Tiger Woods skipped the U.S. Open to make sure he was ready for The Open at St. Andrews. We have you covered for Round 1.
Tiger Woods has built his summer around The 150th Open at the Old Course at St. Andrews. The 15-time major champion has said throughout his career that the Old Course is his favorite, a sentiment that he has echoed this week. Woods, 46, has won three previous Open Championships, including the 2000 and 2005 iterations at St. Andrews. After competing at this year’s Masters (finishing 47th) and PGA Championship (making the cut but withdrawing after Round 3), Woods sat out last month’s U.S. Open with an eye ahead to The Open. It’s now here. Woods commenced his opening round Thursday at 2:59 p.m. local time, alongside Max Homa and Matt Fitzpatrick. Keep it here for hole-by-hole updates throughout Woods’ opening round at The 150th Open.
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ST. ANDREWS, Scotland – No matter what happens in his promising career, Barclay Brown will be able to say he held the clubhouse lead at The 150th Open Championship at the Old Course in St. Andrews. The 21-year-old amateur from Sheffield, England, took advantage of playing in the second group of the morning in relatively calm conditions to post a very tidy 4-under 68. Here are five things to know about the surprise standout at the Home of Golf. 1. The Fitzpatrick connection Brown is a member of Hallamshire Golf Club, where he is joined by recent U.S. Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick, and Fitzpatrick’s brother Alex with whom he partnered on the 2021 Walker Cup team. He gained his place in the field with a dominant performance at Final Qualifying at Hollinwell, gaining medalist honors by three strokes, before saying it was Fitzpatrick’s success at Brookline that helped inspire his performance. “Matt was unbelievable (at the U.S. Open) and it was incredible to watch him. He’s texted me to say congratulations, which is really nice of him, and hopefully I can play with him early in the week at St. Andrews,” Brown said at the time. 2. Amateur records Brown is currently ranked 46th in the world amateur golf ranking. He had a 1-2-1 record in the 2021 Walker Cup, partnering with Fitzpatrick in team play. He advanced to the quarterfinals of the 2020 Amateur Championship at Royal Birkdale in England and shot 70-65 to be the co-medalist in stroke-play at the 2022 Amateur at Royal Lytham but was knocked out in the first round of match play by Gustav Frimodt (4 and 3). He was the 2018 Carris Trophy winner (English Boys’ Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship). 3. Cardinal at college He plays college golf at Stanford in California where he studies economics and has two years remaining to finish his degree. Recently posted runner up efforts at the Pac-12 Championships and the NCAA Stockton Regional. He won the 2021 Cowboy Classic, finishing at 14-under, one of eight top 10s in his time at Stanford where his scoring average is 71.71. Honors so far include All-Pac-12 Second Team (2022), PING All-Region Team (2021), All-Pac-12 First Team (2021), All-Pac-12 Newcomer Team (2021), Srixon/Cleveland Golf All-America Scholar (2021), Two-time Pac-12 Academic Honor Roll (2021, 2022). He is also teammates with Michael Thorbjornsen, who recently made a splash as an amateur by finishing 4th at Travelers. 4. Sporting all-rounder Attended the Birkdale School (high school) where he not only played golf, but also was an accomplished badminton, soccer and tennis player. Brown enjoys music, finding good food and working out as his hobbies. 5. New experience at Old Course His only previous experience at the Old Course was a round with his parents when he was a wee lad. “I played when I was probably 9 or 10, but other than that is was my first time,” Brown said. “They used to do a thing in like January or February where you could play the Old Course so we came up as a family and played. I don’t really remember playing it at all … I probably shot in the millions. (Today) I was unbelievably nervous at the start and once I got through the first couple of holes it was nice to calm down a little bit and just get into it. I want to play the best I can and I want to win the Silver Medal (low amateur).”
Stewart Cink is preparing to play in The Open Championship at St. Andrews with unreleased irons and an unreleased putter. The 2009 Open champion combining veteran experience with new-school technology at the Old Course. In recent years, the 49-year-old Cink has shown no signs of slowing down, winning two times last season and reaching the TOUR Championship. Catching up with Cink ahead of this year’s Open Championship, GolfWRX spotted new prototype clubs in his bag. These aren’t just prototypes made specifically for him, however; they may actually be a looking glass into future Ping releases. His irons, given their “i230” nomenclature, could possibly be upcoming replacements to Ping’s previous i210 irons. It’s been nearly four years since Ping launched its i210 irons to the public, but PGA TOUR players such as Viktor Hovland and Matt Fitzpatrick still have them in the bag. Cink himself previously had i210 irons in the bag but he’s evidently upgraded. Ping currently has a number of new iron models that are used on TOUR, including the i59 (three-piece forged irons that replaced the popular iBlade irons), the i525 (hollow-bodied distance irons used mostly as driving irons on the PGA TOUR), and Blueprint Forged irons (blade-style, one-piece constructions for maximum control). Compared to the previous i210 irons, the unreleased i230 cavity-back irons appear to have a slimmed-down topline and slightly less offset. Ping also appears to have added a screw into the toe section of the irons. In its recent releases – such as the i59, Blueprint, and i525 irons – Ping has used tungsten screws to help improve forgiveness by manipulating weight in the heads. The company has yet to reveal design details about the i230 irons, so we’ll have to wait and see what the new technologies are all about. Ping did confirm, however, that pros Tyrrell Hatton and David Lingmerth are also currently using Ping i230 irons. Additionally, Cink showed up to The Open with a Ping PLD prototype mallet with a white finish and a black alignment line. The putters were first revealed to Tour players at this year’s U.S. Open, as reported by @GolfWRX on Instagram. Cink took a particular liking to the white mallet putter after testing it at the recent Travelers Championship. While he didn’t use the putter that week, it was the only putter in his bag as of Tuesday at St. Andrews. Cink is set to play in his 21st Open Championship this week. On Thursday, he’ll tee it up alongside Sergio Garcia and Aaron Jarvis at 12:35 p.m., with a bag full of prototypes.
