Viktor Hovland’s short game test was enough to mark anyone queasy.
Sean Zak
HOYLAKE, England — The 151st Open is upon us. Everyone who’s anyone in the golf world has made it to England’s Golf Coast and is getting their first taste of Royal Liverpool Golf Club.
Here’s what’s happening on the ground.
1. Controversial hole?
The hole that everyone is buzzing about — and not in the best way — is the new 15th at RLGC, played as the 17th this week during The Open. Nicknamed ’Little Eye,’ it plays in the exact opposite direction as it did in 2014. Designers flipped it around and shortened it, in part due to the fact that it’ll likely play into the wind. Also to give it the feeling of an island green on the 71st hole of the championship. Only the hazard here is not water, but deep, brutal greenside bunkers.
Jon Rahm dropped a few balls in the extremely penal right bunker Monday and struggled mightily to get close. His first try launched thin out of the sand, smacked the pin and fell off the back of the green. His next two spun as much as they could, but both rolled out eight feet beyond the center-cut pin. Lesson learned for everyone: there’s no getting close from that right bunker.
Sean Zak
2. Internal OB
You’re going to hear a lot about the internal out-of-bounds at Royal Liverpool, a feature that many people tend to despise. Well, if we choose that attitude this week, it’s in response to course features that have stood for multiple centuries.
The 3rd hole of the championship is a dogleg right that skirts along the outside of the members’ driving range, which is marked but a grassy hump. Anything to the right is O.B. Anything left is all good. The same sentence applies to the finishing par-5 18th, which could break some hearts with a left-to-right wind like we saw Monday. Tom Kim’s caddie Joe Skovron was out walking the course early Monday afternoon, and shot a grin, saying, ”They sure love their internal O.B. at this course, huh?” It was less annoyed and more challenge accepted. Just look out for players on both holes to favor the left side so much that they aim for the rough, and even try and hit through the rough to the shortgrass on another hole.
3. Going Green
Course conditions are a birthright talking point of any Open Championship, and this year is no different.
After baked-out conditions (famously) led Tiger Woods to win here in 2006 without hitting a single driver, it’s a fair bet that things will look slightly different in 2023. After loads of recent rain, the course is nowhere near as brown nor as bouncy as it was during that ‘06 test.
Instead, the course is more resembling Rory’s blistering 2014 victory here: green and, in the nasty areas, juicy.
But sharps, a word of caution: don’t take that to mean much of anything. As with every Open, this year’s winning score will be dependent upon the wind. There’s lots of it expected in the coming days, particularly on Thursday and Friday.
Things might not be as linksy as they were in ‘06, but if the breeze blows, look out.
4. Viktor Hovland’s hands
R&A officials have made one thing easy on media members this week: just a few steps from the media center is the short game area. Don’t be surprised when many of the same photos are shared of the leaders on the weekend. On Monday, we were gifted an exhibition in spin, launch, height and trajectory of shortsided chip shots by Viktor Hovland.
Sean Zak
Hovland dropped a couple of balls in an extremely shortsided area behind a bunker. These kind of lies, they just find you inevitably on a links course where bunkers serve as the defense of the property. Hovland opened up his wedge face and squeezed it in the millimeter of space between ball and turf. You would have thought there was no chance to stay short of the hole, but he somehow created enough spin to check it to a couple feet.
“That’s a great shot,” his coach Joe Mayo said. Emphasis on great.”
“Remember when you didn’t have these shots?” one reporter mentioned.
“Oh yeah,” Hovland said laughing. ”Not that long ago, too.”
A pro lacking in short game confidence may struggle this week. Hovland doesn’t seem to be short of it.
5. Home Game
It’s early, but the town of Hoylake has already picked its Open favorite: Mathew Jordan.
There is a car decorated for Jordan, a Hoylake native and Royal Liverpool member, at the entrance to town, and lots more goodwill circling the golf course, where a healthy collection of Scousers has taken to the local boy.
“Once I qualified, so many people told me, messaged me,” he said Monday. “They’re going to be here, they’re going to be loud, they’re going to offer me support.”
For a while, a spot in the Open seemed more like a pipedream. But after a brilliant qualifying performance, not only was he guaranteed a tee time — but one at his longtime home course.
“I think once the Open happened and golf became the No. 1 thing, then [playing in the Open is] what I always aspired to do,” he said. “It’s like, right, I’ve seen what I’d love to do. So that was always like in the back of my mind of yes, I really want to get there.”
As for how many members of the Jordan fan club will find themselves outside the ropes this week, he could only guess.
“A lot.”
6. The Wall
There’s a lot made about the circus that follows pro golf around the world, but the most interesting part of this year’s Open may be the one that won’t follow it.
To the normal visitor, the town of Hoylake feels like a military zone this week. A police perimeter has been set around the town center well outside the golf course, leaving those visiting for the tournament two choices: turn around or hoof it. Only those with a permit issued specially by the R&A can find their way inside the perimeter.
Past the first wall of security, you’re greeted by a wide array of temporary fencing, parking restrictions, and on a few well-populated sidewalks, barricades to separate those coming from going.
It’s all a bit strange, to be sure, but come a very crowded weekend, it could prove necessary.
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