GOLF WEEKLY

BRITISH OPEN

Site: Southport, England.

Course: Royal Birkdale. Yardage: 7,223. Par: 70.

Prize money: TBA ($17 million in 2025). Winner’s share: TBA ($3.1 million in 2025).

Television: Thursday-Friday, 1:30 a.m. to 4 a.m. (Peacock), 4 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. (USA Network); Saturday, 5 a.m to 7 a.m. (USA Network), 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. (NBC); Sunday, 4 a.m. to 7 a.m. (USA Network), 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. (NBC).

Defending champion: Scottie Scheffler.

Last year: Scheffler closed with a 3-under 68 at Royal Portrush to win by four shots and capture the third leg of the career Grand Slam.

Notes: Scheffler will try to become the ninth player since 1934 to win a major in three consecutive years. He is coming off a missed cut in the Scottish Open, his first missed cut in nearly four years. … Padraig Harrington, David Duval, Stewart Cink and Justin Rose are the only ones in the field to have played an Open at Royal Birkdale in 1998, 2008 and 2017. … Jordan Spieth won the last time at Royal Birkdale in 2017 to get the third leg of Grand Slam at age 23. He has only two PGA Tour victories since winning the Open. … This will be the first time since 1991 that none of the four majors had either Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson. … The British Open hasn’t had a back-to-back winner since Harrington in 2008, the longest stretch of the four majors. … Rory McIlroy at the Masters is the only player to win a major this year while being ranking among the top 10 in the world. … Royal Birkdale did not host the British Open until 1954, the last English links course added to the rotation.

Next year: St. Andrews.

Online: https://www.theopen.com/ 

PGA Tour

CORALES PUNTACANA CHAMPIONSHIP

Site: Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.

Course: Puntacana Resort (Corales). Yardage: 7,670. Par: 72.

Prize money: $4 million. Winner’s share: $720,000.

Television: Thursday-Friday, 12:30-3:30 p.m. (Golf Channel); Saturday, noon to 3 p.m. (Golf Channel); Sunday, 4-6 p.m. (Golf Channel).

Defending champion: Garrick Higgo.

FedEx Cup leader: Scottie Scheffler.

Last week: Tom Kim won the Genesis Scottish Open.

Notes: The tournament typically is held in the spring and was opposite the RBC Heritage the last two years. Now it is opposite the British Open. … Austin Eckroat and Davis Riley are in the field after both played Sunday in the Scottish Open. Brian Campbell and Charley Hoffman were among those at the Scottish Open who missed the cut. … Blades Brown is in the field as a special temporary member. His best shot at the PGA Tour is through the Korn Ferry Tour, which is off this week. … The sponsor exemptions include Sangmoon Bae, who has been trying to get back on track since his mandatory military service in South Korea a decade ago. … Presidents Cup captain Brandt Snedeker is playing. He won the last opposite-field event in Myrtle Beach in May. … The tournament is co-sanctioned by the European tour. The field includes Marcus Helligkilde, who withdrew from the “Last Chance Qualifier” to get into the British Open.

Next week: 3M Open.

Online: https://www.pgatour.com/

LPGA Tour

Last week: Haeran Ryu won the Amundi Evian Championship.

Next week: ISPS Handa Women’s Scottish Open.

Race to CME Globe leader: Nelly Korda.

Online: https://www.lpga.com/

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European tour

Last week: Tom Kim won the Genesis Scottish Open.

Next tournament: Danish Golf Championship on Aug. 13-16.

Race to Dubai leader: Patrick Reed.

Online: https://www.europeantour.com/dpworld-tour/

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Korn Ferry Tour

Last week: Ross Steelman won The Blue Championship.

Next week: NV5 Invitational.

Points leader: Doc Redman.

Online: https://www.pgatour.com/korn-ferry-tour

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PGA Tour Champions

Last week: Zach Johnson won the Kaulig Companies Championship.

Next week: Senior British Open.

Charles Schwab Cup leader: Stewart Cink.

Online: https://www.pgatour.com/pgatour-champions

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LIV Golf League

Last tournament: Tyrrell Hatton won LIV Golf Andalucia.

Next week: LIV Golf UK.

Points leader: Jon Rahm.

Online: https://www.livgolf.com/

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NO LONGER ‘SO BAD AT GOLF,’ RORY MCILROY EAGERLY AWAITS THE OPEN

Two short days ago, Rory McIlroy was admonishing himself in the short rough at The Renaissance Club in Scotland.

After hooking a 6-iron into thick rough at the Scottish Open when his target was the 16th green directly in front of him, the Northern Ireland native blurted out: “Oh, my god. I’m so bad at golf!”

Fortunately for fans counting on McIlroy, the six-time major winner, to make a run at his second Open Championship this week at Royal Birkdale  Golf Club, he did not feel quite the same way about his game as of Tuesday afternoon.

“It’s funny,” McIlroy told reporters in Southport, England. “I felt really good the first two days in Scotland and then felt like my game just sort of deteriorated as the week went on. Even though I shot a good score on Sunday, it didn’t feel very good.”

Because McIlroy needed to play nearly two full rounds Sunday to complete his T7 finish — the result of a weather delay on Saturday — he didn’t expend energy touring Royal Birkdale on Monday.

That might have been the best thing for him.

“Yeah, I’ve done a good bit of work the past couple days,” he said. “Again, getting the TrackMan out, seeing what my numbers are, and just trying to match up the feels of my swing with what I’m seeing.

“Also, like I played 30 holes on Sunday. I felt a little bit tired yesterday, so I didn’t make it on the course, but that allowed me a bit more time to hit some balls and dig into the swing a little bit. Felt good on the range. Felt good out on the course today. Definitely trending in the right direction.”

McIlroy tends to be heading in the right direction when the Open comes around. This is the 17th Open for the 37-year-old, who won at Royal Liverpool in 2014 and owns six top-five and eight top-10 finishes, including a T4 in 2017 at Royal Birkdale.

Royal Birkdale has changed extensively since then — there are three new holes and changes to the other 15 holes thanks to a massive renovation — and McIlroy likes the adjustments.

But the World No. 2 is also curious to see how golfers attack a course that has changed dramatically over the last few weeks due to the heat wave engulfing much of Europe.

“When I was here a couple weeks ago, the rough was a lot more penal than it’s going to be this week,” McIlroy said. “It’s definitely burnt out a lot.

“There may be certain instances where — you know, the big thing, especially off the tee here, is the fairway bunkers and avoiding those. You might see some guys being more aggressive off the tee, taking driver, trying to take the fairway bunkers out of play. OK, it might be in the rough, but it’s not that penal, so you get a wedge in your hand and you can figure it out from there.”

Isn’t figuring it out half the fun of links golf? McIlroy says yes … and no.

“I think what we all know, even going back to (the U.S. Open at) Shinnecock a few weeks ago: When you give professional golfers options and you can create a little bit of doubt in their minds in terms of should I play this shot or that shot, that’s when things start to get fun, especially for the viewer,” McIlroy said. “Not so much for us but …

“That, to me, is the sign of a good championship test.”

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ENGLAND’S AARON RAI RETURNS TO OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP TO HERO’S WELCOME

Jack Nicklaus sent a handwritten letter to him. The British royal family tweeted at him.

“I couldn’t quite believe that when I saw it,” Aaron Rai said Tuesday, recalling the correspondence he received two months ago after winning the PGA Championship in Pennsylvania in May.

And the return to Europe by the 31-year-old Englishman has shown him just what the victory meant back home. Imagine the reaction he would receive should he win The Open Championship, which begins Thursday at Royal Birkdale in Southport, England.

The Wolverhampton native stayed in the United States to compete on the PGA Tour for six weeks after claiming his first major victory on May 14 at Aronimink  Golf Club. He has been back across the pond for just two weeks.

Journalists from Wolverhampton, India — where his parents and his wife, Guarika, were born — and elsewhere swooned over him during a pre-tournament news conference on Tuesday at Royal Birkdale.

“People sent me articles and got a feel of how it was received in England, which was great and a lot warmer than what I would have ever expected and more widespread than I would have thought,” Rai said. “But in terms of purely the local area, I think because I was so far away with being in Florida and playing a lot of events, I didn’t really get a sense of how that felt or the magnitude of it in that respect.”

Rai would have no such trouble understanding the magnitude if he were to win the Open.

When he was a teenager, he and his father attended an Open practice round at Muirfield — but Rai started paying attention to the Open much sooner.

“They used to show highlights on BBC in the evenings,” Rai said. “We used to watch it from 5-6 years old. I remember David Duval winning (in 2001 at Royal Lytham and St. Annes). I used to support Tiger Woods a lot. It was great to see David win, but I was supporting Tiger. That’s what sticks out, that Tiger didn’t win that one…

“Obviously I’m British, and this is a home Open, so very, very special tournament.”

As soon as Rai arrived back in England, he took a spin around Royal Birkdale. When he missed the cut last week at the Scottish Open, he returned to The Open course on Saturday to get a jump on this week’s preparation.

“It’s definitely changed quite a bit in the last two weeks,” Rai said. “It was quite green. It was quite lush when I came here and relatively soft as well, fairways and greens. So it was quite a surprise playing a few holes on Sunday, seeing it as brown as what it was in the space of, I think, 10 days. I think it plays phenomenally. It’s a great layout. Obviously a huge amount of history at Birkdale. It’s a real iconic Open venue.”

At some point, though, every conversation about the Open with a talented English golfer turns to the fact that the last Englishman to win the Open was Nick Faldo in 1992. His victory at Muirfield that year was his third Open championship.

Does Rai, regarded by DraftKings as a 70-1 shot to win the Claret Jug, feel any homegrown pressure that seems like it compounds each year the streak goes unbroken?

“Firstly, there’s always pressure every single week no matter what tournament it is. I think most of that is self-imposed,” Rai said. “Some of it is where you’re playing and what event that it is. Obviously this is a major championship. It’s a huge event in its own right. So there’s always that element of pressure that is there.”

THE BRITISH OPEN: HOW TO WATCH, BETTING ODDS FOR GOLF’S FINAL MAJOR OF 2026

SOUTHPORT, England (AP) — The oldest championship in golf is now the last major of the year.

The British Open dates to 1860 and returns this year to Royal Birkdale, and it’s already different from anything the world’s best players have seen this year. The links course along the Lancashire coast of England is yellow and brown, the sure sign of a fast and firm test.

Scottie Scheffler is trying to become the first repeat winner of the British Open since Padraig Harrington won in 2007 and 2008 — the second one also was at Royal Birkdale. He also can become only the third player in the last 20 years to go three straight years winning a major.

There are favorites and there are inspirations, such as David Howard, the 27-year-old Irish amateur who didn’t even expect to be alive at this stage in his career, much less playing in the Open.

Even though Royal Birkdale did not join the British Open rotation until 1954, this is the 11th time it has hosted golf’s oldest major. And its roll call of champions rivals any other links course. All but one champion at Birkdale is either in the World Golf Hall of Fame or will be.

Here’s what to know going into the 154th edition of the British Open:

When does the British Open start?

The British Open starts Thursday, and it is the longest day in golf, starting at 6:35 a.m. local time with the last group teeing off at 4:21 p.m. The British Open and the Masters are the only majors that start only from the first tee.

How can I watch the British Open?

This will be the 10th year for NBC Sports to be the lead broadcast network in the United States, and it will be wall-to-wall coverage. For the weekday rounds in Eastern Daylight Time, Peacock will carry The Open from 1:30 a.m. to 4 a.m., with USA Network taking over from 4 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. USA Network will broadcast it from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m. on Saturday, followed by NBC from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. The final round will be an hour earlier. USA Network will start at 4 a.m. to 7 a.m., with NBC picking it up from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Who’s playing the British Open?

The 156-man field has players from nearly 30 countries and is the most global of the four majors. Only 20 players have come from 36-hole qualifying that took place two weeks ago at four links courses in the U.K. The other “qualifiers” were leading players from 15 tournaments held on every main tour in the world and every continent on which golf is played. The last to qualify was Joe Dean, who won an 18-hole “Last Chance Qualifier” held Monday at Royal Birkdale.

Who are the favorites?

Scottie Scheffler has been the betting favorite at every major this year, and the British Open is no exception. But the margins are smaller for the world’s No. 1 player whose last win was in January. BetMGM Sportsbook has Scheffler at +750, narrowly ahead of Masters champion Rory McIlroy at +850. The English hopes, Tommy Fleetwood and Matt Fitzpatrick, are at +1400. Jon Rahm and Xander Schauffele are at +2500.

Who’s worth rooting for?

Look no further than David Howard, an Irish amateur who came through qualifying to get into his first major. A trained mechanic, Howard was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis — a rare condition for which there is no cure — when he was 7. It’s only because of recent medical advances that the life expectancy for those with the disease is longer than their mid-20s. He takes up to 30 tablets a day to prevent infection and help digest food properly. His father, John, will be on his bag this week.

What’s at stake?

The winner is introduced as the “Champion Golfer of the Year” and receives the silver claret jug, the oldest trophy in golf. Scheffler had to officially return the claret jug to the R&A on Tuesday. The winner is exempt to the British Open through his 55th birthday, and he is exempt into the other three majors for the next five years.

What’s the forecast?

Bad weather can dog the British Open, but not this week. It has been warm and sunny all week and those should be the conditions when play begins on Thursday, with the forecast for temperatures of up to 25 degrees Celsius (77 Fahrenheit) for the first round and 25 C (75 F) on Friday.

It gets slightly cooler over the weekend, but there should still be plenty of sun.

What happened last year?

Scottie Scheffler won by four shots in the British Open’s second visit to Royal Portrush in six years to capture his second major of 2025 — after the PGA Championship — and the third leg of the career Grand Slam.

What kind of history does Royal Birkdale have?

Royal Birkdale joined the British Open rotation in 1954, the last addition among courses in England. But it’s regarded as the best in England, and in 72 years this is the 11th time hosting the championship. But it’s not quite the same course as when Jordan Spieth won in 2017. The par-3 14th hole is gone. No. 14 is now a par 5 that used to be the 15th hole. And it’s followed by an entirely new par-3 15th that can play as long as 241 yards.

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JON RAHM: ‘CONFIDENCE IS ALWAYS HIGH’ AHEAD OF THE OPEN

Three years have passed since Jon Rahm won a major, the most recent celebration coming at the 2023 Masters when Scottie Scheffler put the green jacket on the Spaniard at Augusta National.

Rahm won the U.S. Open in 2021, and has ties for second at the PGA Championship (2026) and The Open Championship (2023) also high on his resume. While he said he enters The Open on Thursday at Royal Birkdale with plenty of confidence, he knows just how difficult it will be to hoist the Claret Jug on Sunday.

“God, it’s hard. It’s very hard,” Rahm said of winning a major in his pre-tournament news conference on Tuesday in Southport, England.

His attitude is far from defeated, however.

“Confidence is always high,” said Rahm, 31. “I think as a player you have to have that belief in yourself, that things are always going to be good, so feeling good. Very excited to be here.”

Royal Birkdale last hosted The Open in 2017, when Jordan Spieth (12-under) finished three strokes ahead of Matt Kuchar.

The next champion will have different challenges than those Spieth faced. Since then, the course has been re-imagined.

But one challenge remains constant: the wind, which is going to impact club selection.

“It’s one of the venues that I remember as being a fantastic championship venue, historically very difficult one,” Rahm said. “Weather-wise, very unusual week. Looking forward to see what the challenge presents because I think we’re going to see a bit of everything, see 6-irons off tees, drivers and long irons into par-4s. It should be a really fun one.”

Rahm has just one more day to review the course before teeing off Thursday at 5:09 a.m., paired with Spieth and Tommy Fleetwood of England. They follow the star-studded group of Scheffler, Bryson DeChambeau and Englishman Tyrrell Hatton.

There will be a lot of eyes on those two groups. Rahm’s eyes will be on factors such as pin placement, the speed of the greens and how the flag whips in the wind.

Rahm, a former World No. 1, now competes in the LIV  Golf League and on the DP World Tour. Given those experiences of worldwide travel, he was asked if he’d like to see the PGA Tour add another major abroad.

“I wouldn’t know the logistics of that. I don’t know who can decide what a new major becomes or is now a major, he said. “That would be interesting to see a major happen in other parts of the world, in other continents, I mean. Golf being a global game and as big as it is, it’s something that could be explored for sure.”

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SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER HITS THE RESET BUTTON FOR THE BRITISH OPEN AFTER A RARE MISSED CUT

SOUTHPORT, England (AP) — Scottie Scheffler finally heard about the text his PGA Tour friend never sent, a reminder that even the No. 1 player in golf with four majors and more than 20 victories doesn’t know everything.

It was a list of things to do on the weekend after missing the cut.

“He was like: ‘Hey, you can practice at the facilities. You can still go to the gym. You can also go to the next tournament.’ It was basically all my options,” Scheffler said Tuesday ahead of the British Open. “He never sent it to me, but he told me about it.”

The reason the text was created — without being sent, to Scheffler’s disappointment — was missing the cut at the Scottish Open, his first missed cut in nearly four years, a streak of 78 consecutive cuts that was the longest since Tiger Woods set the record (142) from 1998 to 2005.

Frustrating, yes. Despair? Hardly.

“You never want to have a weekend off, but going into a tournament when you’re defending, there’s always a bit more stuff to do,” Scheffler said. “So it wasn’t the worst thing in the world.”

Among his duties was officially returning the claret jug he won last year at Royal Portrush, a ritual the Royal & Ancient has turned into a ceremony. Then, it was playing an exhibition with Jordan Spieth, Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose and others.

But key to Scheffler’s early arrival was Royal Birkdale, which has hosted the British Open more than any other links course in England since it first joined the rotation in 1954.

He had never seen it. Scheffler had not seen conditions like this — a combination of yellow and brown, which translates to firm and fiery in a links vocabulary. St. Andrews came close in 2022, but Jon Rahm recalls the greens still being soft enough to allow for low scoring.

Scheffler ticked off two items on his friend’s list — he went to the gym in Scotland and then headed to the next tournament. That allowed him time to play 18 holes on Sunday, and to limit his energy in sunbaked Blighty to nine holes on Monday and Tuesday.

His general assessment: “The ball is just going to run forever.”

Is it driver to take it over the bunkers and possibly reach the green on the 393-yard, downwind 16th hole, or hit iron off the tee? Is the redesigned fifth hole at 321 yards worth trying to reach with a pond to the right, a series of bunkers short and a wee part of a wee burn to the left?

“On each hole there’s a good bit of strategy. There’s a decent amount of thinking,” Scheffler said. “If it wasn’t as firm as it is now, there would be as much decision-making. But I think with the firmness, it creates a whole lot more challenges.”

Rose is among four players — and at 45, the youngest — to have played Royal Birkdale three times in the Open dating to 1998. He was a 17-year-old amateur that year, full of joy and optimism when he holed out a wedge for birdie on the 18th to tie for fourth. He didn’t finish in the top 50 his two times as a professional.

Rose certainly has more experience than Scheffler, but only to a point.

“A links course is interesting because you never really get to know them that well,” Rose said. “Like 2008 I think it was, weather was dreadful. It was wet. You might have been hitting 2-irons and 3-woods into par 4s, and now you could be flicking 52-degree wedges.

“A golf course can play so differently decade to decade when we come back that you never really get to know the course that well.”

Scheffler said he felt at peace about his game, and he certainly looked the part. His game didn’t look deplorable in the Scottish Open, just a matter of not hitting it terribly close and not making many putts and then moving on.

It was no less frustrating — Scheffler is a killer when it comes to competing, which is one reason he has been No. 1 longer than anyone since Woods — but it was filled with perspective.

“I don’t think it hurts as much as coming close to winning and finishing second,” Scheffler said. “I felt like coming in second at Travelers hurt more than missing the cut, but missing the cut is significantly more frustrating is how I would describe it.”

He’s had plenty of experience finishing second. Scheffler’s lone victory this year was his first tournament in January at The American Express. Since then, he has had four runner-up finishes, including the Masters. The most recent was a playoff loss to Viktor Hovland at the Travelers Championship two weeks ago when Scheffler missed a 4-foot slider.

“I think just towards the end of the season, you get a little tired,” Scheffler said. “I got a couple days off, reset the mind, reset the body, and just kind of get back to feeling even and at peace. I’ve had a very solid year, but like I said, frustrating at times because I’ve been close and I haven’t been able to get it done like I have been in years past.

“I’m excited to try and defend my title this week.”

That hasn’t been done at the British Open since 2008 when Padraig Harrington won at Royal Birkdale. One week could change Scheffler’s outlook on the year. But it’s a week that presents a test the likes of which he hasn’t seen all year.

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