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THE 153rd OPEN: 13 - 20 July 2025 ROYAL PORTRUSH


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Posted

Spiethcoaster was +1 on the 3 par 5's combined today -- and that includes sinking an 8ft putt for par on #12.

IMG_20250717_131516.jpg.2fd4ba7fce53510caaa1cf335bf402e6.jpg

He's currently +4 thru 12 holes with ZERO BIRDIES...

yikes 😬

Posted
56 minutes ago, ztejas said:

Peacock has some absolute douchenozzles calling this. 

I tend to blackout from my eyes rolling all the way to the back of my head every time someone in sports broadcasting utters, "At the height of their powers."

  • Haha 1
Posted
18 minutes ago, aggie08 said:

I tend to blackout from my eyes rolling all the way to the back of my head every time someone in sports broadcasting utters, "At the height of their powers."

The acme of their performance?

the apex of their deliverables?

Posted
3 minutes ago, dcar00 said:

The OG Justin with a smooth 1 under round.  Hook 'em! 

"Most surprising Open round? It came from 1 of the shortest hitters"

image.thumb.jpeg.658f10fe9ff6797eb02ac1156e14b461.jpeg

Justin Leonard isn't going to play every Open moving forward, but he's glad he gamed it for this one.

Quote

PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — Justin Leonard had five basic words for his first 18 holes at the 153rd Open. “It was really fun today,” he said with a big smile. Emphasis on the fun. 

If that feels overly simple, that’s what this sport and course will do to you. Open Championship golf at Royal Portrush is a maze of complexities that reduces even the TV talkers to plainness. By the time Leonard was quick-walking his way from the scoring area, that’s the glut of what he came up with. It was really fun. Frankly, not much more needed to be said. Other than, That was impressive, man!

Leonard is 53 years old, which is right around the age this game starts to forget about you. Players half your age hit it nearly twice as long. His continued presence at this tournament — an exemption until he’s 60 years old, for winning the Open 28 years ago — was questioned by many of the Internet’s most ruthless commenters. 

What’s he doing here? 

Leonard’s definitive answer arrived Thursday evening — a one-under 70, three shots back of the leaders. All at a tournament he’s not trying to win. 

“Look, it’s links golf,” Leonard said, still a bit reductive. “It’s a little different. I can use the ground. Everything doesn’t have to be in the air. That certainly helps.”

Sure does. Distance is so irrelevant here that even the topic of it — one of the most important topics at every other major this season — doesn’t even squeeze into press conferences. No one is talking about how far the ball flies. They’re talking about how much the rain and wind and firm turf send it offline. Leonard’s golf can play catchup a lot easier, as long as he’s hitting it straight. 

For that, he’s thankful for a little face time with his coach, who he normally just gets on FaceTime, because his coach is Mike Thomas, who spends most of his weeks tailing a different Justin, his son. (His other consigliere is Randy Smith, who devotes most of his time to a guy named Scottie Scheffler.) This is the first time Leonard has been able to work with Mike Thomas in person in four months. On Tuesday and Wednesday they resolved Leonard’s tendency to shut the clubface slightly during his takeaway, and through 18 holes it’s worked brilliantly. When those 18 holes push you squarely in position to make your first major championship cut in 11 years, you have no choice but to think up some lofty targets. 

 

“I think about Greg Norman back at — what was it — Birkdale [in 2008, at age 53],” Leonard said. “And obviously Tom [Watson] at Turnberry [at 59]. Look, I’m not trying to compare myself to those guys, but it does kind of give you a little, Okay! If I can have a really nice week with the putter, drive the ball well, do everything well — look, I’m not trying to win the golf tournament. But I can play well.”

He’s right about that. As much as the golf world is meant to obsess about the length of Bryson DeChambeau or prowess of Scheffler or importance of Rory McIlroy, there is a renaissance of sorts happening for players in their 40s. See: Justin Rose (-2), Sergio Garcia (-1), Adam Scott (+1). At least one of them seems to pop up at every major these days.

But at this one in particular, you can see a bit of magic kicked up by the generation before them. Fifty-five-year-old Phil Mickelson matched Leonard’s 70 on Thursday. Fifty-two-year-old Lee Westwood did them one better, shooting two under. Leonard admitted that arriving at a major championship after spending most of the year on the Champions Tour feels a bit like diving into the deep end of the pool. But also, why not? He had a tee time here if he wanted it. He loves the golf course. He’s playing the Senior Open next week in the London area. It felt like the right place for a good-golf layover.

“Look, it’s fun,” he said. “You got to be creative and sometimes you throw the number out the window. And just — you know — I enjoy it.”

He started simple, he ended simple. It might be that simple.

 

 

Hook 'em🤘

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted

The Open Championship: Second-round tee times, groups

All times Eastern; (a) amateur

1:35 a.m. — Stewart Cink, Matteo Manassero, Marc Leishman

1:46 a.m. — Francesco Molinari, Jesper Svensson, Connor Graham (a)

1:57 a.m. — Zach Johnson, Daniel Hillier, Daniel Brown

2:08 a.m. — Adam Scott, Rickie Fowler, Ethan Fang (a)

2:19 a.m. — Laurie Canter, Elvis Smylie, Sergio Garcia

2:30 a.m. — Andrew Novak, Matthieu Pavin, Matt Wallace

2:41 a.m. — Davis Thompson, Dean Burmester, Rikuya Hoshino

2:52 a.m. — Si Woo Kim, Shugo Imahira, Sebastian Cave (a)

3:03 a.m. — Michael Kim, Bud Cauley, John Parry

3:14 a.m. — Matt McCarty, Shaun Norris, Angel Hidalgo

3:25 a.m. — Keegan Bradley, Sungjae Im, Daniel Berger

3:36 a.m. — Rasmus Hojgaard, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Romain Langasque

3:47 a.m. — Aaron Rai, Sahith Theegala, Harry Hall

4:03 a.m. — Justin Leonard, Thriston Lawrence, Antoine Rozner

4:14 a.m. — J.T. Poston, Chris Kirk, Carlos Ortiz

4:25 a.m. — Brian Harman, Maverick McNealy, Joaquin Niemann

4:36 a.m. — Russell Henley, Tyrrell Hatton, Min Woo Lee

4:47 a.m. — Robert MacIntyre, Bryson DeChambeau, Justin Rose

4:58 a.m. — Jordan Spieth, Ludvig Aberg, Viktor Hovland

5:09 a.m. — Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Tommy Fleetwood

5:20 a.m. — Harris English, Nick Taylor, Tony Finau

5:31 a.m. — Lucas Glover, Jhonattan Vegas, Tom Kim

5:42 a.m. — Brian Campbell, John Catlin, Frazer Jones (a)

5:53 a.m. — Nathan Kimsey, Jason Kokrak, Cameron Adam (a)

6:04 a.m. — Daniel Young, Curtis Luck, Curtis Knipes

6:15 a.m. — Younghan Song, George Bloor, OJ Farrell

6:26 a.m. — Padraig Harrington, Nicolai Hojgaard, Tom McKibbin

6:47 a.m. — Louis Oosthuizen, Guido Migliozzi, K.J. Choi

6:58 a.m. — Cameron Smith, Marco Penge, Justin Hastings (a)

7:09 a.m. — Jason Day, Taylor Pendrith, Jacob Skov Olesen

7:20 a.m. — Phil Mickelson, Daniel van Tonder, Ryan Peake

7:31 a.m. — Max Greyserman, Byeong Hun An, Niklas Norgaard

7:42 a.m. — Jordan Smith, Haotong Li, Dustin Johnson

7:53 a.m. — Darren Clarke, Davis Riley, Lucas Herbert

8:04 a.m. — Kevin Yu, Julien Guerrier, Mikiya Akutsu

8:15 a.m. — Thomas Detry, Chris Gotterup, Lee Westwood

8:26 a.m. — Patrick Cantlay, Cameron Young, Mackenzie Hughes

8:37 a.m. — Thorbjorn Olesen, Matthew Jordan, Filip Jakubcik (a)

8:48 a.m. — Henrik Stenson, Stephan Jaeger, Sebastian Soderberg

9:04 a.m. — Kristoffer Reitan, Martin Couvra, Adrien Saddier

9:15 a.m. — Takumi Kanaya, Justin Walters, Bryan Newman (a)

9:26 a.m. — Hideki Matsuyama, Ryan Fox, Matt Fitzpatrick

9:37 a.m. — Sepp Straka, Ben Griffin, Akshay Bhatia

9:48 a.m. — Sam Burns, Aldrich Potgieter, Brooks Koepka

9:59 a.m. — Xander Schauffele, J.J. Spaun, Jon Rahm

10:10 a.m. — Scottie Scheffler, Shane Lowry, Collin Morikawa

10:21 a.m. — Corey Conners, Wyndham Clark, Tom Hoge

10:32 a.m. — Denny McCarthy, Nico Echavarria, Patrick Reed

10:43 a.m. — Matt Schmid, Ryggs Johnston, Richard Teder (a)

10:54 a.m. — Dylan Naidoo, Darren Fichardt, John Axelsen

11:05 a.m. — Justin Suh, Oliver Lindell, Jesper Sandborg

11:16 a.m. — Sadom Kaewkanjana, Riki Kawamoto, Sampson Zheng

 

  • Hook 'Em 2
Posted

Spieth moving along, well inside the cut line.

Weather incoming?  Could be a problem for the late wave, including Scottie. 

Posted

Also fuck Brian Harman. Can’t stand him. Would he play his way onto the Ryder Cup team if he wins?  Can’t imagine a worse fit for Bethpage. 

Posted
27 minutes ago, MrX said:

Also fuck Brian Harman. Can’t stand him. Would he play his way onto the Ryder Cup team if he wins?  Can’t imagine a worse fit for Bethpage. 

Why the hate?

Posted (edited)

Last 27 holes for Spiethcoaster best he's played in awhile... two poor putts from off the green in Rd2 resulted in his only 2 bogeys.

Nice to see his 6 birdies in those 27 holes... 🤘 

2nd Rd Scorecard...

IMG_20250718_092841.thumb.jpg.c4efae1c5bd9c9b696de3f31fd8ff3b6.jpg

Edited by LTtxfan
Posted
Last 27 holes for Spiethcoaster best he's played in awhile... two poor putts from off the green in Rd2 resulted in his only 2 bogeys.
Nice to see his 6 birdies in those 27 holes...  
2nd Rd Scorecard...
IMG_20250718_092841.thumb.jpg.c4efae1c5bd9c9b696de3f31fd8ff3b6.jpg

Also like 5 putts that were painfully close to dropping
  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted (edited)
8 minutes ago, TonyTexas said:

Scottie -3 on the day through 6. Scoring conditions are ideal. 

Yeah... Portrush is vulnerable for lower scoring in current conditions after small storm blew thru... 

Edited by LTtxfan
typo
Posted

I'd like to see Fitzpatrick & Lowry struggle rest of today -- announcers slobbering about local fan favorites is getting old.

Also would enjoy watching Hatton in a meltdown mode on a few holes during Saturday's round too 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Posted (edited)
46 minutes ago, TonyTexas said:

It seems like these storms at the Open Championship never have lightning. Is there a meteorological explanation for this. 

Best answer that I found...

IMG_20250718_130531.jpg.0b125479cdda1e6df1a601e3a1becec8.jpg

 

And if you love lightning... move to Tampa, FL  😎 

 

Edited by LTtxfan
  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted (edited)

Ok, another answer just for Blotto...

Why sometimes less lightning during rainstorms in Ireland ??

"Rain in a climate such as Ireland is most often stratiform. That is, it is created when moist air is lifted by a front, or by divergence in the upper troposphere. Thunderstorms with lightning involve buoyant air, which rises on its own due to its being warmer than its surroundings. Typically solar radiation is involved in heating the surface such that the air near it warms and becomes buoyant. That is more common in lower latitudes and locations that are typically sunny."

 

 

Edited by LTtxfan
  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted

⬆  Did Shane Lowry cause his ball to move?

That's the question that remained immediately unanswered after Lowry's ball moved ever so slightly after a practice swing on his second shot at No. 11. 

British Open: Shane Lowry in middle of golf rules conundrum

Lowry doesn't appear to be aware that his ball moved, and the only reason anyone saw it is because of technology. If it's determined that Lowry caused the ball to move, it would result in a 1-stroke penalty.

A rules official on USA Network wasn't sure if it was, in fact, Lowry who caused the ball to move or if it moved on its own, and really, how does one determine this with 100-percent certainty?

Does it look like Lowry caused the ball to move? Probably. But again, can anyone say this with absolute certainty?

As of now, Lowry carded a bogey 5 on the hole. That has him at -1 for the tournament ... for now.

Will he be assessed a penalty? That's yet to be determined as the R&A is still reviewing the footage.

 

Posted
15 minutes ago, TonyTexas said:

Cut line has moved to +1. (for now)

Yep. I have Ryan Fox as one of my golfers in my Open pool and he just got in at +2. I think we need a couple or three guys to slip to +2 to move it back there.

Posted (edited)
7 minutes ago, C-Man said:

Yep. I have Ryan Fox as one of my golfers in my Open pool and he just got in at +2. I think we need a couple or three guys to slip to +2 to move it back there.

The good news is you only need 1 to slip.  The bad news is there are only 5 players at +1 or even still on the course. 

Edited by TonyTexas

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