The Open Championship is not only golf’s oldest major, having been around since 1860, but The Open is the oldest golf tournament of any kind in the world.
Also known as the British Open, the 2025 Open Championship will begin on Thursday from Royal Portrush Golf Club in Northern Ireland.
The setting, itself, is one of the key storylines of the final major of the year, as the 2025 British Open is the 153rd edition of the event, but it will be just the third to take place outside of England or Scotland.
Here are some other subplots to follow for The Open, which will see the first grouping tee off at 1:35 a.m. ET on Thursday.
Scheffler Seeking First Claret Jug
While not to the magnitude of Tiger Woods during his prime, any conversation with golf currently begins and ends with Scottie Scheffler. He claimed his third major earlier this year at the PGA Championship and is seeking his first victory at the major he’s struggled the most at. He has no top-five finishes across four prior British Open starts, while he has at least a pair of top-fives at every other major.
However, his success this year on tour has been something that hasn’t been seen in two decades. He has 10 straight top 10s, which is two shy of matching the PGA Tour record of Vijay Singh in 2003-04. Even with that, just two days before The Open, Scheffler admitted that winning isn’t fulfilling because “it’s going to be awesome for two minutes.”
Reflecting he said, “It’s fulfilling from the sense of accomplishment, but it’s not fulfilling from a sense of the deepest places of your heart.”
Imagine how dominant he would be if he did find winning more fulfilling? The three-time major winner is the biggest Open Championship favorite since Woods in 2009 and will be in a trio alongside Collin Morikawa and Shane Lowry for Rounds 1 and 2.
Will the Brits End their Drought?
The British Open used to be dominated by the British as they won each of the first 35 editions of the tournament. However, with the rise of golf in the rest of the world, the United Kingdom’s sovereignty has ended, and their victories have dried up as of late.
Not since Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy prevailed in 2014 has a British golfer won The Open. Other Europeans, Americans and one Australian have all won since then, as McIlroy stands as the UK’s best chance of taking home the trophy.
Outside of him, there’s Englishmen Tommy Fleetwood, Tyrell Hatton and Matt Fitzpatrick as well as Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre among a host of Brits hoping to finally break through.
DeChambeau Still Searching for ‘It’ at The Open
A two-time U.S. Open winner, Bryson DeChambeau has established himself as someone who raises his level of play at major tournaments. He has five top-six finishes across his last seven major starts, but he hasn’t figured out the Open Championship just yet.
Across seven starts at the event, he has three missed cuts, three placements at 33rd or worse, and just a single top-10. He missed the cut at last year’s event as his unique game simply hasn’t adjusted to links courses. He shot 5-over-par and missed the cut in his only other visit to Royal Portrush in 2019.
Another First-Timer to Win?
The last major—the U.S. Open in June—saw J.J. Spaun shock the world by winning his first major and just second PGA Tour event overall. That ended a run in which the previous six majors were all won by golfers who are currently multi-time major winners. Several golfers would love to piggyback off Spaun by winning their first major, with the likes of Sepp Straka, Ben Griffin, and Ryan Fox already having multiple PGA wins this season.
Others who’ve been chomping at the bit, for years, but have always come up short at majors include Patrick Cantlay (0 for 28) and Viktor Hovland (0 for 18). They are both FedEx Cup champions with a combined 15 PGA Tour victories but have a tendency to shrink in major tournaments.
Then there’s Fleetwood who won a silver medal at the 2024 Olympics, is a three-time Ryder Cup winner and has 10 worldwide victories. However, not only has he never won a major, but the Englishman has never won a PGA Tour event during his 15-year career.
Momentum a Bad Thing at The Open
You would think that winning the week before the British Open would be a good thing, as you’d have momentum heading into the tournament. However, the Scottish Open, which took place last week, has produced only one winner who went on to win The Open. Phil Mickelson (2013) is the only golfer to win both the Scottish Open and the British Open, which is ominous for Chris Gotterup, who won in Scotland a week ago.
Not only has The Open not seen success from winners of the prior week, but majors, as a whole, haven’t seen golfers maintain their momentum from victories. Only five times since 1960 has a golfer won on the PGA Tour the week before then winning a major. The last was McIlroy in 2014 in which he won the WCG-Bridgestone and then claimed the PGA Championship.
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