Westwood like his ‘old’ self at Portrush
Late bad time threatens U.S. Open champion; Stray Shots; Whither Morikawa and Clark
Lee Westwood and his wife/caddie, Helen Storey, handle elements in Thursday 69 (Stuart Franklin/R&A via Getty Images)
PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — Royal Portrush on Thursday was sunny, then rainy and then, as an encore, windy for the opening round of the Open.
It was what Irishman Pádraig Harrington — who get the whole this started with the first tee shot and birdie of the day — would describe as perfect Open Championship weather.
For Lee Westwood, making his 28th start in a long-standing quest to win the Claret Jug, the experience was not unfamiliar. The 52-year-old Englishman has spent more than half his life — and cumulatively more than half a year — going from links course to links course in the rota to put both hands firmly on the Claret Jug.
His 28th try got off to a good start with a 2-under 69 to sit just two shots off the lead.
“I’d prefer not to get soaking wet,” Westwood said. “I was asked whether I’d rather have wind or rain yesterday, and I said wind for sure. So somebody heard me, didn’t they. We had a bit of everything. I don’t mind hiding behind the umbrella and having to run a few in, hit four extra clubs on some yardages.”
Westwood came closest to winning the Open in 2009 at Turnberry (T3), 2010 at St. Andrews (second) and 2013 at Muirfield (T3), with nothing but disappointment. He threatened again in 2019 at Royal Portrush, finishing fourth but a good distance behind runaway winner Shane Lowry.
At Turnberry, Westwood’s second shot over the green on the 72nd hole and the ensuing bogey punctuated a four-hole stretch of bogey-bogey-birdie-bogey to miss out on a playoff between eventual winner Stewart Cink and Tom Watson.
Four years later at Muirfield, Westwood owned the lead through 54 holes, but four bogeys over the last 12 holes opened the door for left-hander Phil Mickelson, who put on a clinic with his wedges and took the jug back to America. (Mickelson, at 55, shot his best opening round in the Open since a 63 in 2016 to sit just a shot behind Westwood on Thursday at 1-under 70.)
“I’ve had disasters out there when I’ve been doing well,” Westwood said after his bogey finish at Turnberry. “They can happen, and they generally do when it matters the most.”
Even in defeat, Westwood has remained philosophical about his quest for the Claret Jug. With 27 chances already under his belt, the Englishman has seen bright spots, but ultimately, failure has been the name of the game. In 96 career rounds before Thursday, Westwood has done everything in the Open but win (something similar to what can be said of his entire major résumé).
“I love the Open Championship, and I love Portrush,” Westwood said after posting his career 35th Open round under-par. “I’ve been coming here a long time. It’s one of the golf courses where, if it wasn’t the Open and somebody said, ‘Do you want to play Portrush this weekend?’ I’d probably go. There aren’t many golf courses like that.”
It’s the reason Westwood played in his first final qualifier in three years, taking medalist honors at West Lancashire.
His game was in fine form in the elements on Thursday, as he got as low as 4-under through 12 holes before bogeys at 14 and 16 dropped him out of a share of the lead.
“Everything, really,” Westwood said of what was working in a round that in his mind “probably should have been 6- or 7-under through 12.”
“Hit the ball well. Had loads of chances. Putted it great. The short game was good when I needed it. Yeah, it was all around — it couldn’t have been any more than 69.”
Westwood will need to keep doing that over the next three days and keep his wits about him. The Open, more than any other major, give him a chance at this stage in his career.
“Links golf, more than any golf, gives you a chance when you’re our age, shall I say?” Westwood said of he and fellow LIV Golf senior Mickelson on the leaderboard. “Yeah, there’s a bit more run on the ball. It’s not a golf course where it’s laid out where there’s a massive advantage to carrying a trap at, say, 310 yards, which I don’t have anymore. You’ve got to use the conditions and hold the ball up well in the side winds and crosswinds and be able to bring your ball flight down when you’re going into the wind.”
For 18 holes at least, Westwood is right on track.
“Can’t beat seeing your name up there on a Thursday,” Westwood said. “We’ll talk again if it’s up there on Sunday.”
J.J. Spaun is making his British Open debut as a U.S. Open champ (Stuart Franklin/R&A via Getty Images)
At end of long day, Spaun gets dinged
It was an eventful first day at Royal Portrush and the 153rd Open Championship, with a five-man peloton atop the leaderboard with 4-under 67s — Denmark’s Jacob Skov Olesen, China’s Li Haotong, England’s Matt Fitzpatrick, South Africa’s Christiaan Bezuidenhout and American Harris English.
Lurking within four shots of the leading fivesome are: at 3-under 68, Scottie Scheffler; at 1-under 70, Jon Rahm, Shane Lowry, Rory McIlroy and Sergio Garcia; and even-par 71 is defending champion Xander Schauffele.
It was a good day for many but not so much so for others. The R&A seemed to have little regard for the reigning U.S. Open champion, J.J. Spaun, playing in his first British Open. In Thursday’s first round, Spaun received a bad time while making bogey on the 18th hole to shoot 2-over 72 while playing with Schauffele and Rahm.
Spaun’s score clearly didn’t reflect any benefit of slow play yet has put him in a precarious position moving forward for the rest of the championship. Under the rules of golf, Spaun’s bad time carries forward to the remainder of the championship, so another bad time is an automatic one-stroke penalty.
Welcome to the Open Championship, Mr. Spaun.
Wind, rain, rough and difficult hole locations added to a day of slow play, but Spaun was the only recipient of a bad time.
“I think just with the conditions, I know it wasn’t super windy, it picked up as the round went on a bit, but it’s hard,” said Tyrrell Hatton, who sits one shot off the lead at 3-under, of the pace of play Thursday. “There’s a few bottleneck areas where you’re reaching par-5s in two, and that generally slows things down. I don’t really know what you can do with the field size. It’s, what, 154 is it?”
It’s actually 156, Tyrrell, but regardless the difficult course lent itself to rounds close to six hours.
“I would say the tee shot on 7, that felt quite hard because we waited a very long time there,” Hatton said of the most extended wait. “But for the rest of the round, it didn’t feel too bad in terms of getting out of sync. It was only really on the seventh tee that I noticeably felt a bit stiffer for waiting so long.”
Spaun didn’t talk after his round, but Portrush member Tom McKibbin did.
“It was tricky, some of the pin positions are really good,” McKibbin said. “They’re just over slopes. I played here so many times, and you would never even think of seeing pins where they are. It played pretty tricky.”
Tricky equates to slower play and longer rounds, and when you add in the elements, the day becomes close to intolerable.
Spaun plays in the afternoon on Friday. Let’s see if he can get his pace right. Otherwise, will we see one of the rarest sights in golf — a U.S. Open champion getting a stroke penalty?
Stray Shots: Whither Morikawa, Clark
By Peter Kaufman
1. Moribund Morikawa: In a shocker, Collin Morikawa missed the cut at the Genesis Scottish Open and the former Open champion is in jeopardy of doing the same at Royal Portrush after an opening 4-over 75. Apparently using his fourth caddie of 2025 is not the answer he is seeking.
Morikawa’s last six outings — T50 (PGA), T20, T23 (U.S. Open), T42, T8 and potentially two straight MCs overseas. Short off tee (149th on tour), below average with the putter (134th) aren’t supporting his quality tee-to-green and driving accuracy strengths.
Is it unthinkable that U.S. Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley might need to keep a close eye on Morikawa’s performance the next two months to deem him pick-worthy? Morikawa is world No. 6 — when will he start playing like that again?
2. Not welcome: Wyndham Clark has reportedly been banned from Oakmont indefinitely because of his locker room vandalism after missing the cut at the U.S. Open. Wow. The former U.S. Open champ can’t even have lunch there if he’s passing through Western Pennsylvania. He’ll need to stop at Subway for chow.
According to the Oakmont club board, any chance of Clark’s privileges being reinstated depends on: 1) full repayment for damages to the locker room (how could Clark have failed to do that already); 2) a “meaningful contribution to the charity of Oakmont’s choice;” and 3) the “successful completion of counseling and/or anger management sessions.”
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