Why hole No. 1 is playing a big part in this year’s Open Championship

Portrush, Northern Ireland – Congratulations, JJ Spaun, you have reached the open championship for the first time in your career. Here is the first hole in Royal Portrush – there are limits on both sides. Be sure to hit him directly.

In your honor, Padraig Harrington; How to adjust your alarm for 4 am so you can hit the first ball from the whole tournament to this tight bowling track with a corridor at 6:35 am from the morning sound?

“There were a lot of second thoughts:” Why did I say yes? “Because of the TEE shooting. He spent his time on the range before hitting around 40 3-irons intermittently to familiarize himself with the wind and ended up having the hole sliced on the hole.” I assumed the starting blow as much as I could, so when I arrived today, it was not too bad. “

Welcome, Shane Lowry. Do not think that the opening hole – the 425 yards – becomes easier for someone who has already won this tournament here. With hundreds of fans that line the strings right next to the danger zones, the fairway might seem even narrower than you remember.

“The first starting stroke was not so simple,” said Lowry. “I didn’t feel very comfortable there.”

And and you, Rory McILroy? The shot that you hit in 2019 on this same tee, the one who left on the left and never stopped going to the left until he found the limits and led to a quadruple-bogey 8, is all that we can talk about this year’s open. Now you can try everything again.

Thursday, the scene when McILroy went to the first tee was like something of a film. The galleries were 20 deep and the tension in the air gave way to a strange silence. When McILroy appeared, the crowd nervously applauded. He again caught this iron to drive and took two training swings. He glanced at his giggling book and glanced at the flags to check the wind. Finally, he threw – the ball pierced in the air and started going to the left. This time, he remained within the limits.

“I think Rory made Tee shot much more scary. That’s all I could probably think of during the last three days,” said Tom McKibbin, also from Northern Ireland. “Yeah, a little nervous and a little frightened to hit this blow. I didn’t want to hit this bad blow.”

After McILroy missed a short putt for the peer and carded a Bogey, a fan of the galleries summed it up.

“Better than the last time.”

“I felt like I managed it today. I certainly treated it better than six years ago,” said McILroy about the opening hole. “I was just happy to take a good start and get into the tournament.”

Through a day of the 153rd open championship, there could be more difficult holes and harder fairways to strike, but the first hole at Royal Portrush became the clear antagonist. His starting stroke is a psychological mountain that each player must climb before he even settles in his turn. The way the big stands frame the box hides the wind, and the way the bunkers – at 275 and 290 meters – look at you can ensure that the most confident players question their strategy.

“He plays so hard. The wind, you don’t feel the good wind, but it’s out of the right,” said Thomas Detry. “You have to take the starting. Sometimes there are a few holes where you feel like you want to put it into play, but [here] You want to be a little more aggressive to give you a chance to make a better peer because it’s really long. “”

In a word, n ° 1 embodies the ethics of the course: stay on short grass – or. On the official website of the official course of Portrush, the description of the hole – named Hughie’s after the man who had the right side of the hole which is now out of the limits (the left side was an equestrian farm) – seduces his challenge.

“Pro tip: unless against the wind, take a wood of 3 or a long iron for your opening blow.”

It seems quite easy. Let the best golfers in the world say to you: this is not the case.

“Talk about getting involved in the swings. We warm up on the range, and it’s a bit out of the right and you are going a bit to a false feeling of security,” said Cameron Smith, open champion in 2022. “And then you get there, and it’s like” yeah, okay. You really have to intervene here. “I think I tried to hit this basement and I almost missed it.

Maybe you were saved by the harsh or the fetuque which supervises the fairway like McILroy was Thursday. Now you have a difficult shot with a bad lie probably towards a high green which is always firm despite the rain that fell throughout the day.

“You have to make it wire,” said Jason Day. “Once you are fierce, very difficult to control the ball that happens there.

Birdie? There were only 12 on n ° 1 Thursday. How about trying to peer?

Smith rushed to Bogey. Ben Griffin made a double. Matt Wallace was able to play the hole in the worst moment of the day: when the rain and the wind enjoyed stifling the route. In one way or another, it made a 4. At the end of the day, the hole made an average of 4.295 – fifth the hardest on the course – and only 55% of the players were able to hit the fairway, 70 meters wide, but feels about half.

For all its rigidity, the hole also displayed the many ways that players could do or break a score. The Young-Cho-Korean song was 200 meters in green; He sliced. Aldrich Potgieter had 168 yards; He made Bogey – the same score that Kj Choi even made his own ball even reached the fairway and that his second blow left him 249 yards on the pin.

The selection of clubs was fluid. Some players have given priority to the ball, others from a distance. Some, like Lowry, predicted a specific club in advance to opt for something that gave them a semblance of more security.

“There was no chance that I hit my 4 wood,” said Lowry. “I wanted to keep something out of the wind. So I said to myself, the biggest head in the bag, give it a tear. Fortunately, it was up.”

“With the fact that he was wet, he could go anywhere,” said Wallace about his starting coup. “The two iron would leave another iron to 2, so I went with the mini pilot. I hit a good one, but you then obtained a 6 iron iron and a very difficult iron. We played in the hardest time.”

Even player 1 in the world – who opted for a fairway wood – missed the fairway on the left on Thursday. Scottie Scheffler was able to make the peer again, but many others have not been; The hole has seen more than four times more bogeys, or worse, like birdies.

“For the moment, it was difficult, but you come out then and you play more holes, and it was almost a simple start to some others with the time we had,” said Nico Echavarria.

Echavarria is right. Several players have spent a lot of time talking about the difficulty of the 11th hole in particular, especially the TEE Thursday in this wind. While some of Portrush’s starting blows can upset in different ways, the intimidation of the first comes mainly from the way it appears to the naked eye. In other words, until you went to the first tee.

Conquering the first hole will not predict exactly the future success this week – whether during the rest of a player’s round or the rest of the tournament – but playing the hole can point out which players are confident in everything, from their selection of clubs in their ball to their mental approach.

After Thursday, with emotional starting blows and ceremonies in the rear view mirror, the hole may not feel as culminating, but its importance will remain.

“I am happy that the golf round is over,” said Lowry. “And I look forward to the rest of the week.”

Don’t be too comfortable yet.

“Today was not even so difficult,” said Matteo Manassero. “He can play even stronger.”