Your Friday Frisson - To Ayr Is Human Edition

Feeling a bit guilty about the absence of content since Tuesday, so how about some bonus Friday musings?  I'll not keep you long, especially since I have Round 2 playing in the background.

The Leader - Whatever your view of The Da Vinci Code, this seems excessive by about seven:

British Open 2024: 7 things you need to know about Daniel Brown, the surprise Day 1 leader at Troon

But, will I need to know any of these seven things at the end of business today?  I'm going with a hard "No" here....

I watched about four hours of coverage, on tape so skewed towards the morning wave.  I did fast forward sufficiently to cover Tiger's first 4-5 holes, but completely missed the guys, like Brown, that went low late in the day.

Today in irrelevant firsts:

1. Brown is the first player in men’s major championship history to shoot a bogey-free 65 or lower in his first career major round.

Just think about that for a second. Of the thousands of golfers to have teed it up in a major, no one, not Bobby Jones, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer or Tiger Woods has been able to do what Brown accomplished on Thursday. It’s kind of humbling when you think about it.

He's a 29-year old Brit who got in through qualifying and went out at 4:16 p.m., in the penultimate group, so I'll not expect him to get much air time on Sunday.  Still, these guys are good, and there are thousands of them.

I mean, I think I like the guy, though based on this limited evidence:

7. Brown made a point after the round on Thursday that he didn’t want to make too big a deal of his accomplishment.

Yeah, it’s his first career major start, but Brown is here to win a tournament, not just have a magical first round. And to treat things differently simply because of a low score would potentially set himself up for a letdown later in the week. It’s why he says he didn’t want to take a picture of the leaderboard after his play.

“I'm sure some people will get them, but not me,” Brown said. I'm going to try and sort of keep my feet on the ground a bit and take on the job again tomorrow.”

The job of British Open leader … that sounds pretty good.

 Still, as much as I like it, get the picture, Dan, it might prove to be your only chance....

The biggest takeaway from Day One was the difficulty, mostly the result of a change in the wind direction, causing the outbound holes to play into a stiff breeze.  As a result, many alpha dogs will need to grind on Friday:

These notables are in danger of missing the cut after first day of the 2024 British Open

I'll just list them, not all of which are so shocking, then circle back with a few notes. 

Ludvig Aberg (4 over)

Bryson DeChambeau (5 over)

Tommy Fleetwood (5 over)

Tom Kim (5 over)

Max Homa (5 over)

Sahith Theegala (6 over)

Henrik Stenson (6 over)

Rory McIlroy (7 over)

Wyndham Clark (7 over)

Tiger Woods (8 over)

Cameron Smith (9 over)

Are you done laughing over Henrik's inclusion on this list?   And Tiger is now double-digits over par, so back to you, Monty.

I guess this is as good a time as any for this mini-Tour Confidential panel:

The first round of the 2024 Open Championship had everything it should have — rugged Scottish weather, unpredictable winds and, of course, players scratching their heads trying to get out of those pesky pot bunkers. Daniel Brown (six under) holds the lead after an eventful Day 1. What was the biggest surprise on Thursday at The Open?

Josh Sens: I’ll pluck the low-hanging fruit and go with Rory McIlroy’s seven-over opening round. No doubt he drew some of the worst of the weather, but a few of his stumbles — the OB

tee shot on 11, the indifferent wedge on 13 and so on — seemed as much mental glitches as anything. I’m not sure that anything in links golf counts as a true shocker — we’re supposed to expect the unexpected — but often what’s even harder to get a handle on these days is what’s going on in Rory’s head.

Josh Berhow: Daniel Brown is 29 years old and making his first major start, and before his 61st-place finish at the Genesis Scottish Open, he had missed six cuts and withdrew from another tournament in a seven-event span. So of course he leads! He birdied two of the last three and didn’t make a bogey for a brilliant major debut. But other than Brown’s surge up the leaderboard, the answer has to be Rory. Like so many others I thought he’d really bounce back this week, but we didn’t see that today.

Jack Hirsh: It’s Justin Thomas’ late-round recovery. He took the lead at four under, which, despite his opening-round 62 last week, is surprising on its own. But then his round could have gone off the rails when he couldn’t do anything with the best drive of the day on 11, doubled 12 and bogeyed 13. I thought we were heading for a 75 and eventually another missed cut in what’s been a long streak of bizarre play from the two-time major winner. But he righted the ship, knocked it stiff on 17, one of the toughest holes all day, and made a solid birdie putt at the last to grab the best round of the morning wave.

Ryan Barath: Rory’s first round was truly shocking, and to be fair so was Bryson DeChambeau’s. Both of these players handled tough conditions at Pinehurst extremely well, and today I was hoping to see them jockeying for position atop the leaderboard at Royal Troon — not sitting well below the potential cutline. If I had a second pick, I agree with Jack in that Justin Thomas’ recovery was not what I was expecting after his mid-round troubles. He still continues to struggle with consistency, and after the double bogey I was half expecting a full ejection.

Dylan Dethier: The biggest surprise, for me, was a delightful one: Troon played tough! I know the fellas snuck a couple low ones through at the end (shoutout Dan Brown) but the fact that only 17 pros are under par after the first round means good scores were well earned. The only thing better than an Open is a tough Open. Can’t wait for the rest of the week.

 A green shirt under a black sweater?  What is the man thinking?

But not sure I get Joel Beall's caution flag:

British Open 2024: Rory McIlroy stumbles to 78, but save your takes for another day

Don't see why I should eschew the snark, given that Rory's next event of importance is in, checking calendar, April.

It’s only Thursday, and Thursdays are not for extrapolating. A final round, hypothesize away. Final rounds are where someone’s spirit and heart are on the line with every shot, even though the shots from the days before count the same, because there’s a trophy to be grabbed or fumbled or remain just out of reach. The final round can only matter because of the round before it, and you better believe a round that ends with a cut matters too. But Thursdays? Extracting anything of substance from Thursdays can be a fool’s errand, if not wildly unfair to the player who authored the performance.

Which is a long way of saying, save your Rory McIlroy takes, at least until tomorrow.

Hmmm.... So you want us to focus on final rounds, with Pinehurst seared in our memories?

McIlroy, the man engaged in a forever war with who he once was against the hope of what he

could be again, is no closer to ending that battle at the Open Championship, a sloppy inward nine equating to a seven-over 78 on Thursday at Royal Troon.

“It felt OK. I've come in here playing really well. I played well at the Renaissance last week,” McIlroy said. “I think, if anything, it was more like the conditions got the better of me, those cross-winds … Then once we turned on that back nine, it was left-to-right winds. I was sort of struggling to hole the ball in that wind a little bit, and that got me.”

For the first few hours McIlroy held his own, bouncing back from an opening bogey with a birdie at the third. Yet links golf is like the Marines, rejecting anything less than good, and McIlroy didn't bring his best.

I don't like Rory's game in any wind, so maybe that's sufficient explanation.  But let me posit that this might bring Rory's caddie into the discussion as well.  The guys showed up Thursday and got thrown a curveball with the wind direction.  Sounds like the exact circumstances in which an experienced caddie is critical..... has Rory ever considered getting one of those?

Eamon Lynch has an amusing take on Bryson's day:

Conventional wisdom, grounded in a data sample compiled over the past 164 years, says the key to success in the Open Championship is more about art than analytics, that links golf itself is best

understood through poetry rather than pedagoguery. So it came as no surprise to learn Thursday that Bryson DeChambeau is taking the opposite tack in trying to solve a puzzle that continues to confound him.

His opening round in the 152nd Open was, as the Scots say, dreich — a word usually reserved for the dismal weather that has settled over the Ayrshire coast. Like a whiskey hangover, it began painfully and offered little respite. He was 6-over-par through eight holes. The skill for which he is most celebrated — the tee ball — was firing, but not much else. In approach play and putting, DeChambeau wasn’t close to breaking the top 120 in the 157-man field as the day wore on. He made 104 feet 5 inches of putts, but 54 feet 11 inches of that came on one stroke, an eagle putt on the 16th hole. He signed for a 5-over par round of 76.

Love the word "dreich", which feels almost Yiddish.

Though this will have eyes rolling:

“It’s something equipment-related. The golf ball is — look, I’m not at 190 ball speed, so particularly when I’m hitting driver or 3-wood, those clubs are built for around that speed, that 190 ball speed, and my 3-wood around 180, so colder, firmer conditions the golf ball is not compressing as much,” he said. “So it’s probably something along those lines.”

Yeah, that's the ticket.

Alan, Asked -  Time being a factor, I'll riff on a special Open Championship edition of Ask Alan:

Is Bobby Mac’s win tainted by that very questionable drop that was allowed? Asterisk win in my opinion. @mkloetz

I agree it felt egregious but professional golfers have always been aggressive in taking advantage of the rules. We’re gonna run out of asterisks if we give MacIntyre one and then apply the same smell test to all of his colleagues. Bottom line: The rules can help you as much as they can hurt you. Fans and reporters can kvetch about the spirit of the game but, in general, the pros are less sentimental; they go by the letter of the law. Bobby Mac’s drop was legal and therefore he is unbothered.

Patrick Reed was unavailable for comment....  Most certainly a lucky break, but divine provenance for sure, given the popularity of the win by the Local Hero.  Now we know why they cling to their metal spikes.

This is quite silly:

Should national opens be separated from tours and handled differently? I just feel that a national open should not be considered a “tour event.“ It tends to denigrate it. @StryderJa39237

I, too, am sentimental about national championships. They have so much history and gravitas. But, in the new golf landscape, I think it helps these proud tournaments to be aligned with a major circuit, specifically the PGA or European Tours. Just look at the better fields and increased buzz and exposure the Scottish Open has enjoyed in the last couple of years after the “strategic alliance” made it a full-blown PGA Tour event. Same goes for the Mexican Open. Conversely, look at how the Australian Open struggles to attract top talent despite its incredible history and venues. I would love to see the PGA and European Tours become more invested in the once-proud Opens that are now languishing, like the Japanese and South African. It would elevate the tournaments and tours.

Alan is mostly sensible here, though the issues in Australia cover what used to be a series of meaningful events.  But I'll not lose any sleep over the South African Open, thank you very much.

This looks different after his Thursday round:

What needs to happen at the Open to make this an A or A+ major season? Redemption for Rory? Bob wins on home turf? Scottie laps the field? @Q_Brunk

Bob is great fun but doesn’t move the needle that way. Not yet. It’s already been a pretty good major championship season. Scottie Scheffler snuffed out all the drama on Masters Sunday with his brilliance but it was a very significant win, stamping him as a player for the ages. Valhalla is a crappy venue but we got a lively shootout and very worthy champ in Xander Schauffele. The U.S. Open was epic. Right now, I’d say we’re at a B+. A Rory win at Troon would take this season to an entirely different level because of the emotional weight and historical import. Same with a Spieth renaissance. Bryson DeChambeau going back to back and usurping Scheffler as the game’s dominant force would be massive. Setting aside science fiction—Tiger or Phil coming back from the dead—I don’t see any other outcome that would shake the sports world.

 Reality is a bitch.  As I like Todd Hamilton's chances better than everyone he cites...

But we'll always have Sergio:

#AskAlan According to Sergio, his victory and the team victory were part and parcel of the biggest day in Spanish sports. Are LIVers really that out of touch? @david_troyan

Well, there are LIV loyalists and then there is Sergio who has an insurmountable lead in the world ranking of golfers suffering delusions of grandeur. Spain winning the Euros is a huge deal. Alcaraz taking a second straight Wimbledon is a source of tremendous national pride. Sergio winning LIV Andalucia is … vaguely noteworthy? There was a good crowd at Valderrama and all those Spaniards certainly delighted in Garcia’s win. But LIV results are lightly reported even in countries with golf-mad populations. In Spain, golf in general and LIV in particular have a long way to go to penetrate the national consciousness. But, hey, I guess we can’t begrudge Sergio getting caught up in the moment and wanting to make himself part of a very special day for his home country.

I'm thinking we can and must begrudge Sergio just about everything...

#AskAlan Where does Troon fit in your ranking of the Open rota? @Kevinp613

Aesthetically, at the bottom. It’s a flat, unimaginative, out-and-back layout with all of the charm confined to one hole, the Postage Stamp. When the back nine plays into a big wind, the course is a beast and it can’t be an accident that it has produced a roll call of big-time winners. Still, I must confess that Troon doesn’t do it for me. I rank the rota in this order: Royal Portrush, Old Course, Turnberry*, Birkdale, Muirfield, Carnoustie, St. George’s, Liverpool, Troon, Lytham.

I agree aesthetically, and I love that Alan thinks that highly of Portrush, with which I concur.  But Troon might be one of the best bets to resist low scores, not that we obsess the same way over there.  But Alan might just have to take Turnberry off that list, which is our loss.

Do LIV guys who win majors receive bonuses from LIV? @SamGrantHoya

Every contract out there is different. At least three of the biggest names have built-in bonuses for winning major championships but my sense is that a lot of players don’t. LIV deals in general are about guaranteed money, not speculative.

Why?  Are we worried about them making rent?

Any chance of the ruling bodies agreeing to a golf club rollback in my lifetime? Running out of courses here in the U.S. that are true tests. @apindara

There isn’t a single golf course on the planet that is long enough to properly test the pros. There are so many variables across golf courses that it would be a nightmare to try to regulate all of them, unless with a blanket rule like reducing the maximum clubhead size of drivers to 300 ccs, which I would support. It’s much easier to regulate the ball. Alas, the USGA’s current proposed rollback (realistically five percent for pros) is far too tepid and will not restore a meaningful balance to the game. I’d like to see a bifurcation whereby amateurs can play their current balls and the pros get dinged closer to 20 percent. Hopefully, the USGA is just getting started.

I'm not holding my breath, but let's see how their ball changes pan out. 

Your prediction: how many years from now until we see all of the best players in the world playing 15+ events together in a season? @Thomaskeyboard

It’s not going to happen as long as His Excellency Yasir Al-Rumayyan remains in power. LIV Golf is his baby and he is fully committed to funding it. That doesn’t change if/when the Saudi Public Investment Fund pours a billion (or two) dollars into PGA Tour Enterprises. LIV’s top players will still be committed to 14 events on that circuit. Throw in four majors and their schedules are already filling up, given that most top dogs only play around 25 events per season. If a deal is consummated between the PIF and PGATE, there will be some onramps for LIV golfers to compete in Tour events, but they are not going to have the time or inclination to play more than a handful each year.

 Not sure I miss them all that much, anyway.

Why not give Sergio David Duval’s spot in the open? @glennmcspadden

Ah, the annual Duval bashing is right on schedule! Poor Double D. He doesn’t set the rules for the Open. The R&A does. And every year, the R&A invites him to play, per his past champion status. Who wouldn’t enjoy a little junket to the linksland? It is a privilege he earned. The R&A is at fault here—it needs to make age 50 the cap for past champ exemptions.

 Why?  Are there greens that need damaging or cups requiring saliva?  Whatever we think of Duval, Sergio is where he belongs, in purgatory.

Have a great weekend and enjoy the Open.  We'll wrap it on Monday, then we leave for Scotland Tuesday night.