“He’s paying wonderfully well so that’s a good position for Luke [Donald] to have choices of guys playing well, so if he were to pick Padraig [Harrington] I wouldn’t be surprised,” added Clarke.
The final Major Championship of the year is almost upon as, with Royal Liverpool welcoming the game’s best players for nature’s timeless test – The Open Championship.
There’s plenty of storylines to be told this week, with Matt Fitzpatrick being joined in the field by his brother Alex, Rory McIlroy chasing a first Major title since 2014 at the place he last won one and Matthew Jordan playing targeting a dream win at his home club after coming through Open Qualyifying.
Here, we take a look at the thoughts of the field from Monday at Royal Liverpool.
Rory McIlroy cancelled his press conference on Monday ahead of trying to end a nine-year Major Championship drought. This follows a similar theme to his approach at the U.S. Open when he dialled down on his media commitments following the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and PIF agreement announcement. However, he did speak briefly to Sky Sports and revealed he was trying to rekindle winning memories after picking up his last Major at Royal Liverpool in 2014.
“[Winning here] feels like such a long time ago,” said the Northern Irishman. You’re trying to rekindle the memories as I was driving from the airport last night and getting onto the Wirral.
“Pulling in here today, what I haven’t been here since 2014, so trying to get those memories back again and trying to re familiarise myself. ”
Matt and Alex Fitzpatrick will become the first professional English brothers to appear in the same Major in more than half a century at Hoylake, but Matt doesn’t fancy being paired with his brother in the final group on Sunday. Something he feels would be highly unlikely given his record at The Open.
“People ask, what would you do if you were in the final group [with Alex] on Sunday and I said, well, that would be kind of my worst nightmare, to be honest,” said Fitzpatrick.
He later added: “I would argue The Open is my weakest major, to be honest, so my expectations have probably got to match my previous results.
“I’ve got to be realistic about where I am, where my game is. It’s not obviously where I would like it to be. I think everyone would be like to be playing golf like Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler right now, but that’s pretty rare for the rest of us.
“I think for me, a good finish, all jokes aside, would be kind of top 30 this week, I really do.”
Cameron Smith may have given back the Claret Jug at the beginning of the week, but he fully intends to reclaim it after telling his mates it won’t be too long before they are drinking out of it again.
“I thought I was going to do all right, but I was actually holding back from tears,” Smith said in a pre-tournament press conference. “A bit of a moment, I guess, that crept up on me.
“I wasn’t like not letting it go. But it was just a bit of a moment that I guess you don’t think about and then all of a sudden it’s there, and, yeah, you want it back.
“I’ve been saying to all my mates, ‘it’ll only be a week and we’ll be drinking out of it again’. You never know, sometimes you can play your best golf at major championships and you can run fourth or fifth. Hopefully it’s another week like last year and I’m back with the trophy.”
Jon Rahm skipped last week’s Genesis Scottish Open, but his game still looks as sharp as ever as shown in the clip below…
Jon Rahm doing @JonRahmPGA things @TheOpen 👀pic.twitter.com/Nh4ceFR28v
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) July 17, 2023
“It would be a true honour to be able to call yourself an Open champion and join Seve’s name on that list,” said Rahm. “To me its the most prestigious tournament we have in golf, there is nothing like it.”
Former Ryder Cup Captain Darren Clarke believes two-time Champion Golfer of the Year, Padraig Harrington, is in with a great chance of being picked by Luke Donald for this year’s edition of the biennial contest.
“There’s competition there for spots, but the way Harrington’s been playing with us out in the Champion Tour, he’s hitting the ball further now than he’s ever hit the ball, his game is so solid to the green,” said Clarke, the winner of the Claret Jug in 2o11.
