NORTH BERWICK, SCOTLAND | Toward the end of last week’s Genesis Scottish Open, you were left with the feeling that any of the players who were still prepared to discuss the pros and cons of the LIV Golf tour were making a mistake. As the wiser ones had recognised days earlier, they had enough to do in trying to stop themselves from thinking ahead to the 150th Open Championship at St Andrews while trying to give their all to the Scottish.
Phil Mickelson, it has to be said, won both events in 2013 – the Scottish at Castle Stuart and the Open at Muirfield – but it is probably safe to say that he would not have had a prayer of winning either had he been involved in the same traumas with the Saudis and the PGA Tour as he has of late.
One by one, the key figures at The Renaissance Club came up with an excuse for giving the LIV talk a miss. Collin Morikawa suggested the writers should find some different stories; Justin Thomas, who had made plain some weeks before that he intended to stay loyal to the golf he knew, said that he was in no position to comment on the latest happenings: “I’m not near smart enough legally to get what it all means and, to be perfectly honest, I don’t care enough to go deep enough into it to say I have …â€
Scottie Scheffler advised his audience that even though he was the No. 1 player of the moment, “I’m not anywhere near the top dog out here. There are a lot of guys who have been carrying the PGA Tour for years – Justin [Thomas], Jordan [Spieth], Rory [McIlroy] and Tiger [Woods] – and wherever those guys are going, that’s where I’m going to be.â€
"I don't think there’s a bigger achievement in golf than winning the Open Championship at St Andrews – and what better than in its 150th year.â€
Jon Rahm
Of all the players, it was Scheffler and Jon Rahm who seemed to be the most happily set for their linksland fortnight. Scheffler explained how he finally had picked up on the art of being fully invested in what he was doing on the course.
“It’s a terrible way of putting it, but there were shots I used to view as too easy,: he said. "Sometimes, you get up there and you're like, ‘Oh, this is an easy shot. The pin is in the middle of the green, and I don't have to focus as much.’ But that's golf, and it’s still really hard.â€
He added that when it comes to the links game, he is blessed with the ability to “see†the shots he needs to play. “When you’re at home in Dallas, you’re really dictated to by what the grain does, but out here there is no grain and you can bounce it and use the mounds and hills and whatever you want and you’re not limited by stuff that I’m limited by at home.
“Then when it comes to playing shots along the ground like I saw today, I’m going to hit the ball on the ground basically as quickly as possible whenever I can. It’s a little bit of a different style. You just see your shot and hit it. There’s no real technical shots. It’s all feel, and it’s all based on what I see.â€
Rahm, meanwhile, will have everyone setting off on their golfing holidays wondering if they, like him, have a swing which travels well, as opposed to one which is all over the place before ever they leave home. “I’ve been asked this question about my swing travelling well a couple times and I can tell you one thing,†said the Spaniard. “In one word, I’d say it’s consistency on the swing, consistency in the way I do things. I have a rather simple swing that allows me to pretty much play my game anywhere I go.â€
As for his concentration, there is something that has been so firmly embedded in his mind for so long that it is hardly a distraction. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen the images of Seve [Ballesteros] celebrating his winning putt at St Andrews in 1984, and it would be amazing to be able to join my name to the list of champions. To be honest, I don't think there’s a bigger achievement in golf than winning the Open Championship at St Andrews – and what better than in its 150th year.â€
Like all of the above, America’s Cameron Tringale, who entered the week 55th in the world ranking, was confident that he was doing the right thing in playing at The Renaissance, and all the more so after he had returned a record-equalling opening 9-under 61. “I love playing a tournament a week before a major, if I can,†he said. “I like to get warmed up and to get in that competitive mindset.â€
That is what’s needed for the days ahead. That and a situation where the legal goings-on around LIV Golf don’t interfere with the flow of the Open.
Perhaps the best moment of last week came shortly after Billy Horschel had made plain his anger at what he called the “hypocrites†playing the LIV series and the “lying†they had been spouting, or told to spout, about growing the game.
Ten or so minutes after he had disappeared, the deliciously truthful sentence, “I’m here for the money,†was ringing round the pressroom.
It came from the student working in the snack bar. Not for her any pretence at wanting to grow the hospitality industry. All she wanted was to pick up a few quid before finding herself a new teaching post in the UK.
Top: Scott Scheffler (right) and Jon Rahm are committed to the PGA Tour and trying to win the 150th Open.
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