Mark Schlabach
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Mark Schlabach
ESPN Senior Author
Senior school soccer author
Creator of seven books on school soccer
Graduate of the College of Georgia
Paolo Uggetti
Jul 16, 2025, 07:22 AM ET
The 2025 Open Championship will get underway Thursday at 1:35 a.m. ET at Royal Portrush in Northern Eire.
Xander Schauffele is the defending champion, whereas Shane Lowry received the final time the Open was performed on the course in 2019.
Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy enter as No. 1 and No. 2 on the planet and winners of two of the 12 months’s first three majors.
Will the massive names battle it out on the high? What lengthy pictures may contend? And the way will Royal Portrush play over the subsequent 4 days? We attempt to reply a few of the largest questions heading into the 153rd Open.
Is Scottie Scheffler nonetheless the overwhelming favourite this week?
Scottie Scheffler is trying to win his first Open Championship. AP Picture/Peter Morrison
Mark Schlabach: The Open is the one main championship during which Scheffler hasn’t completed within the high three, however hyperlinks golf hasn’t precisely befuddled him. He has 4 top-25s in as many begins within the occasion, together with a tie for seventh at Royal Troon Golf Membership in Scotland final 12 months.
Hyperlinks golf would appear to suit the three-time main champion’s recreation completely. His world-class iron play shouldn’t go away him in too many tough spots, and on the uncommon event when he does miss the inexperienced, his distinctive brief recreation ought to have the ability to bail him out. His placing, which was as soon as thought-about a weak point, has improved dramatically; he ranks twenty second on tour in strokes gained placing (.362) this season.
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McIlroy, Jon Rahm and others are greater than able to lifting the Claret Jug on Sunday, however how are you going to go in opposition to Scheffler at this level? He hasn’t completed outdoors the highest 25 in every of his 15 begins on the PGA Tour this season, and he was within the high 10 in every of his previous 10.
Paolo Uggetti: Sure, however with a caveat. Whereas Scheffler hasn’t precisely carried out poorly at this main, as Mark identified, there may be some stress between Scheffler’s propensity for equity on a golf course and the essence of hyperlinks golf, which might usually straddle the road between truthful and unfair.
It seems, nevertheless, that Scheffler is attempting to embrace {that a} bit extra. It helps, too, that he considers Portrush on the fairer aspect of hyperlinks tracks, particularly its pot bunkers.
“I think some of the links courses I’ve played, it was kind of hit or miss when you went into a bunker what kind of lie you were going to get,” Scheffler mentioned. “There’s a lot more slope into the bunkers where the ball kind of funnels into the middle. I would argue that might be a little bit more fair than two guys hitting a similar shot and one guy has to putt it back into the bunker and the other guy has a clean lie.”
But, as at all times with Scheffler, it could simply come all the way down to his placing. Although he has improved in that space, he’s coming off per week on the Scottish Open the place he misplaced almost a stroke and a half to the sphere on the greens. That doesn’t precisely encourage confidence in his capability to deal with one other week of hyperlinks surfaces.
“I think getting adjusted to speed is always kind of the most important over here,” Scheffler mentioned. “Outside of that, putting is putting. Golf is still golf no matter where you’re playing.”
What do you count on from Rory McIlroy this week?
Schlabach: I’d be shocked if it doesn’t go a lot better than the final time we noticed McIlroy competing in an Open at Royal Portrush. Within the first Open Championship in Northern Eire in 68 years in 2019, McIlroy appeared overwhelmed by the expectations of being the gang favourite in his homeland.
On the primary tee, McIlroy pulled his drive left into inside out of bounds, resulting in a quadruple-bogey 8. He carded a double-bogey 5 on the sixteenth and triple-bogey 7 on the 18th, including as much as an 8-over 79 within the first spherical.
To McIlroy’s credit score, he rebounded to make seven birdies and one bogey within the second spherical, almost rallying to make the reduce with a 6-under 65.
“You get to an Open, it’s a major championship, everything that comes along with it, and I just think that feeling, the walk to the first tee and then that ovation, I was still a little surprised and a little taken aback, like, ‘Geez, these people really want me to win,’” McIlroy mentioned this week.
“I think that brought its own sort of pressure and more internally from myself and not really wanting to let people down. I guess it’s just something I didn’t mentally prepare for that day or that week. But I learned pretty quickly that one of my challenges, especially in a week like this, is controlling myself and controlling that battle.”
McIlroy and Eire’s Shane Lowry, who captured the Claret Jug in 2019, determine to have the most important galleries following them once more.
McIlroy’s recreation appears to be in a greater place after his post-Masters victory lull; he tied for sixth on the Vacationers Championship and for second on the Genesis Scottish Open.
He definitely has some fond reminiscences of Royal Portrush as nicely: He set the course document with a 61 as a 16-year-old.
Rory McIlroy is on the lookout for his second Open Championship title. Stuart Kerr/R&A/R&A by way of Getty Photos
Uggetti: For all of the speak about how McIlroy could be freed up after his Masters win and what has occurred as an alternative, it’s ironic and becoming that the place the place he has seemed maybe most snug and in his factor has been right here — in Scotland final week and Northern Eire this week.
McIlroy talked Monday about embracing the homecoming he is aware of he’s going to get from native followers as an alternative of isolating himself like he did in 2019. You’ll be able to already inform he’s doing that as he takes time to signal for followers and provides them nods and acknowledgments all through his observe rounds.
“I’m excited with where my game is. I felt like I showed some really good signs last week,” McIlroy, who completed second, mentioned. “I feel like I’m in a good spot and had — not that last week was a pure preparation week, but I definitely feel like it put me in a good spot heading into here.”
At this level, I might be extra shocked if McIlroy isn’t within the combine come the weekend than if he’s.
Ideas on Xander Schauffele’s protection?
Schlabach: It’s the final main championship of the 12 months and the ultimate shot at glory, and the reigning Champion Golfer of the 12 months may use one thing optimistic to salvage what has thus far been a misplaced season.
It’s not as if Schauffele has performed poorly this season; he hasn’t missed a reduce in 12 begins on tour and has seven top-25s. His marketing campaign merely feels incomplete after he missed eight weeks with a painful rib harm. His greatest finishes have been a tie for eighth on the Masters and final week’s Scottish Open.
It isn’t arduous to determine why Schauffele hasn’t received in 2025 after capturing his first two majors on the PGA Championship and The Open final season. He ranks 112th on tour in strokes gained off the tee (-.018) and 138th in placing (-.144).
Uggetti: The extra I hear Schauffele discuss, the extra I feel he’ll win a number of Open Championships, whether or not it’s this week or past.
It looks as if he has the perfect strategy and perspective towards hyperlinks golf in that he is aware of it is going to be tough, he is aware of it is going to be unpredictable and but he’s relishing the chance to grind via something the course and the circumstances throw at him.
“It’s just the mentality. I think, when you say links golf, it comes with weather, and when you play in bad weather, you have to have a good attitude,” Schauffele mentioned. “You have to visualize a lot more than just hitting your number on a machine.”
Schauffele hasn’t had what I think about is the follow-up he anticipated to a dream season final 12 months, however he’s clearly trending in the fitting path after a T-12 within the U.S. Open and a T-8 on the Scottish final week. If the circumstances get unruly this weekend, there aren’t many guys you’ll belief to excel. Schauffele is a kind of.
What to learn about Royal Portrush and the way you count on it to play this week
Royal Portrush hosted the Open Championship in 2019. AP Picture/Peter Morrison
Schlabach: It’s all going to rely on the climate and wind as a result of Royal Portrush is uncovered to the entire components on the northern tip of Northern Eire.
That being mentioned, Lowry and the remainder of the sphere loved unbelievable scoring circumstances within the first three rounds in 2019. The rain stayed away and the winds have been calm, as Lowry carded a bogey-free 63 on Saturday to set a 54-hole scoring document in The Open.
Then on Sunday, torrential rains and regular winds blew as Lowry and others held on.
“We’ll see how the weather turns out this week,” Scheffler mentioned. “Weather has a pretty dramatic effect on how the golf course is going to play. You can play your practice rounds and prepare, but ultimately when you step on the tee on Thursday, whatever the weather presents is going to be probably the strongest part of the test.”
Schauffele famous that the wind may even have an effect on golfers’ putts.
“Putting is always tricky with wind,” Schauffele mentioned. “There’s some holes where the mounds cover the greens and some holes that are more exposed where the wind is going to affect the ball on the green. I think whoever wins this week is an extremely well-rounded player.”
Uggetti: It may be gettable (see Lowry’s 63 in 2019) and it will probably additionally really feel unattainable relying on the power of the wind and the path. Above all, it should require a large amount of strategic decision-making.
Living proof: Throughout his Monday observe spherical, I watched McIlroy hit a driver right into a 400-yard par 4 after which 3-iron right into a 474-yard par 4. I watched him debate together with his caddie Harry Diamond for a couple of minutes about what membership to hit off the difficult fifteenth gap if it performed downwind.
As Scheffler and others have identified, Portrush is a hyperlinks course however it’s distinctive in that there are extra elevation adjustments than at most hyperlinks programs. This makes for an fascinating mixture of floor recreation and air recreation.
The gamers who can determine when it’s proper to make use of one or the opposite will seemingly be those preventing for the Claret Jug come Sunday.
One longer shot that might be in rivalry this week?
Schlabach: It wasn’t way back that 2022 U.S. Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick described his recreation as “rubbish,” and it had been some time for the reason that English golfer had been within the combine at one of many huge 4 till he tied for eighth on the PGA Championship at Quail Hole Membership in Could.
The 30-year-old doesn’t have a fantastic observe document in The Open, however he’s coming in with good kind after tying for eighth on the Rocket Basic and for fourth within the Scottish Open. If the climate will get difficult on the weekend, Fitzpatrick is greater than able to dealing with the circumstances, identical to he did at The Nation Membership in Brookline, Massachusetts, when he captured his first main.
Uggetti: How about Justin Rose? Not solely did he take McIlroy to a playoff on the Masters, however simply final 12 months at Royal Troon, Rose had an actual shot to win on the again 9 and got here up wanting Schauffele by solely two pictures.
Rose can also be coming off a formidable end on the Scottish Open, the place he shot 7 below within the closing spherical to leap all the way in which as much as sixth place. If Rose is ready to conjure up yet one more run at a serious this week and finish a 33-year drought for Englishmen within the Open it might be an epic story.
