Tag: 2024 Open Championship

Photos: The 152nd British Open at Royal Troon’s Old Course

Check out the scenes from Troon.

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The 2024 British Open was at Royal Troon, where the best players in the world battled both the world-class golf course and the elements.

Entering the week, world No. 1 and Masters champion Scottie Scheffler was the betting favorite at +450. He’s joined in the field by PGA Championship winner Xander Schauffele, U.S. Open winner Bryson DeChambeau and world No. 2 Rory McIlroy, among others.

Royal Troon is a par-71 golf course measuring 7,385 yards.

This week’s winner, on top of being crowned the Champion Golfer of the Year, will earn $3.1 million of the $17 million purse and 700 FedEx Cup points.

Check out some of the best photos from the British Open, where Xander Schauffele earned his second career major and second of 2024.

Things to know about the Claret Jug, awarded to the British Open winner

The Champion Golfer of the Year earns a big paycheck and of course the Claret Jug.

The Champion Golfer of the Year, aka the winner of the British Open, earns a large sum of money, many accolades and the historic Claret Jug. OK, not the Claret Jug. We can explain.

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There have been 151 Opens contested over the years but the trophy wasn’t yet created for the first nearly dozen tournaments.

And did you know that the Claret Jug has a lesser-known formal name of The Golf Champion Trophy?

But what about the trophy? Here are some more interesting facts about the Claret Jug.

Postage Stamp: You can watch every shot live on the shortest hole of all the British Open courses

It was once described as “a pitching surface skimmed down to the size of a postage stamp.”

It’s the shortest hole of them all in the British Open rota.

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It got its name from Willie Park Jr., who won the Open twice and later wrote about the eighth hole at Royal Troon’s Old Course for Golf Illustrated, calling the shortie “a pitching surface skimmed down to the size of a postage stamp.”

At the 152nd edition of the British Open, which gets underway Thursday, this pint-sized terror will challenge the field of 158. Overall, the par-71 course measures 7,385 yards but the offical yardage for No. 8 is 123 yards, although it can play as short as 99. The putting surface is surround by five bunkers. In 1950, amateur Hermann Tissies needed five shots to get out of one of the bunkers, leading him to post a 15.

In 2024, golf fans can watch every shot over all four days live on the R&A’s website. Called “Postage Stamp Live“, the live streaming channel will have all the shots, from the first golfer to the last.

The Royal Troon website offers this description of the hole:

“The tee is on high ground and a dropping shot is played over a gully to a long but extremely narrow green set into the side of a large sandhill. Two bunkers protect the left side of the green while a large crater bunker shields the approach. Any mistake on the right will find one of the two deep bunkers with near vertical faces. There is no safe way to play this hole, the ball must find the green with the tee-shot. Many top players have come to grief at this the shortest hole in Open Championship golf.”

Henrik Stenson, the most recent to win the Claret Jug at Royal Troon in 2016, said, “If you’re the kind of fan that wants to see carnage I can highly recommend going out to that eigth hole and sitting in that grandstand on a difficult day.”

Tiger Woods was asked about the hole during his Tuesday news conference.

“I hit 9-iron and a pitching wedge the last two times I played it. I’ve hit as much as a 7-iron,” he said. “But it’s a very simple hole; just hit the ball on the green. That’s it. Green good, miss green bad. It doesn’t get any more simple than that. You don’t need a 240-yard par-3 for it to be hard.”

NBC, USA and Peacock have live coverage of all the golf for all four rounds starting at 1:30 a.m. ET on Thursday.

Outgoing R&A CEO Martin Slumbers expresses concern for ‘financial sustainability’ in mens pro golf

“We must have a sustainable business model in the long term.”

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TROON, Scotland — Martin Slumbers, the outgoing CEO of the R&A, didn’t hold back his opinions on the state of the game on his way out the door, including voicing them on the growth of purses on Wednesday.

“I’ve expressed concern in recent years about financial sustainability in the men’s professional game,” he began during his press conference ahead of the 152nd British Open. “If we take a wider perspective on the game for a second, golf is in many ways riding on the crest of a wave.”

He noted that more than 100 million people experience the game in one form or another around the world and cited that the latest participation figures indicate 62.3 million played golf – not including the U.S. and other countries that the USGA govern, a rise of 1.1 million over the previous year.

“These are very encouraging figures, but we have to maintain this momentum. To do that, we must have a sustainable business model in the long term. If you look at golf as a pyramid, however strong the pyramid is at the top, it can only be sustained in the long term if the pyramid is equally strong at the base,” he explained. “We see that as our responsibility, and that is why we invest all of the proceeds from The Open back into the sport.”

That is why Slumbers said the rapid rise in tournament purses, which soared ever since the Saudi PIF started writing lucrative checks to renegade pros and the PGA Tour responded by jacking up its purses to prevent any more players from jumping ship, has to stop.

Nevertheless, Slumbers signed off on a purse increase of $500,000 to $17 million, with the Champion Golfer of the Year expected to earn $3.1 million. In 2016, the last time the Open was held at Troon, Henrik Stenson banked $1.5 million from a purse of $8.6 million. Asked to explain why that has increased so much, Slumbers said, “Inflation.”

Not even the price of eggs and gasoline have skyrocketed at the rate of golf tournaments. Of course, there’s an argument to be made that the players were underpaid and the governing bodies were keeping too large of a share of the record TV money they negotiated but earned off the back of the players. Competition, they say, is always a good thing.

“There’s clearly a market out there. We watch it week in and week out, throughout regular play as well as through the big events. So, yeah, we’re aware of what the numbers are, but we’re also aware of our own business model and the way we think about it, and as I keep saying, the importance to keep investing,” Slumbers said. “I look at this in a much bigger picture. It’s very easy to get binary and a little bit down a dark alley in this topic. If you think about a pie and that is the financial economic value of golf, and a part of that goes on development, a part of it goes on employing people, and a part of that goes into development of the game. What we’re really talking about in the whole of this is getting the balance between particularly the prize money and the investment into the game in a way that we can ensure that the pie grows, and if the pie grows, everybody does better. If you reallocate incorrectly within an existing pie, there’s a real danger that the pie will shrink.

“So that’s the way I think about it. That’s the way we try to model it, and I think it’s very important for the game to make sure that we think that way if we really want this game thriving 50 years from now.”

2024 British Open
Brian Harman poses with outgoing CEO of The R&A and Secretary of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, Martin Slumbers as Harman returns the Claret Jug ahead of the 152nd British Open at Royal Troon. (Andy Buchanan/AFP via Getty Images)

When Slumbers was informed that the Open ranks as the 28th highest-paying championship in golf, he responded by saying, “A, I didn’t know 28, and B, I don’t care. That’s not what this is about. Our responsibility is for what we do and for what we run is to get that balance right and get the choices to ensure the game is thriving 50 years from now. That’s the role of the R&A.”

Brian Harman, the defending Open champion, was asked if he would play if he got paid less or nothing at all.

“I would personally,” he said. “I’m not sure everyone would, but I would.”

Asked why he sensed others take their ball and go home if the purse was trimmed, he said, “Some people care more about money than I do, I suppose. I play golf for me. Like I play golf to see how good I can get at golf. I play golf because I enjoy torturing myself with things that are really hard to do. That’s just me. Most times when I get done with a tournament, I couldn’t tell you within commas of how much that I made that week.”

Slumbers stuck to his belief that the growth in prize money will flatten as it has in other sports. He’s resolute that the R&A not lose sight of the overall pyramid and the importance of both the bottom and the top for the game’s future growth.

“Because without one or the other, it won’t,” he said, recalling that between 2006 and 2018, golf had been in decline.

“I can remember my very first meeting with the media in my office when Peter (Dawson) was still in charge, and (a reporter) over there asked me quite rightly, ‘What are you going to do about golf participation?’ And I said, ‘There’s no silver bullet, and I don’t know the answer.’

“I don’t think we’re asking that question now. The question now is how much further can it go.”

Criticism towards Rory McIlroy’s caddie after U.S. Open loss doesn’t sit well with Shane Lowry: ‘It makes my blood boil’

“They don’t see how hard Harry works and how good he is for Rory.”

After Rory McIlroy’s stunning defeat at the U.S. Open last month, several media members and hundreds of fans criticized Harry Diamond, McIlroy’s caddie, for a lack of communication down the stretch.

For example, Smylie Kaufman had this to say during an appearance on Golf’s Subpar Podcast: “I felt like (caddie) Harry Diamond really should have stepped in on the 15th hole. He did not have the right club in his hands. And I felt like Rory could have taken control of the championship on 15 if he just hits it in the middle of the green. And he hit a good shot. But it just was the wrong club.”

Hank Haney commented on the same situation via social media: “If Steve Williams was Rory’s caddie I can promise you he would have never hit a perfect flighted 7-iron that rolled over the green on 15 into a terrible lie.”

McIlroy came to his looper’s defense before last week’s Genesis Scottish Open, where he’d go on to finish T-4, and now it’s another Irishman sticking up for Diamond.

“It makes my blood boil, to be honest,” Lowry told BBC Sport NI at Royal Troon before the 152nd Open Championship. “They don’t see how hard Harry works and how good he is for Rory. Just because he’s not standing in the middle of the tee box like other caddies who want to be seen and heard doesn’t mean that his voice isn’t heard by Rory.”

The Open: Tournament hub | Thursday tee times | Photos

It’d be tough to find another Tour player who spends more time with McIlroy and Diamond than Lowry. They have been friends for years, play practice rounds together before major championships, have been Ryder Cup teammates twice (2021, 2023) and represented Ireland at the 2021 Olympics. Plus, they won the Zurich Classic as a team earlier this season.

If anyone knows how well McIlroy and Diamond work together, it’s Lowry.

For the opening round of The Open, world No. 33 Lowry tees off Thursday at 9:59 a.m. ET alongside Cameron Smith and Matt Fitzpatrick. Rory McIlroy is grouped with Max Homa and Tyrrell Hatton at 5:09 a.m.

2024 British Open merchandise shop: Postage stamps, Claret Jugs and ‘Quiet Please’ among gear that overwhelm the senses

Here’s the best gear at Royal Troon.

TROON, Scotland — Bigger doesn’t always mean better but in the case of the merchandise shop at the 152nd British Open, a colossal structure situated in the vicinity of the third and 16th holes at Royal Troon, it could’ve been bigger but not sure it could’ve been much better. It has to rival Augusta National for the best shop in golf.

The line on Wednesday afternoon on a day baked in glorious sunshine —a good day for ice cream sales nearby —had a Disney-esque feel to it that nearly scared me off but it moved quicker than TSA at Edinburgh International Airport. Inside, Boss, the official apparel company of the Open, receives the best real estate in the front entrance but the championship is otherwise very brand agnostic. The list of companies hawking their wares is too long to name but the point is you had options. Actually, options galore and such items as a logoed doggy bowl for the pets, an assortment of stuffed animals for the kiddos and limited-edition whiskey for the thirsty.

They also leaned into the traditional yellow and blue of its scoreboard, the Claret Jug logo, tartan, the ever-popular “Quiet Please” signs and the Postage Stamp, which is a nice touch.

Other than feeling a bit claustrophobic, it was an enjoyable shopping experience right down to the lady who volunteered to run back behind the curtain and find my size.

Here are some of the best items at the 2024 British Open merchandise shop.

The Open: Tournament hub | Thursday tee times | Photos

Stamped with greatness: Royal Troon’s par-3 8th is short but tough as nails

“You don’t need a 240-yard par-3 for it to be hard,” Tiger Woods said.

TROON, Scotland – As past U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland opened his sand wedge wide and practiced in the sand, Brennan Little, his caddie, took one look at the bunker with three steps to help golfers descend into the pit and said, “That must be the coffin bunker. It really does look like a coffin.”

Colin Beard, a hole marshal and a member at nearby Troon Welbeck Golf Club, nodded in agreement and shot back, “It’s death to the average player. It’s a killer.”

“There’s no death for these guys,” Little responded. “They’re too good.”

“Just tell your guy, don’t hit it there,” advised Beard.

The eighth hole at Royal Troon is nicknamed The Postage Stamp, which sounds all warm and fuzzy, except it should come with one of those warnings on the side of a pack of cigarettes because it can be dangerous to a player’s health and his scorecard this week. At 123 yards, it measures as the shortest hole in the Open rota and as the fifth shortest hole in major championship history. It plays essentially the same distance – to a green 33-paces in width and almost 3,600-square feet in size – as it did 101 years ago when Troon first hosted the British Open. The L-shaped tee plays slightly downhill, with an elevation drop of 20 feet, and depending on the direction and strength of the wind it can be hit with just a flick of a wedge.

“It looks smaller than it really is as we stand trembling on the tee with some form of pitching club in hand,” wrote Bernard Darwin several years ago.

The Open: Tournament hub | Thursday tee times | Photos

And yet players may prefer a 3 o’clock root canal to trying to escape its fortress of bunkers, surrounding the front, right and left of the green. Architect and Troon club pro Willie Fernie, who won the British Open in 1883 at Musselbergh and was runner-up four times, is credited with creating the Postage Stamp, shortening a blind one-shotter over a dune with the Ailsa Craig in the distance. Players formerly used the hill to the left as a backboard but James Braid, a five-time British Open champ, put an end to that practice by installing the coffin bunker in 1922-23.

Willie Park Jr., who won the Open twice, gave the hole its moniker. Writing about the eighth hole for Golf Illustrated, he called the shortie “a pitching surface skimmed down to the size of a postage stamp.”

“It’s an unusual little hole that serves as a great anecdote to the power game of today,” said World Golf Hall of Fame member and noted course architect Ben Crenshaw.

The hole played to a scoring average of 3.09 in both 2004 and 2016, the two most recent times the Open was played here. It has given fits to some of the greatest, including Greg Norman, who shot a final-round 64 in 1989, but made his lone bogey of the day at No. 8. Three golfers have enjoyed exhilaration, acing the hole in the championship – Gene Sarazen in 1973 in his penultimate Open, little-known pro Dennis Edlund and past champion Ernie Els.

Justin Thomas, Tiger Woods and Max Homa play the eighth green, the Postage Stamp hole, during practice ahead of the 152nd British Open at Royal Troon in Scotland. (Andy Buchanan/AFP via Getty Images)

Jim “Bones” Mackay, who was on the bag for Phil Mickelson when he finished second in 2016 and will be working as an on-course reporter for NBC Sports this week, tabbed the Postage Stamp one of the top-five spectator holes in golf.

“And I may be underselling it. It may be one or two,” he said. “If I was a patron there this week and the gates opened, I’d be sprinting out there to spend the day. I just think it’s an incredible hole.”

Mackay said it may be short in stature but it will derail the dreams of someone in the field of 156 in quest of claiming the Claret Jug.

“I got really lucky that I didn’t caddie for anybody that had any train wrecks there. But as we go through the week, we’re going to see quite a few 2s and also some 5 or 6s,” Mackay said. “I can’t wait to see how it plays out this year, especially if we get a little bit of wind.”

Mackay’s NBC colleague, analyst Brad Faxon, seconded the motion.

“If you were going to put together your top 10 list of the best par-3s in the world, I don’t think anybody could leave the Postage Stamp out as one of the best holes in the world,” Faxon said. “It could be No. 1. It could be No. 3 or 5, but it can’t be outside the top 10.”

Indeed, the Postage Stamp is renowned as one of the great short holes, along the likes of No. 12 at Augusta National and No. 17 at TPC Sawgrass, but doesn’t quite get the attention those famed holes do mainly because disaster isn’t captured on TV for all to see every year. But the Postage Stamp does have one leg up on those other notable short par-3s: In 1994, the Royal Mail issued a postage stamp of The Postage Stamp. High praise for a hole that Tiger Woods described as a very simple hole.

“Hit the ball on the green. That’s it,” said Woods. “Green good, miss green bad. It doesn’t get any more simple than that.

“You don’t need a 240-yard par-3 for it to be hard.”

Lynch: Among Bryson DeChambeau’s many strengths, a glaring weakness remains — his intense need to be loved

DeChambeau is the most fascinating character in a game over-served with vanilla.

TROON, Scotland — There are umpteen ways in which Bryson DeChambeau has outmaneuvered his peers, not least in building the game’s most individualistic and powerful swing, and in tackling age-old equipment quandries with solutions that are as innovative as they are effective. He’s proven himself a thoroughly modern problem solver, but there’s one glaring Achilles that lurks near the surface, and which is also a decidedly modern trait.

DeChambeau desperately needs to be liked. Many people do, to be fair, moreso in a social media age when clicks on the ‘like’ button and reposts often impact self-worth. But it’s noteworthy to see a desire so obvious in a professional athlete, and potentially compromising in a man who is indisputably the most engaging figure in his sport.

On Tuesday at Royal Troon, DeChambeau was asked if the public perception of him has altered over the past year. “I think I’ve always been who I’ve been,” he said, before quickly contradicting himself. “I’ve definitely matured a lot. It’s been a growing process for me over the course of time. YouTube has massively helped, I can tell you that, being able to just release the emotions in the way that I know I can. When I was a kid, I was super emotional obviously, but I got frustrated on the golf course, I got really excited on the golf course.”

Open Championship: Thursday tee times | Odds, picks | Photos

DeChambeau says he was urged to suppress that emotion when he reached the PGA Tour, which has always prized conformity. “I don’t want to be someone that I’m not. Just really defining that and refining that to a place where I am today has been a lot of work in progress,” he explained. “It’s just taken time for me to have a better, bigger perspective on life and also having a platform where I can showcase that and refine it to a really cool, cool level and give people some great entertainment.”

Those words suggest that DeChambeau sees personality and platform as inseparable, that he found a safe space to be his authentic self via highly curated social media content. Yet the harsh reality of being in the public eye is that the message can’t always be controlled, a reminder delivered last week when Golfweek’s report on an acrimonious split with his former coach, Mike Schy, pierced the sterilized world he has constructed and stocked with paid staff and sycophants. “Look, it’s an unfortunate situation. I’ve loved that man for all of my life, and it’s a private matter that went public, unfortunately,” he said. “We tried to figure it out and make it make sense for everyone, and it just didn’t come out that way.”

DeChambeau’s play in the majors this year—a win at the U.S. Open, a near-win at the PGA Championship and a T-6 at the Masters—reminded fans of just why they were engaged by him before he went to LIV. Of course, engagement is a double-edged sword. There’s plenty of love—from fans, and often a fawning media corp—but also hate. The face-to-face world is mostly love, whereas hate dominates the social media sphere. The ability to tune out negativity is essential for public figures to retain some degree of sanity. DeChambeau clearly struggled with that, which is why going to LIV was probably good for him. He removed himself from the often toxic public square and found an audience, albeit minuscule, that was overwhelmingly welcoming of his presence.

DeChambeau admitted being criticized bothered him once, and in doing so inadvertently acknowledged it still matters. “You could say it’s bothered, but it was more of like, dang, I’m disappointed that people don’t see who I am,” he said. “It’s cool to get people to see who I am now. I’m just going to keep entertaining and showcasing to the fans what this great game is all about.”

DeChambeau gives the impression of a man who defines himself as a product—eager to change consumer sentiment and hopeful for kind reviews. It’s a smart way to sell, but less so a way to live. That perception of a manufactured man wasn’t helped when he offered this: “My social media team has been fantastic. They’re my best friends as well.”

For all his problem-solving skills, DeChambeau has yet to figure out the particular puzzle of links golf. If he does so this week and wins the 152nd Open, it would perhaps be the most impressive of his accomplishments. And yet he addressed that possibility in terms not of personal joy but of consumer reaction. “It would be awesome to let everybody touch the Claret Jug. That would be a dream come true,” he said.

DeChambeau is the most fascinating character in a game over-served with vanilla, and his re-emergence as a central character should be welcomed. There’s an obvious caveat though: he has performed well in the only three tournaments this year that exposed him to an audience of scale. That same audience he entertained at Augusta National, Valhalla and Pinehurst No. 2 will follow him to Royal Troon but hasn’t trailed him to LIV where viewing figures are so desultory they’re no longer made public. That helps explain the importance DeChambeau places on YouTube as a platform for keeping him relevant.

After this Open ends, a huge swathe of the fans who enthusiastically embraced him this spring and summer—many of them older and analog—will have to wait 260 days until the opening round of the Masters to get another fix. That’s a huge problem, both for the sport and for DeChambeau.

Scottie Scheffler takes different approach into 2024 British Open with history on the line

The first time Scottie Scheffler played links golf was 2021. Now he’s the favorite.

The first time Scottie Scheffler played links golf was 2021.

That’s right, the World No. 1 who is having one of the best seasons since Tiger Woods, didn’t play links golf until the Scottish Open in 2021. Now, he’s the favorite to win the 2024 British Open at Royal Troon, which begins Thursday in Scotland.

“Our Walker Cup was in the States. I never made the Palmer Cup to come over here and play,” Scheffler said Tuesday during his pre-tournament press conference. “Didn’t play any junior tournaments or anything like that over here.”

That means Scheffler is still learning, and it’s why he switched his preparation up heading into the final major championship of the year.

Scheffler’s last start came nearly a month ago at the Travelers Championship, which he won, topping Tom Kim in a playoff. Since then, it’s been time at home with Meredith and Bennett, trying to rest up before a busy stretch of golf that includes the British Open, Olympics and FedEx Cup Playoffs.

So instead of teeing it up last week at the Scottish Open, like most of the top players on the PGA Tour did, he spent time playing other courses in Scotland and then got in early at Troon to begin his chase for major No. 3.

“I felt like it was more important for me to get over here to this golf course and prepare, getting used to the conditions of the grass, the bunkers over here,” Scheffler said of his decision to skip the Scottish. “I just feel like you have to be more creative here. I love that part of it. I feel like, when I do come over here, this is really how golf was intended to be played.”

Creativity is something Scheffler knows all about, with his mesmerizing foot motion when he swings to his tantalizing ability to dominate any golf course.

At Troon, bunkers and wind are the main culprits of high scores. Both things are something Scheffler is familiar with handling.

“One of the things I liked that the R&A changed this year from last year was the bunkering. Last year I thought it was a bit silly how they flattened out each bunker,” Scheffler said. “The bunkers are still a penalty enough when the ball isn’t up against the lip. It was a bit of luck whether or not your ball would bury into the face because you have a flat bunker and a wall that’s going to go right into it.”

One of the things Scheffler has spent time working on is his ability to control the trajectory and spin of his shots into the wind. It’s something he has had practice at growing up and living in Texas, but the Scottish turf is another variable added to the ball-striking equation of links golf.

“The ball spins a touch more off this turf,” he said. “It was getting used to how much the ball will actually fly into the wind because when it blows that hard at home, let’s say typically when it does it’s a bit warmer.

“But with the ball being spinnier off the turf, if I tried to hit the shot that I did at home, it would almost spin even more off the turf and then go even shorter. So I had to learn to adjust and shallow out a little bit and hit it low without as much spin.”

He has six victories this season, the first player since Woods to do so on the PGA Tour. With a seventh win, it would further stake his claim on one of the greatest PGA Tour seasons of all-time.

In 1962, Arnold Palmer came to the Open Championship at Troon with six wins on the season. He left with seven and the Claret Jug.

“I love the history of the game, and there’s certain things that I know and certain things that I don’t. That was something that for some reason I just never stumbled across,” Scheffler said. “So I had no idea that that was a thing.”

And with another strong performance this week, it will just be another piece of history Scheffler has etched his name into from his spectacular season.

Why Rory McIlroy changed his phone number after U.S. Open heartbreak, and a text he never received from Tiger

McIlroy said he was touched that Woods would take the time to reach out to him.

TROON, Scotland — After his heart-breaking defeat at the U.S. Open last month, Rory McIlroy received texts message from three of the greatest athletes of all-time: Michael Jordan, Rafael Nadal and Tiger Woods.

“MJ was maybe the first person to text me after I missed the putt on the 18th but both of them got in touch very, very quickly,” McIlroy told The Guardian of messages from Jordan and Nadal. “They just told me to keep going. MJ reminded me of how many game-winning shots he missed. Really nice.”

McIlroy didn’t mention the message from Woods and for good reason. Speaking at his press conference ahead of the 2024 British Open on Tuesday, Woods detailed how he waited a week before sending a text to McIlroy, who he knew from experience would be, he put it, “besieged by a lot of things going on,” and chose “to let things cool down.”

Woods shared the gist of his message to McIlroy. “We’ve all been there as champions. We all lose. Unfortunately, it just happened, and the raw emotion of it, it’s still there, and it’s going to be there for, I’m sure, some time,” Woods said. “The faster he’s able to get back on a horse and get back into contention, like he did last week, the better it is for him.”

Only thing is, McIlroy never got the message.

“Full disclosure, I changed my number two days after the U.S. Open, so I didn’t get it until he told me about it today,” McIlroy said at his press conference. “I was like, ‘Oh, thanks very much.’ So I blanked Tiger Woods, which is probably not a good thing.”

McIlroy said he was touched that Woods would take the time to reach out to him and appreciated that he waited to do so – if only he hadn’t switched numbers.

British Open: Tournament hub | Odds, picks | Photos

“If he hadn’t have waited that long, I probably would have got it,” McIlroy said. “But I caught up with him earlier. It’s always nice when your hero and the guy that you had on your bedroom wall is reaching out and offering words of encouragement.”

And why exactly did McIlroy feel the need to change his phone number just days after he made bogey on three of the final four holes to lose by one at Pinehurst No. 2?

“From the time I left Pinehurst to the time I walked through my front door on Sunday night, I probably got about 10 or 15 text messages from media members, and I was like, it’s probably time to get a new number,” McIlroy explained. “Create a bit of space.”

McIlroy laughed at the suggestion that he officially made changing phone numbers the sixth stage of grief, but when asked when he finally reached the acceptance stage of his latest setback to end his nearly 10-year winless drought in the majors, he noted people would be surprised how quickly he got over it and moved on.

“I would say maybe like three or four days after, went from being very disappointed and dejected to trying to focus on the positives to then wanting to learn from the negatives and then getting to the point where you become enthusiastic and motivated to go again,” he said. “It’s funny how your mindset can go from I don’t want to see a golf course for a month to like four days later being can’t wait to get another shot at it. When that disappointment turns to motivation, that’s when it’s time to go again.”

But the 35-year-old McIlroy, who missed two putts inside of four feet in the final three holes, also pointed out that this Pinehurst pain paled in comparison to some other defeats, none more so in recent years than letting a three-shot lead on 10 slip away at St. Andrews in 2022, site of the 150th Open, when he was left reduced to tears.

“St. Andrews hurt way more than this one,” McIlroy told The Guardian. “Oh, my God, I didn’t cry after this.”

When McIlroy issued his first public remarks after speeding away from the Pinehurst parking lot without speaking to the media, he ended with a shot across the bow to the doubters who suggest he will be scarred by Pinehurst. “I feel closer to winning my next major championship than I ever have,” he wrote on social media.

When McIlroy fell short of Wyndham Clark at the 2023 U.S. Open, he said he would endure 100 Sundays like that just to win another major championship. Well, it can’t get much worse than Pinehurst. And he’s right when he says that if the tournament ended after 68 holes, “people would be calling me the best golfer in the world.”

In the immediate aftermath of the U.S. Open, he withdrew from the Travelers Championship and went to New York to decompress. He walked the High Line in Manhattan on Tuesday with headphones in his ears and while he was recognized by a few people, he enjoyed blending in and spending about an hour on the phone with mental coach Bob Rotella, who noted McIlroy’s pre-shot routine had become too long.

“The positives far outweigh the negatives but the negatives were pretty big,” he said. “You have to learn from it.”

So McIlroy got back on the horse last week at the Genesis Scottish Open, where he finished T-4 in his title defense, and heads into the final major with a new phone number, a shorter pre-shot routine and a renewed desire to claim a fifth major title.

“I’d love to be able to play the golf and get one over the line, but as soon as I do that, people are going to say, well, when are you going to win your sixth?” he said. “So it’s never-ending.”