Australia’s Cameron Smith will defend his title when the 151st Open Championship takes place at Royal Liverpool Golf Club from July 20-23.
Smith is bidding to become the first player to retain the Claret Jug since Padraig Harrington (2007-08) as the Open returns to Hoylake, nine years after Rory McIlroy’s wire-to-wire victory.
Here, the PA news agency looks at some of the main contenders for the year’s final major championship.
Rory McIlroy
McIlroy enjoyed a purple patch of form the last time Hoylake staged the Open in 2014, holding off Sergio Garcia to claim a wire-to-wire victory and then winning his next two starts for good measure. The last of those, the US PGA Championship at Valhalla, remains his most recent major title and he was unable to convert a share of the 54-hole lead at St Andrews last year. McIlroy also finished second in the US Open, muttering “St Andrews all over again” to his manager after a closing round containing a solitary birdie at the opening hole.
Scottie Scheffler
Scheffler has been consistency personified in 2023, winning twice and finishing no worse than 12th in any event. A share of 10th in his title defence in the Masters is also his worst result in a major, the world number one finishing second in the US PGA and third in the US Open. Leads the PGA Tour in numerous statistical categories off the tee and into the green, but ranks a lowly 131st in putting and is contesting just his third Open at Hoylake.
Cameron Smith
Smith had already won twice in 2022, including the prestigious Players Championship, before securing his first major title thanks to a brilliant final round of 64 in the 150th Open at St Andrews. The Australian joined LIV Golf the following month but despite being unable to earn ranking points on the Saudi-funded breakaway, remains in the world’s top 10 thanks to finishing ninth in the US PGA and fourth in the US Open. Won his second LIV event in Hertfordshire 10 days before the start of the Open.
Rickie Fowler
Fowler was joint second behind McIlroy in 2014, a year in which he finished in the top five in all four majors, and won on a links course in 2015 when the Scottish Open was stage at Gullane. Suffered a loss of form in recent years but equalled the lowest round in major history last month with an opening 62 in the US Open at Los Angeles Country and ended a four-year winless drought on the PGA Tour two weeks later.
Tommy Fleetwood
Fleetwood came agonisingly close to winning his maiden PGA Tour title in last month’s Canadian Open, with home favourite Nick Taylor holing from 72 feet for an eagle on the fourth play-off hole. A week later the Ryder Cup star carded a final round of 63 in the US Open for the second time, earning him a tie for fifth. Runner-up to Shane Lowry in the 2019 Open and fourth last year, albeit having never been in contention at St Andrews. The Southport native will have plenty of support at nearby Hoylake.
A closer look at the hot streak of world number one Scottie Scheffler
Scottie Scheffler claimed his fourth win in five events on Monday when the weather-delayed RBC Heritage concluded at Hilton Head.
That run includes a second Masters title and has seen the world number one extend his sizeable lead over Rory McIlroy at the top of the rankings.
Here, the PA news agency looks at some of the facts and figures around Scheffler’s streak and how they compare to previous runs.
What makes Scheffler’s streak so impressive?Winning any event on the PGA Tour is difficult, but Scheffler has claimed two of the biggest in the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Players Championship, a major championship at Augusta National and the RBC Heritage, which boasted a stronger than usual field after being elevated to a Signature Event this season. Victory at Sawgrass made Scheffler the first player ever to win back-to-back Players titles. His only “failure” was a tie for second in the Houston Open.
Has this been done before?Scheffler is the first player to win four times in five starts on the PGA Tour since Tiger Woods, who did so at the end of 2007 and again to start 2008. He is also the third player in the last 30 years – after Woods and Vijay Singh (2004) – to win or finish runner-up in five consecutive starts on the PGA Tour. With many players taking a break after winning a major, Scheffler is also the first to win a PGA Tour event the week after claiming a green jacket since Bernhard Langer in 1985.
How much has Scheffler earned?Scheffler has banked an average of £3.17million for each of his four victories and “only” £448,000 for his five-way tie for second behind Stephan Jaeger in the Houston Open. The total sum of £13.14m would place Scheffler 145th on the PGA Tour’s career earnings list and he is closing in on the single-season record of £17million he set last year. In comparison, Woods won nine times on the PGA Tour in 2000, including three major titles, and never finished worse than 23rd in 20 starts. His prize money totalled £7.4m.
Does the world ranking reflect Scheffler’s dominance?In a word, yes. Ahead of the Genesis Invitational in mid-February, Rory McIlroy could have become world number one by winning at Riviera with Scheffler finishing third or worse. Now, Scheffler has more than double the total and average points of McIlroy, while the average points gap between the top two (7.6493) is bigger than that between McIlroy and the players tied for 4,123st in the standings.
So is Scheffler the most dominant player in world golf?Not quite. Hours before Scheffler completed his victory in Hilton Head, fellow American Nelly Korda had wrapped up a fifth consecutive win on the LPGA Tour by claiming her second major title in the Chevron Championship. Korda’s winning streak matches that of Nancy Lopez in 1978 and Annika Sorenstam in 2004-05, although her bid for an unprecedented sixth straight win will have to wait after she cited exhaustion when pulling out of this week’s event in Los Angeles. While Scheffler has earned £13.14m from his last five events, Korda’s five wins have been worth £1.94m.
Scottie Scheffler matches Tiger Woods achievement with fourth win in five
Masters champion Scottie Scheffler hailed his mental strength after making it four wins in five starts with a rain-delayed victory at the RBC Heritage.
Scheffler returned to Hilton Head on Monday morning holding a five-stroke lead with three holes to play after a storm halted proceedings on Sunday.
The world number one dropped a shot at the last to finish 19 under par, three shots ahead of fellow American Sahith Theegala, with Patrick Cantlay and Wyndham Clark another stroke back.
Scheffler is the first player to win a PGA Tour event the week after claiming the Green Jacket since Bernhard Langer in 1985 and the first to win four times in five starts on the US-based circuit since Tiger Woods in 2007-08.
Each of Scheffler’s last seven wins have come with at least eight of the world’s top 10 in the field and he is the third player in the last 30 years – after Woods and Vijay Singh – to win or finish runner-up in five consecutive starts on the PGA Tour.
“I was able to go home for a couple days and celebrate,” Scheffler said.
“I didn’t really put much thought into it. I had committed to playing the tournament here, it was part of the plan, so we stuck to the plan.
“I talked about it at the beginning of the week – I didn’t show up here just to have some sort of ceremony and have people tell me congratulations. I came here with a purpose, got off to a slow start but after that played some really nice golf.
“I do have fairly high expectations for myself and when I show up at tournaments, I try to do my best.
“I’ve talked a lot about kind of the preparation and what it takes for me to show up on a first tee ready to go, and I feel like I’ve been putting in the work and been playing some good golf, and it’s nice to be seeing some results for that with wins.
“On the course, I think the last month or so I’ve been as good mentally as I have in a long time and I think that’s why I am seeing some of the results.
“This week could be a good example of starting off and looking at the leaderboard on Thursday and everybody is just making birdie after birdie and I’m sitting there over par and I’ve had a shank on the day.
“I just did my best to stay patient and wait until I got hot.
“Had a nice finish to the round on Thursday and then had a really solid Friday where I felt like I played better than I scored, and then I had Saturday where I just played some really good golf.”
Rory McIlroy carded a final-round 74 to slip into a tie for 33rd.
Scottie Scheffler five strokes ahead with weather forcing a Monday finish
Scottie Scheffler has a five stroke lead with just three holes to play after rain halted play in the RBC Heritage on Sunday.
The US Open champion and world number one continued his great form at Hilton Head in South Carolina on the fourth day of the tournament, hitting an eagle and two birdies across 15 holes.
A storm stopped play for two and a half hours with darkness forcing a finish on Monday.
Fellow American Wyndham Clark had a strong day through his 18 holes, moving into second place with eight birdies and an eagle, but two bogeys and a double bogey stopped him from further encroaching on Scheffler’s lead.
Clark is tied with American’s Patrick Cantlay and J T Poston, who have one hole left to play and Sahith Theegala, who has three holes left to play.
Scheffler is looking for his fourth win in five starts.
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