The 151st Open Preview
Rory McIlroy has fully refilled his confidence tank.
After a mid-season slump, he's turned his game around and arrives at Hoylake on the heels of six straight top-10 finishes including a win at last week's Genesis Scottish Open.
Returning to the site of his 2014 romp at Royal Liverpool, it's no surprise to see him starting the week as a pre-tournament betting favorite.
There are 155 other golfers also teeing it up this week with the low 70 and ties advancing through the 36-hole cutline.
The Course
Royal Liverpool, also known as Hoylake to many, returns to the host role for this week's Open Championship.
We've seen this course host "recently" in 2006 and 2014 with the winners of those events being Tiger Woods (2006) and Rory McIlroy (2014).
With top-tier winners, you could say the course rewards good striking and Phil Mickelson said as much in 2014 when talking about Hoylake, "What I'm ultimately saying is well-struck shots are rewarded and poorly struck shots are penalized. And that's not always the case in links golf."
Previously played as a par 72, there have been some changes to the layout since 2014, and the course will now play as a par 71. Check out Brentley Romine's rundown of the course changes for an in-depth look at those course changes. The scorecard will read 7,383 yards this year which puts it behind only Carnoustie as the longest scorecard yardage among Open Championship courses.
Off the tee, Royal Liverpool is wide open and exposed to the elements. In true links fashion, there is no water in play but well-placed bunkers will prevent golfers from taking a bomb-and-gouge approach. They are true hazards so many of the holes will force golfers to lay back into the same landing areas and do the heavy lifting with their irons and short game.
Internal out-of-bounds will be a big talking point this week with the par-4 third hole being the most glaring example of this. There is internal OB lining the entire right side of the hole, just paces from the fairway and green.
Deep pot bunkers also guard the green complexes, again putting an emphasis on steady striking. The course is there for the taking if you can avoid the hazards but that is no easy task, especially if Mother Nature decides to blow from the coast.
The greens are average in size, at 6,458 square feet but the effective size is much smaller than that when you consider the firm conditions that will repel errant approach shots.
Looking at the turf, golfers will see fescue, as you would expect on a links layout, with the greens overseeded with Browntop bentgrass.
As for scoring conditions, the field averaged 72.37 in 2006 and 72.77 in 2014. So, the course was already tough (maybe not by major-championship standards) but will appear to be even tougher this time around, given the change from par 72 to par 71 for the 2023 edition.
Golfers to Watch
Rory McIlroy
He's the defending champ at Hoylake (2014) and also arrives off a win in Scotland. Trends are converging for the Northern Irishman who scooped up four major titles in his first 25 tries but has gone winless in his last 33 majors played.
Rickie Fowler
He recently snapped a winless drought of his own, hoisting the hardware in Detroit to secure his first win since the 2019 WM Phoenix Open. Fowler has three finishes of T-6 or better on his Open Championship resume including a runner-up finish at Royal Liverpool (2014). He was the only golfer within six shots of Rory's lead heading into Sunday.
Scottie Scheffler
The Texan had played in just two PGA Tour events (both as an amateur) when Hoylake last hosted this event. He doesn't have the course experience that many will have this week but does arrive with a T8 and T21 on his Open Championship resume. More importantly, he arrives with seven straight top-5 finishes on his recent game log.
Cameron Smith
He's the defending Champion Golfer of the Year and also arrives off a win in his most recent start, LIV London. No longer on the week-to-week radar, it's easy to dismiss his chances but Smith has plenty of confidence heading into the week, "I think as a golfer, I think I'm actually a better golfer now than what I was last year. I think the stuff that I had to clean up is progressing." While it's great to hear that confidence, on the flip side, Smith had finished outside of the top 30 in three of his first four tries at The Open before winning last year. With St. Andrews a bit of an outlier in terms of fairway forgiveness among courses in the Open rota, Smith's driving accuracy will play a huge role in determining his chances this week.
Jon Rahm
There has been a "Big Three" all season with Rory-Scheffler-Rahm separating themselves from the pack, statistically. Rahm won at Augusta National and contended at the Mexico Open but has been quiet otherwise in the lead-up to the final major of the season. Perhaps, it's no surprise then to see Rahm starting the week as a 12-1 outright while McIlroy and Scheffler are well into single digits (Rory at +675 and Scheffler at +730). Is Rahm undervalued or do his recent results paint an accurate picture of his chances this week?
Ranking the Field
1. Scottie Scheffler
2. Rory Mcilroy
3. Jon Rahm
4. Cameron Smith
5. Xander Schauffele
6. Viktor Hovland
7. Patrick Cantlay
8. Tyrrell Hatton
9. Brooks Koepka
10. Rickie Fowler
11. Tommy Fleetwood
12. Collin Morikawa
13. Tony Finau
14. Jordan Spieth
15. Dustin Johnson
16. Max Homa
17. Justin Rose
18. Matt Fitzpatrick
19. Wyndham Clark
20. Shane Lowry
