If one golf swing can launch a million dreams, Rory McIlroy’s 2-iron bullet through the breeze setting up the closing birdie that won the Genesis Scottish Open at the Renaissance Club last Sunday did just that.
Beyond the wind-cheating 205 yards of brilliance, the shot paired the perpetual hopefulness that follows McIlroy into every major championship these days with the practical reality of having found his form at precisely the right moment.
The Open Championship begins Thursday at Royal Liverpool, a sturdy layout along the Irish Sea on the west coast of England. The course lacks the rugged charm of the Scottish links where most Opens are played, but it does offer the prospect of a big-bang finish to the major-championship season.
Think about what the year’s first three majors have given us:
• Jon Rahm winning the Masters, a result that seemed destined to happen at some point, and his victory in April felt right for all the right reasons;
• Brooks Koepka, back in full swagger mode, did more than bridge the PGA Tour-LIV Golf gap in winning the PGA Championship at spectacular Oak Hill. He moved into even rarer air with his fifth major title;
• Playing between McIlroy and Rickie Fowler, two of the most popular players in the game, Wyndham Clark won the U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club by outplaying both of them. With two victories this year including a designated event at the Wells Fargo Championship, Clark looks to be more than the flavor of the month.
There is a romanticism to the majors because of where they are played and what they represent. They define careers and help define eras.
It’s very different from 20 years ago when the majors delivered something that had never happened before or since: four champions who had never won a major previously and never won another after.
Mike Weir won the Masters. Jim Furyk won the U.S. Open. Ben Curtis won the Open Championship. Shaun Micheel won the PGA Championship.
All good stories. Furyk proved to be one of the exceptional players of his generation, but it wasn’t exactly a Mount Rushmore of major winners in 2003.
This year feels different.
Although McIlroy will arrive at the first tee Thursday as the popular favorite, it’s Scottie Scheffler who is, to borrow a line from an old Springsteen song, working on a dream.
Maybe it’s the way Scheffler goes about his life and his golf that makes what he’s doing seem easy. He plays with a natural athleticism that suggests he could have been a great centerfielder. If he feels tension, Scheffler hides it beautifully.
Scheffler’s greatest strength may be his complete faith in what he’s doing. He has a unique swing, his feet dancing around like someone walking on an icy sidewalk, but it’s part of his golf DNA, and trying to change that would be like trying to muzzle Jordan Spieth. It would be a terrible idea.
The brilliance in Scheffler isn’t necessarily the tournaments he has won this year – the WM Phoenix Open and the Players Championship – but that he’s always in contention. Always.
Scheffler is on a run of 18 consecutive top-12 finishes, dating to October, and that’s not even the best part. His last six tournament finishes have been T2, T3, 3, 3, T4, T3.
His play is encouraging comparisons to Tiger Woods, something that should not be done lightly and, in Scheffler’s case, is not.
A year ago, Cam Smith won the Claret Jug at the Old Course, and he could win again this year. Say what you will about the competitiveness of LIV events, but Smith won his last start and he figures to factor into the storyline this week.
The only question is when – not if – Scheffler starts to hole more putts inside 10 feet. He ranks first in strokes gained off the tee, strokes gained approach to the green and total strokes gained. That he ranks 137th in strokes gained putting (190th in strokes gained inside 10 feet) may be the only thing keeping this a fair fight.
Scheffler knows the narrative about his putting. Earlier this year, he talked with Rahm about coping with the frustration of not making as many putts as he thinks he should.
“I think that it’s all just perception. I’m not going to let what you guys (in the media) think about my golf game affect how I think of my golf game,” Scheffler said last week. “I believe that I’m a very good putter, and everything returns to the average.”
There is a romanticism to the majors because of where they are played and what they represent. They define careers and help define eras.
A year ago, Cam Smith won the Claret Jug at the Old Course, and he could win again this year. Say what you will about the competitiveness of LIV events, but Smith won his last start and he figures to factor into the storyline this week.
Rahm has been quiet recently, but that may be about to change. Spieth and Justin Thomas are chasing their form but love the big moments. Tommy Fleetwood could script a legendary homegrown story at Liverpool.
Koepka is still Koepka. Rickie Fowler is back to being Rickie Fowler. Viktor Hovland feels almost overdue, which is strange to say for someone just 25 years old.
It will be nine long months before the next major championship is played. The FedEx Cup playoffs, the Ryder Cup and the Race to Dubai are still ahead, but the Open Championship has arrived again.
It’s a week when the noise engulfing the pro game should subside and the game can get back to what it does best: ignite our imaginations.
For Open Championship first- and second-round tee times, click HERE.