While You Were Sleeping: The Open Gave Us Vintage Phil With An Absurd Shot, The Surprise Early Leader Torching Portrush And Scottie Watch
Nothing beats the morning golf. There's something that gets people going knowing when you wake up there are guys on the back 9 and that could be setting your alarm for 5am and still missing the front 9. Either way just some quick highlights for anyone who slept in today.
Vintage Phil
You put a wedge in Phil's hands and everyone needs to stop what they are doing and watch. We're working on 30 years of just seeing Phil flop stuff up, have a little magic around the green. He's awesome when it comes to that. Not only was it vintage Phil, as I blog this here's the leaderboard at 6:06am:
Lee Westwood! The former number 1, guy who could never win a major turning back the clock a bit. Obviously, it's very early in round 1 but I sort of enjoy when we see the names like a Westwood and Phil up there early.
Speaking of vintage, it's fitting to have Padraig Harrington hit the first tee shot.
The current leader is Jacob Skov Olesen, who really jumped out with the eagle here on 12
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He's been playing pretty consistent golf. One bogey so far through 14 holes, that eagle on 12 and took advantage of 7 with a birdie. And of course before I could hit publish, Olesen holed out for birdie to get to -5.
But it hasn't been all good. You look at the leaderboard and some names, especially ones who were somewhat popular picks, down early:
Jason Day is +3 through 14
Ryan Fox (perhaps the most popular 'outside' pick) is +5 through 6 holes!
Cam Smith is +2 through 15
I say those names because scoring is out there. A lot of guys are sitting at -1, the conditions haven't been horrible, which is the real key to The Open. The wind and rain can pick up at any point, so if you get a decent weather time, you need to take advantage of it. Some of the horses are out there now with these names:
Matt Fitzpatrick -2 through 6
Jon Rahm E through 5
Brooks -1 through 6
Scottie -1 through 3
Shane Lowry -1 through 3
Xander E through 4
I'll be curious to see if the afternoon group has this sort of scoring. When Portrush hosted in 2019 you had JB Holmes at -5 leading after one, Lowry at -4 and a handful of guys at -3. It's not the toughest course, but it can punish you if you miss, which is how it should be. You could see Scottie hitting a fist pump for a par on 4. Obviously you need to make those nervy putts, especially when he can take advantage of 5 and 7 coming up. Honestly, Fitzpatrick could be looking at -4 right now, he missed 2 short putts. These are the guys early you watch to see who just stays close enough to the lead, hang around and then on Saturday they make their run.
Just a quick update with The Open starting early. Obviously a long, long way to go. If you have kids, don't have kids, whatever, I suggest doing the early wake up tomorrow. Nothing better than a little morning golf, enjoy it.