Drama has not been in short supply off the course in recent times as men’s professional golf suffered a seismic split before an equally shocking possibility of peace.
On the course, in this year’s majors at least, that has not been the case as Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka and Wyndham Clark won the Masters, US PGA and US Open respectively with relatively little final-round fuss.
All that could be about to change if the R&A get their way in the 151st Open Championship at Royal Liverpool, where changes made since Rory McIlroy’s victory in 2014 are intended to produce a dramatic climax to the year’s final major.
Most significantly, a new par-three – the 17th – has been created as part of a re-routing of the closing stretch which could play a large role in deciding who is left holding the Claret Jug on Sunday evening.
“One of the sentiments that was felt after 2006 and 2014 was that the course could do with more drama,” R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers said.
“It was actually the club that came to us and said there was a lot of talk around flipping what was the 15th up on to the dunes. We came and looked at it and we thought, ‘Yeah, that could really add some drama’. There is a lot of jeopardy there.
“I think it fits well. It also enabled us to reconfigure the final bit around there. So the final four holes will be a 610-yard par five, 480-yard par four, 136-yard par three and a 620-yard par five.
“A lot of things could happen on that (stretch) and I think that drama will unfold come Sunday.”
A finish similar to Sunday’s Scottish Open would certainly be welcome, McIlroy defying strong winds to birdie the last two holes and defy home favourite Robert MacIntyre the title at the Renaissance Club.
It completed the ideal preparation for the world number two as he bids to end a major drought which stretches back to the 2014 US PGA, victory at Valhalla coming just seven days after winning the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.
Even the weather seems to have turned in McIlroy’s favour as a hot spell gave way to wetter conditions which have always suited his powerful game and high ball flight.
“I was expecting it to be more like 2006 when I was looking at it five, six weeks ago, and I was excited about that,” Slumbers added. “But every time I get excited about a nice brown golf course, mother nature comes in.
“But on the other side of it, the rough has come up. When it was brown the rough had burnt out and it was a different golf course. My worry is now what the forecast is for Saturday and Sunday. It’s going to be wet or it’s going to be very wet. We’ll see.”
With McIlroy cancelling his formal pre-tournament press conference for the second major running, it has fallen to other players to speak about his chances, with two-time Open champion Padraig Harrington asked if a return to Hoylake could be the missing link to major success.
“Yes, of course it could,” Harrington said. “He’s got to like the golf course. He’s got to be familiar with the course. Everything seems to be setting up nicely in terms of conditions and what we are expecting.
“And the other thing is that he can clearly win any week, so you have two things going for him.
“There’s no doubt that pretty much everybody will look at the leaderboard to see how he is getting on. He’s a person of interest.”
A closer look at the hot streak of world number one Scottie Scheffler
Scottie Scheffler claimed his fourth win in five events on Monday when the weather-delayed RBC Heritage concluded at Hilton Head.
That run includes a second Masters title and has seen the world number one extend his sizeable lead over Rory McIlroy at the top of the rankings.
Here, the PA news agency looks at some of the facts and figures around Scheffler’s streak and how they compare to previous runs.
What makes Scheffler’s streak so impressive?Winning any event on the PGA Tour is difficult, but Scheffler has claimed two of the biggest in the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Players Championship, a major championship at Augusta National and the RBC Heritage, which boasted a stronger than usual field after being elevated to a Signature Event this season. Victory at Sawgrass made Scheffler the first player ever to win back-to-back Players titles. His only “failure” was a tie for second in the Houston Open.
Has this been done before?Scheffler is the first player to win four times in five starts on the PGA Tour since Tiger Woods, who did so at the end of 2007 and again to start 2008. He is also the third player in the last 30 years – after Woods and Vijay Singh (2004) – to win or finish runner-up in five consecutive starts on the PGA Tour. With many players taking a break after winning a major, Scheffler is also the first to win a PGA Tour event the week after claiming a green jacket since Bernhard Langer in 1985.
How much has Scheffler earned?Scheffler has banked an average of £3.17million for each of his four victories and “only” £448,000 for his five-way tie for second behind Stephan Jaeger in the Houston Open. The total sum of £13.14m would place Scheffler 145th on the PGA Tour’s career earnings list and he is closing in on the single-season record of £17million he set last year. In comparison, Woods won nine times on the PGA Tour in 2000, including three major titles, and never finished worse than 23rd in 20 starts. His prize money totalled £7.4m.
Does the world ranking reflect Scheffler’s dominance?In a word, yes. Ahead of the Genesis Invitational in mid-February, Rory McIlroy could have become world number one by winning at Riviera with Scheffler finishing third or worse. Now, Scheffler has more than double the total and average points of McIlroy, while the average points gap between the top two (7.6493) is bigger than that between McIlroy and the players tied for 4,123st in the standings.
So is Scheffler the most dominant player in world golf?Not quite. Hours before Scheffler completed his victory in Hilton Head, fellow American Nelly Korda had wrapped up a fifth consecutive win on the LPGA Tour by claiming her second major title in the Chevron Championship. Korda’s winning streak matches that of Nancy Lopez in 1978 and Annika Sorenstam in 2004-05, although her bid for an unprecedented sixth straight win will have to wait after she cited exhaustion when pulling out of this week’s event in Los Angeles. While Scheffler has earned £13.14m from his last five events, Korda’s five wins have been worth £1.94m.
Scottie Scheffler matches Tiger Woods achievement with fourth win in five
Masters champion Scottie Scheffler hailed his mental strength after making it four wins in five starts with a rain-delayed victory at the RBC Heritage.
Scheffler returned to Hilton Head on Monday morning holding a five-stroke lead with three holes to play after a storm halted proceedings on Sunday.
The world number one dropped a shot at the last to finish 19 under par, three shots ahead of fellow American Sahith Theegala, with Patrick Cantlay and Wyndham Clark another stroke back.
Scheffler is the first player to win a PGA Tour event the week after claiming the Green Jacket since Bernhard Langer in 1985 and the first to win four times in five starts on the US-based circuit since Tiger Woods in 2007-08.
Each of Scheffler’s last seven wins have come with at least eight of the world’s top 10 in the field and he is the third player in the last 30 years – after Woods and Vijay Singh – to win or finish runner-up in five consecutive starts on the PGA Tour.
“I was able to go home for a couple days and celebrate,” Scheffler said.
“I didn’t really put much thought into it. I had committed to playing the tournament here, it was part of the plan, so we stuck to the plan.
“I talked about it at the beginning of the week – I didn’t show up here just to have some sort of ceremony and have people tell me congratulations. I came here with a purpose, got off to a slow start but after that played some really nice golf.
“I do have fairly high expectations for myself and when I show up at tournaments, I try to do my best.
“I’ve talked a lot about kind of the preparation and what it takes for me to show up on a first tee ready to go, and I feel like I’ve been putting in the work and been playing some good golf, and it’s nice to be seeing some results for that with wins.
“On the course, I think the last month or so I’ve been as good mentally as I have in a long time and I think that’s why I am seeing some of the results.
“This week could be a good example of starting off and looking at the leaderboard on Thursday and everybody is just making birdie after birdie and I’m sitting there over par and I’ve had a shank on the day.
“I just did my best to stay patient and wait until I got hot.
“Had a nice finish to the round on Thursday and then had a really solid Friday where I felt like I played better than I scored, and then I had Saturday where I just played some really good golf.”
Rory McIlroy carded a final-round 74 to slip into a tie for 33rd.
Scottie Scheffler five strokes ahead with weather forcing a Monday finish
Scottie Scheffler has a five stroke lead with just three holes to play after rain halted play in the RBC Heritage on Sunday.
The US Open champion and world number one continued his great form at Hilton Head in South Carolina on the fourth day of the tournament, hitting an eagle and two birdies across 15 holes.
A storm stopped play for two and a half hours with darkness forcing a finish on Monday.
Fellow American Wyndham Clark had a strong day through his 18 holes, moving into second place with eight birdies and an eagle, but two bogeys and a double bogey stopped him from further encroaching on Scheffler’s lead.
Clark is tied with American’s Patrick Cantlay and J T Poston, who have one hole left to play and Sahith Theegala, who has three holes left to play.
Scheffler is looking for his fourth win in five starts.
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