was Woods’ passing Montgomerie as if he was standing still in the third round of the 1997 Masters after the Scottish icon suggested that the 21-year-old American might be too inexperienced to withstand the pressure.
So who is Montgomerie, 61, to comment on Woods’ future plans? Asked whether Woods is approaching the day he no longer is competitive, he replied: “Aren’t we there? I’d have thought we were past there. There is a time for all sportsmen to say goodbye, but it’s very difficult to tell Tiger it’s time to go. Obviously, he still feels he can win. We are more realistic.”
Woods, 48, took his swing at the news conference.
“As a past champion, I’m exempt till I’m 60. Colin’s not,” Woods said. “He’s not a past champion, so he’s not exempt, so he doesn’t get the opportunity to make that decision. I do.”
To be fair, Woods’ day of reckoning might not be far off. He’s won 15 major championships, but he’s withdrawn from or missed the cut in five of the last six majors he’s played and he hasn’t finished higher than a tie for 37th place in any major since his astonishing victory at the 2019 Masters.
But he made it clear he’s not ready to stop.
“I’ll play as long as I can play,” Woods said, “and I feel like I can still win the event.”
Woods said he was fighting sleep deprivation because he didn’t sleep on the flight from Florida to Troon. He couldn’t stop watching television coverage of the assassination attempt on former President Trump.
“It was a long night and that’s all we watched the entire time on the way over here,” he said. “I didn’t sleep at all on the flight, and then we just got on the golf course.”
The third player to watch is Scottie Scheffler, the consensus favorite despite never having finished higher than eighth at the Open. Scheffler won this year’s Masters and he sits atop the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR) with six wins and seven top 10s in 2024.
Scheffler was stopped once — by a police officer who believed the golfer was disregarding his signals at a fatal traffic accident outside Valhalla Country Club in Louisville, Ky., site of the PGA Championship. Charges of second-degree assault of a police officer, third-degree criminal mischief and reckless driving were dropped.
There’s no crime in missing short putts under pressure or aging past one’s prime, either. So McIlroy, Woods and Scheffler all are free to begin their quest for an Open title Thursday, battling a Royal Troon course that, like a career, is known for a relatively easy beginning, a tricky middle, and treacherous prevailing winds down the stretch.