No. 15: Tony Finau

PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland – Three weeks ago, Darren Clarke was asked by The R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers to hit the opening tee shot early Thursday morning at The Open Championship. There was no hesitation in the Northern Irishman’s response. “A definite yes,â€� Clarke said. It won’t be a ceremonial tee shot – after all, Clarke is in the 156-man field thanks to his Open win in 2011. His shot off the 421-yard par-4 first at 6:35 a.m. local time will count. But there is no more fitting player in the field to start play in the first Open held in Northern Ireland since 1951, when Royal Portrush last played host. Clarke is a resident of Portrush and his win in 2011 was the first for a Northern Irishman since Portrush native Fred Daly won the Claret Jug in 1947. He calls Royal Portrush the “best golf course in the world.â€� RELATED: Tee times | Featured Groups | Experts roundtable | Five things to know: Royal Portrush Clarke’s Open win, which came on the heels of consecutive U.S. Open wins by Northern Irishman Graeme McDowell (2010) and Rory McIlroy (2011), were instrumental in helping to convince The R&A to return the Open to Royal Portrush. McIlroy, in fact, won all four of his majors before the official announcement was made by The R&A in October 2015. Clark also credited Irishman Padraig Harrington’s three major wins – including back-to-back Open wins in 2007-08 – as key to the resurgence of Irish golf. “It was Padraig started it before that, when he won all his majors,â€� said the 50-year-old Clarke, the oldest of the six players in the field born on the island of Ireland. Harrington, McDowell, McIlroy, Shane Lowry and amateur James Sugrue – who joins Clarke in the opening threesome with American Charley Hoffman – are the others. Of course, the political climate also has improved since the Good Friday agreement in 1998 led to an end of the Troubles that had plagued Northern Ireland since the late 1960s (although small-scale violence still flares up). Clarke recalled the time in 1986 – he was still in his late teens – when he worked at a club. He was filling up small bottles with mixers when the club received a bomb scare. Clarke and all the others in the club hurriedly left the building. Thirty minutes later, the bomb went off. “The place was flattened,â€� Clarke said. “That was life in Northern Ireland,â€� he added. “Bombs were going off quite frequently. And a lot of people, unfortunately, paid a heavy penalty for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But that was our life back there at that stage.â€� Thirty-three years later, he’s now the unofficial ambassador of this Open Championship. Many players getting their first look at Royal Portrush have sought his advice. Adam Scott, still seeking his first Open win after so many near-misses, played three practice rounds with Clarke. “He’s gone out of his way to spend way too much time with me,” Scott told Sports Betting News. ”I love watching how he plays the links he grew up on, to see what he thinks and how he navigates. He’s been incredibly helpful. It’s nice to have a good level of comfort to go play the tournament.” Clarke was asked about all the advice he’s been dispensing. “Probably told them too much, really,â€� he smiled. But just like the invitation to hit the first tee shot, Clarke doesn’t hesitate when asked how to navigate Royal Portrush. He noted the importance of finding the right angles and being committed to shots, pointing out the areas from which to attack. He keeps stressing the need to hit fairways. “If you’re not in the fairways,â€� he said, “you’re going to struggle to get around.â€� And if the winds don’t kick up as much as they usually do, he warned players to expect more challenging pin placements. “The thing about Royal Portrush, it’s a fair golf course,â€� he said. “If you play well around Portrush, you should have the opportunity to score well. If you’re missing too many shots, you’re not going to get around Portrush. That’s the way it is.â€� On Thursday at 6:35 a.m. – the sun will have already been up for approximately 90 minutes – Clarke will get things started in earnest. The gallery, even at that early time, should be substantial. The Open was sold out 11 months ago. Golf fans in Northern Ireland have waited 68 years for this championship. Clarke, so proud that his country is once again the host, will be emotional. But he won’t be misty-eyed. After all, he has a job to do. “I just hope I manage to get one going straight down the fairway,â€� he said.

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DUBLIN, Ohio — Tiger Woods got off to a slower start than he would have liked Thursday at the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide. That had more do with a stopwatch than a scorecard. Ryan Moore opened with five birdies in seven holes and never missed a fairway after the first one, posting a 7-under 65 for his best start in his 14th appearance at Muirfield Village. He was one shot ahead of Jordan Spieth, who chipped in for birdie, chipped in for par and holed a 35-foot eagle putt. Woods made a pair of late birdies to salvage a 70 in his first round since missing the cut at the PGA Championship. He played his back nine in a foursome with Bryson DeChambeau, Justin Rose and a rules official in a cart timing them because they were so far out of position. “We were on the clock most of the back nine,” Woods said. “That made things a little more complicated.” Getting caught up wasn’t easy with various tee shots in water hazards, though it was obvious how far behind they were. Spieth, Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas were in the group ahead of them, and McIlroy hit his tee shot on the par-4 second into a backyard. With no official nearby, he had to walk 300 yards back to the tee to hit again. That took time. Still, walking off the fourth green, the group of Woods, DeChambeau and Rose still had not reached the third tee. Golf still is measured by score, and Moore had the lowest on a rain-softened Muirfield Village. Only two of his seven birdies were longer than 10 feet, and the only time he came close to a bogey was on his opening hole, where he saved par with a 6-foot putt. He was among 22 players who broke 70, and only 44 players broke par despite the soft conditions. Phil Mickelson, using two drivers this week to go after longer tee shots on a half-dozen holes, opened with a 70. Spieth looked as though he couldn’t miss for the longest time. On his second hole, the par-5 11th, his wedge came up so short on a soft green that it spun off the front. He chipped in from 50 feet for birdie. Another chip from thick rough caught the slope on the back of the par-5 15th green and rolled down to 3 feet for a birdie. He went out in 32, made an 8-foot birdie putt on No. 3 and then had consecutive holes that illustrated how his round was going. On the par-3 fourth, his tee shot was buried in the slope of a mound above the bunker. With his feet well below the ball, he hooked it out onto and across the green into more rough, and then chipped in for par. On the par-5 fifth, his hybrid caught the right side of the green and he rolled in the long eagle putt. Spieth took only 22 putts for the round. And then his luck ran out with a tee shot that plugged into the sand left of the green on the par-3 eighth, leaving him two options: go at the pin and run off the green into rough, or aim away from the flag and leave a 60-foot putt for par. He chose the latter and came inches within making it. “Sooner or later, it was going to bite me,” Spieth said with a smile. Even so, he had no complaints. “Six under around Muirfield I’d take any day of the week, no matter what form you’re coming into it with,” he said. “I felt like I hit more fairways today, gave me some more opportunities, and the putter stayed hot.” Thomas, in his first tournament since the Masters because of a bone bruise in his right wrist, showed plenty of rust in his round of 71. McIlroy had a 75 with two double bogeys, both from tee shots either lost (No. 15) or out-of-bounds (No. 2). Anirban Lahiri, Marc Leishman and Martin Kaymer were at 67. Woods made birdies on all but one of the par 5s. His regret was a few loose iron shots that led to bogey, especially on the 13th when he hit 9-iron from the fairway into a bunker that led to a careless bogey. But he finished strong — eventually — and while 10 players from his side of the draw broke 70, he wasn’t too far behind. At least on the leaderboard. “That was frustrating, because the last eight holes we were on the clock,” Woods said. “The group ahead of us … JT doesn’t take a lot of time, Rory plays quick and Jordan was 7 under. So they were obviously playing fast. And we were obviously not.”

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Japanese teenager Tsubasa Kajitani overcame a double-bogey on the 17th hole by closing with a superb par save, getting her into a playoff that she won on the first extra hole Saturday to capture the Augusta National Women’s Amateur.

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