Tag: 149th British Open

Brooks Koepka jabs Bryson DeChambeau again at British Open: ‘I love my driver’

Brooks Koepka is up to his usual tricks. That means taking jabs at his favorite foil, Bryson DeChambeau. “Drove the ball great. I love my driver,” Koepka said with a sly smile.

Brooks Koepka is up to his usual tricks.

That means taking jabs at his favorite foil, Bryson DeChambeau.

“Drove the ball great. I love my driver,” Koepka said with a sly smile of his TaylorMade model one day after DeChambeau whined that his Cobra driver “sucks.”

That also means being in the thick of another major championship trophy hunt. Koepka, a four-time major winner, held the lead on Sunday at the PGA Championship at Kiawah Island in May and climbed as close as one stroke back at the U.S. Open in June before faltering down the stretch on both occasions.

On Friday, Koepka made eight birdies, including on the final three holes at Royal St. George’s in Sandwich, England, to shoot 4-under 66 and stay within shouting distance of the lead at the midway point of the 149th British Open. It was his 41st round in the 60s in majors since 2016, most of any player in that span.

After shooting 1-under 69 on Thursday, Koepka, 31, overcame a sluggish start to his second round. He canceled out an early birdie at the second with a bogey at the third before making a costly double bogey at the fourth, where he didn’t love his tee shot.

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“Poor decision off four tee to hit 3-wood,” said Koepka, who talked his caddie, Ricky Elliot, into the club choice. Koepka compounded the error with a mental mistake with his sand wedge.

“I didn’t talk to Ricky for a hole and a half, I was so mad,” Koepka said.

He regained his cool with a birdie at five and two more on the front side to turn in 1-under 34. He shifted into overdrive on the closing stretch, making a birdie at the par-5 14th, a bogey at 15 and then the closing birdie barrage on the final three holes.

Koepka showed little ill effect from not touching a club in the previous two weeks since he competed at the Travelers Championship. That unusual approach leading into a major could be unsettling for Koepka, but he said it works well for him and who can complain with his performance?

“I’ve honed it for 20 years and it’s pretty much the same,” Koepka said of his swing. “Getting away and mentally re-charging is the key.”

Koepka improved to 5-under 135 and trails Louis Oosthuizen (thru 13 holes) by seven strokes and Collin Morikawa by four strokes.

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British Open: Rory McIlroy lacks sharpness in shooting pair of 70s, saying it’s close but not close enough

“It’s felt close, but it just hasn’t quite been close enough,” he said of the state of his game. “Just got to keep working on it and persist with it and keep my head down and keep going.”

Rory McIlroy’s game remains a work in progress.

The Northern Irishman finished with a birdie at 18 on Thursday to shoot even-par 70 in more difficult afternoon conditions and hoped to build on that momentum. But he opened his second round at Royal St. George’s in Sandwich, England, with two bogeys en route to shooting 70 again and enters the weekend at least nine strokes behind the leader at the midway point of the 149th British Open.

“Two bogeys in the first two holes sort of put me behind the 8-ball a little bit,” McIlroy said.

“It’s felt close, but it just hasn’t quite been close enough,” he added of the current state of his game. “Just got to keep working on it and persist with it and keep my head down and keep going.”

McIlroy battled back after the inauspicious start with birdies at Nos. 4, 9 and 12 to get into red figures, but made two late bogeys to spoil his slow climb up the leaderboard.

“Then a mental error on 16, trying to get too close with my tee shot. I hit a club that was barely going to get over the bunker if I hit it exactly right, it just didn’t quite cover,” he explained. “It sort of tempted me into trying to hit a really hard sand wedge and didn’t get that up-and-down.”

He compounded his error  by missing a short par putt at 17, but lessened the blow by finishing with a birdie for the second day.

“It was nice to birdie 18 and at least make sure that I’m here for the weekend because I think at 1 over I would have been sweating a little bit,” he said.

Rory McIlroy, British Open
Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy walks from the 8th tee during his first round on day one of The 149th British Open Golf Championship at Royal St George’s, Sandwich, England. (Photo by ANDY BUCHANAN)

Unless McIlroy makes a remarkable weekend charge, he will head to the Masters in April without a major title since the 2014 PGA Championship, a span of seven years. Asked if he was trying too hard to break his dry spell, he said, “Not at all. I’ve got four of them. Geez, look, I’ve got – I’m the luckiest guy in the world. I get to do what I love for a living. I have a beautiful family. My life is absolutely perfect at the minute. I want for nothing, so it’s not a case of trying too hard, for sure.”

But McIlroy also made clear that this isn’t a case of complacency either.

“It’s tough to be here and just say I’m glad to be here for the weekend, but the position I find myself in on the 18th tee, that’s the reality,” he said.

McIlroy, the Champion Golfer of the Year in 2014, lost his World No. 1 ranking last year and has slipped back to No. 11 in the world. He began working with instructor Pete Cowen ahead of the Masters in April and won the Wells Fargo Championship in May, but it hasn’t translated into major glory: missed cut at the Masters, T-49 at the PGA, T-7 at the U.S. Open. He’s dug himself a big hole at Royal St. George’s.

“If I was really on my game and sharp with how I’ve played the last two days, I probably could have been 6- or 7-under,” he said. “But it’s just not – it’s close, it’s just not close enough.”

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After an adjustment, Collin Morikawa takes control of 2021 British Open with 64 at Royal St. George’s

Morikawa opened with a 3-under-par 67 Thursday and then went all scorched earth on the links of Royal St. George’s in Sandwich, England, in Friday’s second round.

Playing links golf for the first time in last week’s Scottish Open, world No. 4 Collin Morikawa was befuddled by the sand-based, firm turf and tied for 71st.

“I had to adjust,” he said.

Turns out it didn’t take one of the elite ball-strikers in the game long to do just that. After changing irons to improve his contact through the turf heading into the 149th British Open, Morikawa opened with a 3-under-par 67 Thursday and then went all scorched earth on the links of Royal St. George’s in Sandwich, England, in Friday’s second round.

Pummeling the flagstick from near and far with spectacular iron play – he’s regularly referred to as Iron Byron – Morikawa threatened to equal or break the record for the lowest round ever shot in a men’s major before signing for a 6-under-par 64 to move to the top of the famous yellow leaderboards at 9 under.

He is three shots clear of the field halfway through the second round.

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Morikawa fell two shots short of equaling the major record of 62 set by Branden Grace in the 2017 Open at Royal Birkdale. Morikawa also fell one shot short of the tournament record at Royal St. George’s established in 1993 by Nick Faldo and Payne Stewart.

“I’m able to be fully committed. I feel confident with my irons again that I just didn’t have last week. It’s a learning process,” he said this week.

Morikawa made four birdies in five holes in the middle of the round and was 7 under through 14 before making his lone bogey on the par-4 15th, when an errant drive set up a rare missed green in regulation.

Morikawa also missed two shortish birdie attempts, including on the 18th hole.

Morikawa is in position to become the first to win two different debut majors. In 2020, he won the PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco in his first crack at the Wanamaker Trophy.

Morikawa, 24, has seven top-10s this year, including his fourth PGA Tour title coming in the World Golf Championships-Workday Championship and a runner-up finish in the Memorial. He also tied for eighth in the PGA Championship and tied for fourth in the U.S. Open.

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Can an Englishman win the British Open on home soil? Rose, Willett, Casey and others off to solid starts.

Could an English player end his country’s British Open drought at Royal St. George’s this week? Several candidates are in position to do it.

The English are coming, the English are coming!

That slight play on Paul Revere’s infamous words could apply to the leaderboard in the opening round of the British Open at Royal St. George’s in Sandwich, England. Four of the 27 English golfers in the field toured the classic links course along the English Channel in 3-under 67 and several others were in red figures and craving to be the first Englishman to claim the Claret Jug since Nick Faldo won his third jug in 1992 at Muirfield. An Englishman can also end an even longer national drought as the last victory on home soil was Tony Jacklin in 1969.

The English trio of Andy Sullivan (67), birthday boy Marcus Armitage (69) and Richard Bland (70) had the honors of being the first group out in the morning.

“It’s probably the one event of the year where you actually don’t mind getting up early,” Sullivan said. “You’ve always got a buzz to come and play the Open.”

Former Masters champion Danny Willett is among a gaggle of players tied with Sullivan at 3-under 67 as is Jack Senior, who hails from near Manchester, and was quite pleased with his bogey-free start. He and Sullivan, who teamed up in the foursomes sessions at the 2011 Walker Cup to go 2-0, explained the plethora of Union Jacks on the leaderboard thusly: “I just think it’s a typical English links day more than anything. There’s no rain about at the minute. That would make it even more an English links day. But yeah, I think that’s – obviously a lot of English guys have grown up playing links golf, are so used to playing links golf. Just the whole comfort thing really, it’s always nice to play at home.”

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But playing at home can be a double-edged sword. It’s tough to win in front of the home faithful. It can apply added pressure. I once asked Canadian instructor Sean Foley, longtime coach of Justin Rose, if it surprised him how long it had been for an Englishman since Faldo’s win at the Open and he said no and offered good perspective.

“When was the last time a Canadian won the Canadian Open?” Foley asked.

It was Pat Fletcher in 1954, for those wondering.

“When they start singing the Canadian anthem on the 15th hole, all of a sudden it’s not a 7-iron from 160 yards but a childhood dream coming true. It becomes about being the first since Faldo and remembering sitting on your grandfather’s lap watching the Open championship and thinking someday I’ll be there. It’s about all that. All these seeds that were put in the brain and the soul to get there. In that moment, the seeds have grown into an Amazon jungle and there isn’t much clarity. It’s probably going to be the hardest (major to win) because they want it so much.”

It hasn’t been for a lack of talent. With the likes of Lee Westwood, Luke Donald, Ian Poulter, Paul Casey and Rose, you’d think at least one of them would have etched their name on the famed trophy, but only Rose has an Open to his credit – the U.S. Open in 2013.

“I think there was a lean period of time where just basically it was just Westy flying the flag for us for the sort of late ’90s, early 2000s, and then a few of us began to sort of develop through,” Rose said after shooting 67 on Thursday. “Right now I think it’s probably as strong a chance as we’ve had, maybe even ever. The quality of golf that a lot of the guys are playing, Tommy (Fleetwood), Paul Casey, Poults, Matt Fitzpatrick, obviously myself, they’ve had an opportunity to win many majors with Westy, and Poulter has had a couple looks at the Masters. Listen, the lads can do it. I have no reason why. We’ve all grown up playing lots of links golf to be honest with you, and yeah, it should be a style of golf that we all relish.”

Rose, who burst on the scene with a T-4 finish at Royal Birkdale as a 17-year-old at the 1998 Open, made birdie at the first and salvaged a par at the last to shoot a bogey-free round and lift his spirits that this could be the year.

“Winning the Open in general would mean the world to me,” Rose said. “It’s the one championship that I’ve dreamed about winning more than any other, because you know it’s the pinnacle of golf for a British player.”

Count Casey, who birdied two of the first three holes en route to a bogey-free 68, among those who would give an arm or a leg, or maybe both, to achieve his childhood dream.

“I haven’t won one. I desperately want to, but I don’t feel like that’s adding pressure. I just feel excitement every time. It’s like an opportunity,” he said.

Said Rose: “Hopefully Royal St. George’s with the St. George’s cross is kind of a lucky omen this week.”

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A frustrated Bryson DeChambeau said his driver ‘sucks.’ Cobra, his driver maker, is not happy

Cobra’s tour operations manager on Bryson DeChambeau’s comments: “It’s just really, really painful when he says something that stupid.”

Bryson DeChambeau had a tough day at the office Thursday during the 149th British Open. Time and again, instead of hitting the fairway, the 2020 U.S. Open champion’s tee shots sailed into rough and knee-high fescue.

When it was all said done, DeChambeau signed for a 1-over 71 at Royal St. George’s Golf Club, having hit four of 14 fairways. Then he had some things to say about his equipment.

Asked if he thought he could still contend and win the tournament if he straightened out his tee shots, DeChambeau said, “If I can hit it down the middle of the fairway, that’s great, but with the driver right now, the driver sucks. It’s not a good face for me, and we’re still trying to figure out how to make it good on the mis-hits. I’m living on the razor’s edge, like I’ve told people for a long time.”

Even for a golfer who was frustrated by crosswinds and a tricky links course, the comment was surprising.

As DeChambeau uttered those words, Ben Schomin was getting ready for breakfast in Michigan. Schomin is Cobra’s tour operations manager and the man who caddied for DeChambeau two weeks ago at the Rocket Mortgage Classic after DeChambeau and his longtime caddie, Tim Tucker, parted ways. Schomin is also one of the people who designs and builds DeChambeau’s drivers and irons to very unique specifications.

“Everybody is bending over backwards. We’ve got multiple guys in R&D who are CAD’ing (computer-aided design) this and CAD-ing that, trying to get this and that into the pipeline faster. (Bryson) knows it,” Schomin said. “It’s just really, really painful when he says something that stupid.”

DeChambeau is currently using a Cobra Radspeed driver that is 46 inches long and has 5 degrees of loft. You won’t find a club like that in your local pro shop. They are all made specifically for DeChambeau.

“He has never really been happy, ever. Like, it’s very rare where he’s happy,” Schomin said. “Now he’s in a place where he’s swinging a 5-degree driver with 200 mph of ball speed. Everybody is looking for a magic bullet. Well, the magic bullet becomes harder and harder to find the faster you swing and the lower your loft gets.”

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Cobra and other manufacturers have data and detailed information about how driver heads behave under normal conditions because they have captured thousands of shots hit by recreational golfers and Tour players. However, there is almost no information on how drivers react when you get to DeChambeau’s speeds. Only a handful of people on the planet swing as fast as DeChambeau, and Cobra is in the business of selling clubs to the masses. It simply does not have a database to draw upon when creating DeChambeau’s gear. Schomin and Cobra’s R&D team are learning what works and what doesn’t in real time.

“So when he’s talking about the razor’s edge, we’re not going to be able to help that,” Schomin said. At DeChambeau’s speeds, every shortcoming in his swing or mis-hit is exponentially magnified.

In addition, manufacturing prototype driver heads for DeChambeau can take months.

“We’re trying to stay ahead of it, so we’ll place an order for 10 prototype heads and then, literally as soon as that order is placed, usually within a week or two, we might be ordering more of something else,” Schomin said.

The idea is to always have a few driver heads for Bryson that can act as a starting point when he wants to experiment or try something new. So far in 2021, Cobra has made seven prototype driver heads for DeChambeau, a number that might exceed what other star players have made for them in a decade.

“You know, it’s the longest club, with the least amount of loft that is swung the fastest,” Schomin said. “Every ingredient has been added to the difficult salad. Literally, it can’t be any more of a challenge. So it’s this constant work in progress.”

At best, a frustrated DeChambeau saying his driver sucks is unprofessional. At worst, it shows a lack of appreciation for the work and time Schomin and others at Cobra invest in making his gear.

Still, Schomin knows DeChambeau doesn’t mean it exactly the way he said it.

“It’s like an 8-year-old that gets mad at you,” he said. “They might fly off the handle and say, ‘I hate you.’ But then you go. ‘Whoa, no you don’t.’

“We know as adults that they really don’t mean that and I know that if I got him cornered right now and said, ‘What the hell did you say that for,’ he would say that he was mad. He didn’t really mean to say it that harshly. He knows how much everyone bends over backwards for him, but it’s still not cool.”

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Jordan Spieth, using new Titleist irons, cards six birdies Thursday at 2021 British Open

The new Titleist T100 irons are not yet available at retail, but Jordan Spieth put a set in play to climb the leaderboard at St. George’s.

Jordan Spieth, who shot 65 Thursday at Royal St. George’s Golf Club, went on a four-birdie run on the front nine to work his way up the leaderboard at the 2021 British Open. His putting was excellent, as it has been for much of 2021, but those birdie putts were set up by several outstanding shots the Texan hits with his new Titleist T100 irons.

Typically, in the days leading up to a major championship, golfers shy away from making substantive equipment changes. However, Spieth worked at home last week with Titleist’s director of player promotions, J.J. Van Wezenbeeck, and after thoroughly testing the yet-to-be-released-at-retail irons, decided to put them in his bag. He is using the T100 4-iron through 9-iron, and the clubs are fitted with the same Project X 6.5 shafts that Spieth had in his previous set of Titleist irons.

Titleist T100 iron topline
Titleist T100 irons have a thin topline, minimal offset and classic look at address. (David Dusek/Golfweek)

Titleist took the new T100 irons to the PGA Tour for the first time at the Travelers Championship in June, but Spieth saw them at a Titleist photo shoot in Dallas before the start of the AT&T Byron Nelson Championship. Van Wezenbeeck said Spieth immediately liked the looks and feel of the new irons and especially liked the way the clubs work through the turf.

Interestingly, this is not the first time Spieth has changed irons before starting a British Open. In 2019, on the eve of the British Open at Royal Portrush, he switched into Titleist’s first generation of the T100 irons.

In addition to adding the T100s this week, Spieth, who typically carries either a hybrid or a hollow-bodied driving iron, tested a Titleist T200 3-iron and 4-iron.

Titleist has not officially commented on the T100 or the T200 irons, or said when they would be available at retail. Still, if history is a guide, recreational golfers will see them in pro shops starting in September or October.

British Open: Why Louis Oosthuizen may be poised to break bridesmaid string and drink from the Claret Jug again

Louis Oosthuizen on finishing runner-up at majors six times since winning the 2010 British Open: “It’s good and horrible. I think it would be a lot worse if I didn’t have a major.”

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When Louis Oosthuizen won the 2010 British Open at The Old Course at St. Andrews, he treated the Claret Jug as if it were a holy vessel and one of the 10 Commandments had been thou shall not drink from the silver trophy.

“It was such a special thing, I didn’t want to,” he explained. “I didn’t think it was the right thing.”

His friends back home in South Africa had other ideas.

“In December (of 2010), I had some mates over at my house and I didn’t really have a choice. They said, ‘We’re drinking out of it whether you drink out of it or not,” Oosthuizen recalled on The Open Podcast.

They took turns drinking brandy and Coke, a South African favorite, Champagne and red wine. But since that runaway performance at St. Andrews, Oosthuizen has suffered his share of major misery. His runner-up finish to Spain’s Jon Rahm at the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines in June marked his sixth time as a bridesmaid, and second straight major being close but no cigar. (He finished two strokes behind Phil Mickelson at the PGA Championship in May.)

“It’s good and horrible,” Oosthuizen said on the Open podcast, which was recorded in 2020 before his latest close calls. “I think it would be a lot worse if I didn’t have a major.”

On the eve of the 149th British Open, Oosthuizen said, “You do feel a little disappointed afterwards, but I was outplayed by – with both of those majors this year, and just fell short. I can just do what I do and try and just go one better when I get to the next major.”

British Open: Tee times, TV | Odds and picks | Major payouts

One of the runner-up finishes that still stings happened at the 2015 Open at St. Andrews, where Zach Johnson pipped him in a three-man playoff.

“I still can’t believe it. I felt like no one could beat me around that golf course. I thought I was going to get it done,” Oosthuizen said.

To have a chance to win on the back nine on Sunday is all a player can hope for and then let the cards fall where they may. Oosthuizen watched the clutch putts that Rahm holed on the final two greens at Torrey and recognized that it was Rahm’s day. He still believes his time will come and he’s confident in his routine and plans to stick with what has been working pretty darn well, if not well enough.

“If it was a case where I completely collapsed the last four or five holes or something like that, it would be something I would look into a lot more. Like speak to someone. I might not be mentally strong enough or somewhere in my game and the pressure collapsed, but in those two cases,” he said, referring to the PGA and U.S. Open this year, “I don’t think that was the case. I played really well. Yeah, I hit an errant shot on 17 (at Torrey Pines), I took it on off the tee, but I was in it the whole time.

“If I can put myself in that position again and just try and aim better, I would be that insane person and try and do the same thing.”

NBC commentator Gary Koch agrees with Oosthuizen’s approach.

“If I was his sports psychologist, I’d be telling him to keep doing what he’s doing,” Koch said. “He keeps putting himself in position.”

“The one thing I would tell him is almost try and elongate the week,” said 1997 British Open champion Justin Leonard. “He seems to play beautiful golf at the first part of the week to get himself in position. Sunday hasn’t been his best day, so almost think of this week as maybe going a month long and make it into a four-week tournament where yes, he’s got a few days off in between or maybe a week off, but try and look further down the road so that come Sunday morning or Sunday afternoon when he’s teeing off, he doesn’t feel like he’s looking at the finish line but it’s more of the longer term process.”

The reason why Oosthuizen may contend yet again this week for the Claret Jug is his putting prowess. Always blessed with a beautiful swing, his putter held him back from being one of the elite players but not anymore.

“I always felt like I had too many days with my putting where it was hot and cold, and you can’t get a consistency,” he admitted. “I went back to a few things that I did as an amateur really and looked at a few things I did playing in 2010, the way I was putting, especially the week of The Open.”

This season, Oosthuizen ranks first in Strokes Gained: Putting. It’s why no one would be surprised to see him sipping out of the Claret Jug once more.

“It feels like a lifetime ago,” he said.

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British Open: Dustin Johnson sets a wedding date, returns to No. 1 and site of one of his epic major meltdowns

Dustin Johnson has some ominous history at Royal St. George’s, but the place is still among his favorite British Open venues.

Golf’s longest engagement appears to be headed to the altar. Dustin Johnson confirmed during his pre-championship press conference that a wedding date with Paulina, mother of his two children, has been set.

“Yeah, it’s next year,” said Johnson.

Whether or not he will hold the title of World No. 1 when he says, “I do,” still is to be determined. Johnson regained the pole position this week from Jon Rahm, but it is a tenuous hold in part because of Rahm’s hot run, which includes winning the U.S. Open last month, as well as Johnson’s sudden cold spell. Since the Genesis Invitational in February, he has recorded just one top-10 finish – a rather disappointing T-10 at that at the Palmetto Championship – and has been a non-factor at the three majors since slipping into his Green Jacket in November (missed cuts at the Masters in April, PGA in May and T-19 at the U.S. Open in June).

British Open: Tee times, TV | Odds and picks | Major payouts

“I need to step up my game a little bit,” he said.

Johnson, 37, is returning to one of his favorite courses on the Open rota, and one where he has enjoyed past success. He called St. Andrews his hands-down favorite British Open site – it will host next year’s 150th Open – but Royal St. George’s apparently isn’t too far behind.

“Put it down as No. 2,” he said.

What in particular does Johnson like about this year’s classic links test in Sandwich, England?

“You’ve got to hit golf shots, and you’ve got to hit them where you’re looking or you’re going to have a tough time,” he said. “For me, I feel like most of it’s going to be driving. If I can drive it well, then I feel like I’m going to have a really good week.”

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Royal St. George’s is the site of one of Johnson’s runner-up finishes at majors back before he’d nabbed the U.S. Open in 2016 and added the Masters less than a year ago. That was back when his ability to close at a major was a big question mark. He shot 72 in the final round, tying with Phil Mickelson two strokes behind champion Darren Clarke. Trailing by two at the par-5 14th on Sunday, Johnson had 261 yards into the wind and flared a 2-iron out of bounds. His chances of hoisting the Claret Jug, the silver trophy awarded custody for one year to the championship’s winner, all but ended there.

“That is absolutely shocking,” NBC’s Paul Azinger said at the time. “What was he thinking there? He had half of Kent to his left.”

“That was a long time ago, but obviously I have good memories here, and I did play well,” Johnson said. “Take that shot back, yeah, I’ve got a really good chance to win.”

And if he were to add the Claret Jug to his trophy cabinet, Johnson was asked both where winning it would rank – “It would definitely be right up at the top” – and what he’d drink from it – “Probably beer, I would say, would be the first thing.”

How sweet that would be.

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Lee Westwood on the verge of setting bittersweet record this week, but calls it a ‘nice record’

Westwood has racked up nine top-3 finishes in the majors, more than any player without a major to his credit, and 18 top-10 finishes.

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O-for-87, oh my.

That is Lee Westwood’s career record at the major championships. This week marks his 88th start at a major championship and should he fail to win at the 149th British Open at Royal St. George’s in Sandwich, England, he will earn a dubious distinction, breaking a tie with Jay Haas for the most major starts all-time without a victory. But the 48-year-old Englishman views his major shortcomings with a sense of pride.

“That’s nice, that record. It shows I’ve been a good player for a long, long time,” he said during his pre-championship press conference on Wednesday. “There’s not many people who have played in as many major championships as me.”

It’s not as if Westwood hasn’t had his chances. He’s racked up nine top-3 finishes in the majors, more than any player without a major to his credit, and 18 top-10 finishes. Surely, the former World No. 1 should have snagged at least one somewhere along the way, but he seems destined to finish his career like another dominant European Tour great, Colin Montgomerie, with that tag of Best Player Never to Win a Major.

“Another accolade, yeah. I love it,” he said. “Thank you.”

Despite his major shortcomings, Westwood continues to defy Father Time and enters this week ranked No. 29 in the world. He nearly picked off titles in back-to-back weeks at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Players Championship in March, and he married Helen Storey, who doubles as his caddie, ahead of the U.S. Open in June. In a show of his continuation of good form, he held the lead into the weekend at the Scottish Open before slipping back on the weekend to finish T-35 at 9 under.

“When you think 14-under, 26 holes to go, and 18-under is winning it, you should fancy your chances then,” Westwood said. “But obviously didn’t manage to finish that one off.”

A decade ago, here at Sandwich, Westwood watched his dear friend Darren Clarke end his own major-championship misery as a surprise winner at age 42. Could Westwood follow suit at the tournament he called his “favorite of the year?” He’d be the third-oldest major winner behind only Julius Boros and then 50-year-old sensation Phil Mickelson, who proved anything is possible at the PGA Championship in May and has since turned 51.

“I think he’s reached a level where he’s confident in what he’s doing, he knows what he’s doing, he knows what he’s good at, he knows his limitations, and he seems to be enjoying golf more than he ever has in his entire career,” said NBC/Golf Channel’s John Wood of Westwood. “I think that’s when he’s playing his best golf these days is when he’s trying to just enjoy it.”

Westwood missed the cut in his previous two attempts to be known as “The Champion Golfer of the Year,” at St. George’s, in 2003 and 2011.

“Kind of had it in my head a bit of a mental block that I didn’t like the golf course, but played it yesterday and really enjoyed it,” he said. “Loved the way it was set up,” adding, “just trying to look at it more positively than I’ve missed two cuts.”

It is through the same optimistic lens that Westwood chooses to look at his 0-for-87 record in the biggest championships and still show up at the starting line on Thursday believing that this time the outcome could be different.

“You just kind of load the dice to give you the best opportunities as possible,” he said. “You can’t do any more than that, and then you give them a roll and what happens happens.”

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