World's best are drawn to the links
Whether is scouting Open venue or recreational side trips, the options get attention
NOTE TO SUBSCRIBERS: This week and next, during the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, The Daily Drive newsletter will be delivered in the afternoons to account for the time difference between the UK and U.S. Please check your inboxes in the afternoon to get reports before the Scottish and British Opens tee off in the wee hours.
Adam Scott surveys the scene at the Renassaince Club (Ross Parker/SNS Group via Getty Images)
NORTH BERWICK, Scotland — Adam Scott arrived a bit later than normal to the East Lothian area of Scotland, having first headed south to England to sample the venue for next week’s Open Championship.
Scott — the 2013 Masters champion who missed the cut at the U.S. Open last month where he was competing in his100th consecutive major championship — spent three days at Royal Birkdale, which will host the oldest championship for the 11th time.
He came away impressed by the venue after playing there for three consecutive days starting Sunday.
“Who wouldn’t want to play Birkdale, but to play it in the run-up to the tournament when nobody is there is fantastic,” Scott said at the Genesis Scottish Open, where he shot 69 on Thursday in the opening round at the Renaissance Club. “It’s one of the things I really enjoy about being in the Open. The course is closed and nobody is there. I’m basically out there by myself.”
Also in today’s DD …
Rory McIlroy’s sparse spring and summer schedule
Brooks Koepka’s PGA Tour playoff prospects
A good bit of Europe and most of England has been enduring a heat wave that is forecasted to continue next week, with temperatures expected in the upper 70s and low 80s at least the first part of Open week.
That means the course is extremely dry, with firm conditions expected but less rough than might be expected.
“They’ve kept it lush for now but all they have to do is turn it off for a day and it’ll be very fiery,” Scott said.
Links courses are so weather dependent. When Mark O’Meara won in a playoff in 1998 at Royal Birkdale, the winning score was even-par 280. Pádraig Harrington’s 2008 victory in weather that was mostly cold and rainy came at 3-over 283. But nine years ago, when Jordan Speith prevailed at Birkdale, he did so with a 12-under 268 total.
During the third round in 2017, Branden Grace shot 62 — the first player in major championship history to go that low. It has since been matched four times, twice at the 2023 U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club (Rickie Fowler and Xander Schauffele) and twice again at the 2024 PGA Championship at Valhalla (Schauffele and Shane Lowry).
With dry conditions and a lack of rough, we could be in for some good scoring next week, although Scott isn’t convinced it will be that easy.
“I didn’t start any day thinking there’s a 62 out there,” he said. “It was blowing 20 mph each day. There’s always someone who shoots a good score but they’ve pretty much got it so nobody is going to be cutting corners or able to overpower it. You have to play your way to spots there.”
Although it was not Scott himself who posted, some video was shared of him hitting a driver from a fairway at Royal Birkdale.
There was also video this week of Scottie Scheffler getting in some casual practice at the West Links in North Berwick — a popular spot with tour players this week including Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas.
Scheffler has not typically indulged much in recreational links golf over here but seems to be getting into it more, now that he is an Open champion.
“You can tell kind of why golf was invented here,” Scheffler said. “If you and I were to go out and play, you hit the ball I’m sure a little bit lower than me and probably not as far — no offense,” Scheffler said. “That style of golf works really well here, and you can hit a lot of clubs off the green. It’s not the same club every time, and it gives you an option. You can get some funny bounces sometimes.
“But it’s also a pure and raw way to play golf. The conditions change pretty quickly, and that could have an effect on a tournament. But when you have similar conditions over four days, it’s a pretty true test of golf. There’s always the weird bounce: You hit off-line and hit in a pot bunker and chip out sideways.
“Other times, you barely miss that bunker and get a clean lie out of the rough and hit on the middle of green. Those breaks always happen. They happen in regular tournaments, as well. This is a style of golf I wish we could play more often, but it’s not an easy style of golf to replicate. It’s unique to here and the coastal links courses, and it’s fun to play it a couple of weeks out of the year.”
Rory McIlroy got in some links work as well soon after getting to Europe following the U.S. Open. During the first round of the Travelers Championship that he was skipping, McIlroy was getting in a practice round at Royal Birkdale, one that might not have been disclosed had six-time major winner Nick Faldo been on site — where he ended up talking to McIlroy and filming him.
“Birkdale was definitely just a scouting trip for the Open for sure. I would have liked to have not had it known that I was there but Faldo couldn’t put his phone away, so,” McIlroy said, laughing. “I love Nick. In fairness, he’s great. I had a good time with him. He walked a few holes with me.”
While he only spent one day at Birkdale, McIlroy said it was valuable being there with his caddie, Harry Diamond.
“Harry came over with me. Harry actually played Birkdale the week before as well,” McIlroy said. “I think refamiliarizing myself with some of the holes but obviously Birkdale is a little bit different from what it was back in 2017, too. Just getting an early look at new holes. It just means it takes pressure off the start of the week and not feel like you have to play 18 holes any day, and if you want to just play nine, I feel like you can and not feel like you’re under prepared.”
McIlroy also indulged in some recreational links play in addition to attending Wimbledon in his green jacket with a host of European Ryder Cup mates.
“Then I played St Enodoc last Friday. And yeah, we spent four days down in Cornwall,” McIlroy said. “I had never heard of it before, and it’s I guess a top 100 course in the world. It’s really cool. But that was more just for enjoyment.
“You’re going out to play, but yeah, it’s nice, you start hitting the ball off links turf again and start to play in a little bit more wind. Your links instincts come back, even if it is for fun. The stuff that you’ve grown up with starts to come back to you.”
Rory’s dwindling schedule during peak season
We’ve written extensively in the last few weeks about Rory McIlroy being on track to finish short of the PGA Tour minimum of 15 tournaments this year to retain his membership for 2027. (For the uninitiated, McIlroy is required to play 15 due to getting unlimited releases as part of the “home tour” rule in Europe; his status as a lifetime member does not apply.)
McIlroy is playing just his 10th event of the year this week at the Genesis Scottish Open, where he opened the tournament with a 65. With next week’s Open and three FedEx Cup playoff events and no indication that he will add anything else, McIlroy is going to come up one tournament short of 15.
That is potentially an issue but likely not for him. Although McIlroy is not technically in violation of missing the tour minimum, he’s made clear in the past that he was going to play less. And while the PGA Tour can deny him membership next year, that would also mean fewer chances for the two-time Masters winner to play in PGA Tour events. PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp or commissioner Jay Monahan have discretionary options on this.
“The PGA Tour and I are in constant dialogue,” McIlroy said. “I speak to Brian and his team a lot. Not just about that but about everything else. We’ll figure it out. I made them aware that this could happen at the end of last year. They know.”
Will this become a big deal? It’s unlikely. Sure, some critics will be upset about a different set of rules being applied to a star player. But the tour leadership has an out. McIlroy knows it.
McIlroy has definitely cut back on how often he plays. He didn’t play in the three weeks prior to the Masters after the Players Championship. He played just once (at Quail Hollow) after his victory in Augusta prior to the PGA Championship. And then he teed it up just once again (Memorial) before the U.S. Open.
That is just five events in approximately three months. The Scottish marks his only start before the Open, meaning by the time Birkdale is over he will have played on seven tournaments (four of them majors) in four months since the Players in mid March.
“The benefits are seeing my family more, feeling like I have a bit more balance in my life,” said McIlroy, who opened the Scottish Open with a 65. “And then the challenge is, I feel like even though I have played pretty sparsely over the past few months, the starts of my tournaments have all been really good. So it’s not like I’m coming in and starting slow, and the little bit of extra practice I think actually helps in some ways.
“I think one of the other benefits for me, like I’m nearly 20 years into this, and I need to do everything I can to keep my enthusiasm as high as possible, and playing a lighter schedule definitely does that.”
Koepka’s playoff prospects reach point of urgency
With all the talk of his return to the PGA Tour this year after four years playing for LIV Golf, somewhat lost has been Brooks Koepka’s place in the game. The five-time major winner is still outside the top 100 in the Official World Golf Ranking (115th) and he began Scottish Open week 81st in FedEx Cup points.
As part of the terms of his return this year, Koepka was unable to accept sponsor invites into the signature events and was never able to qualify for any of them. He has five top-15 finishes this year but just one top-10, a tie for ninth at the Cognizant Classic.
“Good play takes care of itself,” said Koepka, who opened the Scottish Open with a 4-under 66. “I’ve got an opportunity to go out there and go play well this week. And next week is a major, so it’s a lot more opportunity to kind of move up the board, I guess, and just looking forward to that, and then hopefully kind of finish out the year pretty strong.”
Koepka needs to do some moving up quickly. He is currently outside of the top 70 who will qualify for the first playoff event at the FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis, which is only five weeks away. And he needs to be in the top 50 after that in order to qualify for the BMW Championship, which would assure him of getting into all of the signature events in 2027.
The BMW Championship this year happens to be at Bellerive in St. Louis, where Koepka won the 2018 PGA Championship.