Portrush, Northern Ireland – Congratulations, JJ Spaun, you’ve been in the Open Championship for the first time in your career. This is the first hole in the Royal Portrush – there is no range on either side. Hit straight.
In your honor, Padraig Harrington. If I set the alarm to 4 at 4am, can I hit the first ball of the entire tournament at 6:35am towards this tight bowling alley in the hallway?
“There were a lot of thoughts, ‘Why did I say yes?’ for the tee shot. After spending time in the range he ended up pounding about 40 three irons intermittently to get used to the wind and create a birdie in the hole. “I hyped the tee shots as much as I could. When I got there today it wasn’t that bad.”
Welcome, Shane Laurie. Don’t think the opening hall (all of that 425 yards) will be easy for anyone who has won this tournament before. With hundreds of fans lined up ropes right next to the danger zone, the fairway may look smaller than you remember.
“The first tee shot wasn’t that easy,” Laurie said. “I wasn’t very comfortable there.”
And what about you, Rory McIlroy? The shot hit on the same tee in 2019 was the exact same tee, and didn’t stop him from going left until the boundary collapsed and leading to the quadruple 8. Now you can try it all.
The scene on Thursday, when McIlroy stepped up to his first tee, was something of a film. The gallery was 20 deep, and tensions in the air gave way to creepy silence. The crowd cheered nervously when McIlroy appeared. He grabbed the driving iron again and practiced twice. He glanced at Yard’s book and peered through the flag to check out the wind. Finally, he swung around – the ball thrusts low through the air and begins to move left. This time it stayed in range.
“I think Rory thought Tee was pretty scary. That’s all I could think of over the last three days,” said Tom McKibin, a native of Northern Ireland. “Yeah, I’m a little nervous and a little scared to hit that shot. I didn’t want to hit someone with a bad shot.”
After McIlroy missed a short putt on PAR and made a bogey card, gallery fans summarise it.
“It’s better than last time.”
“I felt like I was dealing with it really well today. I was definitely dealing with it more than I did six years ago,” McIlroy said of the opening hall. “I was happy to get off to a good start and get into the tournament.”
There may be tougher holes and more aggressive fairways throughout the day of the 153rd Open Championship, but the first hole in the Royal Portrush became a clear antagonist. That tee shot is a psychological mountain, and each player must climb before settling in his round. The way the tall grandstand surrounds the box hides the wind, while the way the bunkers return at 275 and 290 yards can even the most confident players can question their strategy.
“It’s playing so tough. Wind, you somehow don’t feel the right wind, but it’s on the right,” Thomas Detley said. “You have to take a tee shot. Sometimes there are some holes that make you feel like you want to play it, but (here) it’s really long so I want to be a little more offensive to give you the opportunity to make the par better.”
In a nutshell, No. 1 embody the spirit of the course. Stay on a short grass. On the official Portrush course website, descriptions of the hole, named after the man who owned the right side of the hole (on the left was a horse farm) – ask for the challenge.
“Pro tip: Take three trees or long irons for the opening tee shot, unless it’s against the wind.”
It sounds easy. Tell you to the best golfers in the world: That’s not the case.
“Talking about committing to a swing. We warm up the range. It kind of falls off the right and you lead yourself to a bit of a false sense of security,” said 2022 Open Champion Cameron Smith. “And you get there, and it’s like, ‘Yeah, okay. You really need to step up here.’ I think I tried to attack one of them underground, but it’s not the biggest start to a massive championship so far. ”
Maybe you’ve been saved by rough or fescue framed fairways like McIlroy was on Thursday. Now you’re probably making difficult shootings with bad lies and probably bad lies towards the high green that’s still solid despite the rain all day.
“You have to thread it,” Jason Day said. “Once you get roughly, very difficult to control the ball. The greens are so solid, it’s difficult to land the right distance. And you have to hit the fairway there and get yourself to at least get yourself to get to the green to give you a chance to birdie.”
birdie? On Thursday there were only 12 people in first place. How about just trying to make a par?
Smith scrambled for a bogey. Ben Griffin made a double. Matt Wallace began to drill holes at the worst of the day. When the rain and wind were happy to suffocate the course. Somehow, he made a 4. At the end of the day, Hall averaged A-score of 4.295 (5th the hardest on the course).
For all its stiffness, this hole showed many ways players could create and break scores. The Korean Young Han song was 200 yards on the green. He made birdies. The Aldrich Potgieter had 168 yards. He made a bogey – the same score KJ Choi made despite his own tee ball not even reaching the fairway and his second shot left him on the pin for 249 yards.
The choice of clubs was fluid. Some players prioritized flying the ball, while others ran over distance. Some people, like Lowry, plan a particular club in advance.
“It was not possible I was hitting my four woods,” Laurie said. “I wanted to stop something from the wind. So I was the biggest head in my bag, like tearing it and giving it. Thankfully I went straight.”
“It’s wet so you can go anywhere,” Wallace said of his tee shot. “The two irons put in another two irons, so I went with the mini driver. I hit a good driver, but then you got a strong, attractive 6-iron, 5-iron in a really difficult hole. We played in the most difficult moments.”
Even the world’s number one player who chose fairway wood missed the fairway that left Thursday. Scotty Schaeffler still managed to make pars, but others weren’t. The holes were seen as bogeys more than four times as much as birdies, or even worse.
“At this point, it was challenging, but you’re out there and you play more holes. And it was an almost simple tee shot compared to the weather we had,” Nico Echabaria said.
echavarria is correct. In particular, we spent plenty of time talking about how difficult Hole No. 11 is on Thursday amidst this wind. Some of Portrush’s tee shots are bothering you in many ways, but the initial threat comes primarily from how easy it looks to the naked eye. That is until you step up to the first tee.
Conquering the first hole does not accurately predict future success this week – whether it’s the rest of the player’s round or the rest of the tournament – but playing the hole well can show the player who is confident, from club choices to ball flights to mental approaches.
The hole may not feel climactic after Thursday, as there is an emotional tee shot and ceremony in the rearview mirror, but its importance remains.
“I’m happy that golf is over,” Laurie said. “And I look forward to the rest of the week.”
Don’t get too comfortable yet.
“It wasn’t that intense today,” Matteo Manassero said. “It can be played even more intensely.”