Meanwhile, the 152nd British Open has played out like a typical British Open in terms of wind, beating many players by vaguely similar scores and giving wind veterans a pat on the back heading into the weekend. Ireland’s Shane Lowry leads at 7 under, while Britain’s Justin Rose and major debutant Dan Brown are both at 5 under after surviving rough qualifying conditions. Lowry won the 2019 British Open at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland as the wind sang, the sky sank, the gallery cheered and the clouds cried tears of joy. Another, Scottie Scheffler, sits at 2 under after six wins this year and is ranked No. 1 in the world, but he hails from a windy place (Texas) and answers a question about whether he thinks his name stresses other players with his trademark bombastic language.
“Not really,” he said.
“I can’t wait to watch the action this weekend,” said McIlroy, who made a triple-bogey 8 on the fourth hole for an early exit. Major droughts are expected to reach 38 And it was his eighth time missing the cut at a major in that ridiculous span. Of Lawrie, he said: “He’s very creative. Just watching the reports over the last few days, I think any little cut he can make, especially in the first nine holes, will really help him. Yes, he’s enjoying these conditions. The British Open is his favourite tournament in the world. He’s passionate about this tournament more than anything. I’m looking forward to cheering him on and hopefully winning his second championship.” [claret] “Jug.”
He doesn’t have to contend with people who can’t stand the gale at Troon off the Firth of Clyde, which reaches optimal sailing levels in mid-afternoon, lashing, rattling and unsettling people right from the start, or at least before the turn, and leaving many wandering the moors in search of golf balls as if on a treasure hunt. He beat Tiger Woods in second place.He looked doomed when his tee shot veered left through gray skies and into a clump of vegetation, sending him to a 77 after a 79. He made a double bogey there, missing the cut for a third straight major and leaving him five months to look forward to a father-son tournament in December that he’s dubbed “our fifth major.”
Justin Thomas, who shot a controversial 68 on Thursday, dropped from third to 38th with a 78 after a series of poor performances – bogeys on the second, third, fourth and sixth, a double bogey on the fifth and a triple bogey on the ninth. After a 45 on the first nine, he put together a superhuman 33 on the last nine. Robert McIntyre, the 27-year-old Scotsman who won the Scottish Open with plenty of excitement and said he had plenty of drinks afterwards, finished the first four holes with 7-5-5-8, with two triple bogeys and eight over par. “It was a disaster,” he said. He too managed a 75 to pass the disaster cut by one stroke at six over par. Sahith Teegala had a triple bogey 8 on the sixth hole, Elvis Smiley had a triple bogey 8 on the fourth hole, David Puig had a triple bogey 8 on the fourth hole and Angel Hidalgo had a quadruple bogey 9 on the fourth hole.
The front and middle sections kicked the back section off a player of the calibre of 2023 U.S. Open champion and 2024 Olympian Wyndham Clark, who shot 80 and was in free fall at 16 over par to remain. Aguri Iwasaki, 26, a Japanese prospect, sprinkled his 91 with numbers rarely seen at such a highbrow event, including consecutive nines, five straight bogeys on the 13th hole and a rare six-in-a-row bogey on the par-3 14th, including three bunker shots four yards or less on the 14th hole.
“I think there’s three different sixes here,” the great Padraig Harrington said of the course’s continuity. “You’ve got six downhill – six holes where you hit into the wind like we played – and then you’ve got six in the middle, which is really tricky. Really tricky. There’s blind shots and gorse.”
Lawrie made a double bogey on the famous railway hole, the 11th, but said, “I was happy with a six, to be honest.”
Also worth reconsidering on that stage of the course is Joaquin Niemann’s five-stroke bogey at the tiny par-3 eighth hole, Postage Stump. He went into a greenside bunker, then into another greenside bunker. He went zero yards and stayed in that greenside bunker. He then went 27 yards into another greenside bunker.
Question: “So what was going through your mind as you set off from…?”
Nieman: “Bunker to bunker?”
Reporter: “From bunker to bunker.”
Nieman: “Just get me out of there.”
In a similar fate elsewhere, McIlroy hit his second shot two yards from his hometown near the fourth hole, predicting an eight. That left him in a realistic frame of mind, as he put it this year, a major where he “lost to the wind,” as he put it, referring to Friday at the Masters and Thursday and Friday here. “Yeah, I think once I shot eight on the fourth hole, that was it,” he said. “After 22 holes of the tournament” — he thought he could win the tournament — “and I’m thinking about where I’m going to go for my vacation next week.” He called it “a pretty meaningless 14 holes after that.”
The key holes are left to Rose, the 2013 U.S. Open champion who, at 43, is hoping for the best autumn of his career; Brown, who was “worn out” after leading in the first round but still held his own with a 72; and Lawry, who proved the overwhelming front-runner at Portrush. One observer asked if the pursuers should be worried. “I don’t know,” replied the genial Lawry, before quickly adding, “To be honest with you, with the way Scottie Scheffler is doing, I don’t know if he’s too worried about anybody.”
And another meaningful hole went to Max Homa, whose 28-foot ball rolled past McIlroy as he tried to make the cut, and when it hit the course, Homa screamed, calling it an “out-of-body experience.” “I never thought I’d scream like I’d won a golf tournament,” he said. McIlroy gave him his usual sweet hug afterwards, and he walked away with his usual slight frown because the day had been better than it should have been that night.
