RELATED: The story of the Open’s final round in 9 (or so) sentences

In an adorable—and hilarious—chat with RTE News, Emily Scanlon gushes about how proud she is of her grandson. But she also says that Sunday’s final round drove her to drink. And not in celebration.

When asked how it was watching the drama unfold, here was her fantastic response:

“Oh, terrible. Emotional now, it was,” Scanlon says. “I hadn’t slept last night. I hadn’t drank a brandy since 2009 and I drank two yesterday—it’s nearly killing me.”

Amazing. Here’s the (instant) classic clip that might be the greatest post-round interview in Open Championship history:

https://www.instagram.com/p/B0OCRBmIkAj/?utm_source=ig_embed

So good. As you can see, Scanlon also tells a story about how young Shane “thought he was Tiger Woods” after winning a local junior event. What a great dagger from grandma. But, obviously, she was mostly ecstatic that her grandson is now a major champion.

“Oh, I am a proud granny. Oh, I am,” Scanlon added. “It’s great to live and see all this happen, you know.”

Hopefully, she’ll get to sip some brandy from the claret jug next. In moderation, of course.

The post Shane Lowry’s grandma gave the greatest post-round interview in Open Championship history appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Ryan Herrington
Shane Lowry knew it was coming, it was only a matter of when. As it turned out, it was the third question from the media during the Irishman’s press conference on Saturday after his sensational 63 to take a four-stroke lead at the Open Championship.

So, about Oakmont …

Before this week at Royal Portrush, Lowry’s only other significant run in a major championship came in June 2016, when he carried a … wait for it … four-stroke lead going into the final round of the U.S. Open outside of Pittsburgh.

The outcome was not what Lowry had hoped. A difficult start led to a six-over-par 76 and an eventual tie for second, three shots behind winner Dustin Johnson.

Three years later, Lowry insists he’s moved on, and … wait for it … grown from the experience. He’s a father now and says that’s changed his approach to golf.

“It probably doesn’t mean as much to me as it did then, which is going to make it a little bit easier,” Lowry said. “I feel like I’m a different person. I don’t think I’m a much different golfer, but I feel like I’m a different person now. I think that’s what will help me tomorrow.”

Lowry reacts to a missed putt on the 14th green during the final round of the 2016 U.S. Open. (Andrew Redington)

What takeaway from Oakmont will be most helpful for Lowry when he faces the same situation on Sunday at Portrush? Lowry’s answer had almost too much honesty to it.

“There’s no point in saying to go out and enjoy myself tomorrow because it’s going to be a very stressful and very difficult day,” Lowry said. “So I’m going to go out, I’m going to take the bad shots on the chin and I’m going to take the good shots and try to capitalize on that. I’m just going to be myself and play my game and see where it leaves me.”

He continued:

“I’m not going to be sitting there tomorrow morning in the house in a corner trying not to think about the day ahead. Obviously, I’ll go to bed thinking about holding the claret jug tomorrow evening. It’s only natural, isn’t it? We’re human. We’re not robots. We can’t think about things. And when you try not to think about something, you end up thinking about it more, so you might as well talk about it.”

The post The Open 2019: Yes, Shane Lowry once lost a four-shot lead Sunday at a major. Here’s what he’ll do different appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Dave Shedloski
A night of reflection and a third-round two-under 69 Saturday at Royal Portrush did nothing to assuage Xander Schauffele’s displeasure with the R&A over the matter of his driver being found non-conforming prior to the start of the 148th Open Championship.

If anything, he was even more agitated.

Aggravating his already aggrieved disposition was taking a ribbing from a fellow player to which Schauffele didn’t take too kindly.

“I’ve been called a cheater by my fellow opponents. It’s all joking, but when someone yells ‘cheater’ in front of 200 people, to me it’s not going to go down very well,” said Schauffele, who on Friday aired his grievance with the R&A by calling it “unfair” because the ruling body tests only 30 drivers and not the whole field. “It was a player out here. I’m cool with him. He thought it was funny. … But that’s not something you joke about. Then someone else is like, I’m chipping around, someone is like, ‘Oh, wedges are legal now.’

“So The R&A, they pissed me off,” Schauffele added, “because they attempted to ruin my image by not keeping this matter private. This is me coming out and treating them the exact way they treated me.”

There was more that bothered Schauffele—an incident involving his father.

“An official came up to my dad and asked him, ‘How’s our testing going after Thursday?’ My dad, his temperament is a little worse than mine, at times. I’m surprised that guy is … [my dad is] a little bigger than I am, too. I’ve got a little more bite, but he’s a bit bigger.

“This whole thing was a bit of a stir for my whole team. And like I said, I can deal with certain things if the variables are controlled. But in this situation, we’re sort of thrown in a nice little hodgepodge, if you want to call it.

“We’re the travelling circus. There’s certain moving parts on tour here, and everyone on the grounds knew for some odd reason. … It was just handled unprofessionally. And it did tick me off, for sure.”

The post The Open 2019: Xander Schauffele still angry at R&A and now at players jokingly calling him ‘a cheater’ appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Dave Shedloski
Brooks Koepka won the PGA Championship two months ago after taking a seven-stroke lead into the final round.

On Sunday, he will try to win the Open Championship from seven strokes behind.

Despite birdies on the last two holes that gave him a four-under-par 67 at Royal Portrush, Koepka couldn’t mask his discontent with his position through three rounds of the 148th Open. At nine-under 204, he trails Shane Lowry by seven after the Irishman shot a 63 to post 16-under 207. Only two players, Tommy Fleetwood (12 under) and J.B. Holmes (10 under) separate Koepka from the leader.

But he couldn’t care less how many players are ahead of him. He just sees the seven-shot disparity, which he knows from his experience at Bethpage Black can dissolve quickly. Koepka hung on for a two-stroke victory over Dustin Johnson to successfully defend his PGA title.

“I guess if you put it that way,” Koepka said when reminded how his lead was threatened, at one point getting down to one stroke. “The last time Shane had the lead at Oakmont [four shots in the 2016 U.S. Open] we saw that. At Bethpage, it can go very quickly. Bad weather happened at Bethpage. I guess maybe the last, what, 15 holes was very, very windy, especially that back nine.

“In links golf, all of a sudden a couple of bad bounces, and you never know, or in a couple of bunkers.”

Koepka wouldn’t know much about bunkers or bad bounces. His tee-to-green game has been impeccable (he ranks fourth strokes gained/tee to green). But once on the greens, he can’t find the hole. It’s a common lament this week for the four-time major winner.

“Yeah, nobody has hit it better than me this week. I’ve hit it as good as I could possibly imagine,” said Koepka, 29, of Jupiter, Fla., who is playing in his sixth Open. “I putted the worst in the entire field, if you look at strokes gained. I don’t know if they have that. It’s been really bad. Very frustrating. Disappointed.

“But thankfully it’s going to blow tomorrow to have any sort of chance. I need to figure out the putter.”

He was on his way to the practice green to do just that, to “see if I can somehow . . . find anything,” he said.

As for the inhospitable weather forecast that prompted the R&A to move tee times forward, Koepka welcomes it.

“Yeah, I need it, being, what, seven back,” he said. “Here you need some wind, you need some rain. You need anything that can kind of go your way. And that’s got to be an advantage. Especially the way I’m striking the ball. I’ve struck it so good. If it’s going to be windy, you need to be able to strike it good, control your flight, and figure out where you want the ball to end up. If it’s going to blow 30, it can get out of control very quickly.

“I just need to putt good one day.”

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By John Huggan
File this under “strange but true.” Amid a sustained series of recent successes around the globe, none of the 14 Englishmen hanging around for the weekend at Royal Portrush has won an Open Championship. Not Justin Rose. Not Paul Casey. Not Lee Westwood. Not Tyrrell Hatton. Not Matt Fitzpatrick. Not Danny Willett.

And not Tommy Fleetwood. Not yet. But that might change soon enough.

Indeed, one has to go back as much as 27 years to find the last time an Englishman did finish first. In 1992, Nick Faldo became “champion golfer of the year” at Muirfield in Scotland. But no Englishman has won on home ground since Tony Jacklin at Royal Lytham in 1969, the first Open victory by a son of St. George since Herbert Gustavus Max Faulkner triumphed at Royal Portrush in 1951.

What does all this mean? Something or nothing. Fleetwood surely had other things on his mind before teeing off with Westwood in the penultimate group on Day 3 of this 148th Open. But if either had searched the record books for even distant precedent in their favour here in Northern Ireland, it would begin and end with Faulkner, a colourfully eccentric individual plucked from the pages of a P.G. Wodehouse novel.

Still, ignorance can be bliss. If Fleetwood, 28, was harbouring any negative thoughts, there was no hint of them in a beautifully played third round. He was bogey-free and time after time displayed a purity of ball-striking many believe is consistently the equal of anyone else on the planet. Throw in a few timely putts, and the end result was a 66 that took Fleetwood to 12 under par and into a clear second place, four shots behind leader Shane Lowry and two ahead of J.B. Holmes in third.

That doesn’t sound too terrible, and Fleetwood was quick to emphasize the positives of his day on the Dunluce Links. But a fact remains: He was five under par without dropping a stroke and still lost ground after Lowry’s amazing 63. How does a man handle such a slap in the face? With a smile, apparently.

“It was a very special occasion and a great day to be playing,” Fleetwood said. “I’m happy to be in the mix. I’m happy to be a part of it. And happy to play my part in the atmosphere today. I did a lot of things well. Aside from hitting golf shots, everything that I set out to do before today, I felt like I was really good at. I played great. I felt really comfortable in my swing, and I was able to hit the shots I wanted to.”

There is, however, also a realism about this ever-likeable character. And his tribute to Lowry’s play was clearly sincere.

“Shane has an amazing short game,” Fleetwood said. “And I’ve always loved his swing. I appreciate the flow he has throughout his game. Over the last three or four holes there it was a strange feeling, though. I’ve gone bogey-free and played really well. So it would have been easy to get frustrated because Shane was doing so well.

“But I have to look at it all realistically. I had a great day. I had one of the best rounds of the day. … Shane just played great, and I’m four back. That’s it. I’m just happy with how I played.”

There was even positivity about the looming weather that has caused the tee times for the final round to be moved forward two hours.

“The guys that are up there on the leaderboard are not going to be too fussed about the conditions,” Fleetwood said. “It’s not like it’s an advantage or disadvantage to anyone. I personally don’t mind. I’ve had some of my best rounds in terrible conditions, where I’ve enjoyed grinding it out. Shane hasn’t played in sunshine and no wind all his life, either. So it’s not going to be a problem for him. It’s just another added script to the Open, really. The weather is always part of it.”

All of which is a long way from the struggling young man who arrived at the final event of the 2012 European Tour season, the South African Open, in 124th place, the second-to-last exempt spot. Needing something special, Fleetwood shot a closing 69 to finish T-6 and haul himself up to 109th on what was then called the Order of Merit. One year later, the former English Amateur champion had won his first tournament, the Johnnie Walker Classic at Gleneagles, and was on his way. … To becoming Open champion? We’ll soon find out. An English victory might just be due to happen.

The post The Open 2019: Within reach of lead, Tommy Fleetwood represents latest chance for England to break Open drought appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Huggan
This month, what America—and many other places, too—routinely refers to as the “British” Open is not being played in Britain at all, Great or otherwise. Take my word for that. But where then, is it being played?

In Northern Ireland, at Royal Portrush in County Antrim, for only the second time in the championship’s 159-year history and for the first time since 1951.

So what is Northern Ireland?

Depending on whom you talk to, it is either a region, a province or a country. But what it is not is “Ulster.” That term refers to a collection of nine counties within Ireland, six in Northern Ireland (Antrim, Down, Armagh, Derry, Fermanagh and Tyrone) and three in the Republic of Ireland (Cavan, Monaghan and Donegal).

Still, what is for sure is that the land of Rory McIlroy’s birth—and that of Graeme McDowell and Darren Clarke—is one of the four constituent parts of the United Kingdom, along with Scotland, England and Wales. I know this to be true because, on the front of my passport (I am from Scotland), it says “United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.”

So, by that logic, we now know that “Great Britain” is made up of three parts: Scotland, England and Wales. (Which is why a British Open played in Northern Ireland isn’t really a “British” Open.)

Hang on though.

Northern Ireland—which came into being as part of the U.K. in 1922—does, along with the Republic of Ireland, make up the island that is Ireland. There is no hard border between the two (at least until the mess that is the U.K.’s exit from the European Union, or “Brexit,” is sorted out). But the two are separate politically and use different currencies.

In Northern Ireland, the British pound is legal; in the Republic, the Euro is valid. And, while the citizens of Northern Ireland vote for members of parliament who attend the House of Commons at Westminster (the British Parliament) in London, those down south in the Republic elect members to the Irish Parliament—the Dail Eireann, which translates into “Assembly of Ireland.”

Then there’s the expression, “British Isles.” Just to add to any confusion, that collective term refers to all five countries: Scotland, England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Oleg Chepurin

And there’s one last thing.

Because Ireland plays as one nation in golf (and rugby, but not soccer), drawing players from both Northern Ireland and the Republic, the likes of McIlroy, Clarke and McDowell, and anyone else born north of the border is eligible to represent either Ireland or the United Kingdom in the Olympics. Hence the controversy over McIlroy’s participation (and eventual non-participation) in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, although he has already announced that he will represent the Republic of Ireland in Tokyo next year.

Got all that? I hope so. But, as someone once said, “as soon as we solve the Irish question, they change the question.”

The post The Open 2019: Why this Open is not a British Open appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Joel Beall
The Open Championship returns to the Emerald Isle for the first time in 68 years. Tiger Woods…well, his sabbatical hasn’t been as long, yet the reigning Masters champ has played just four competitive rounds in two months.

Yet Woods enters the year’s final major as one of its favourites and judging by the response to his Portrush arrival, one of its crowd darlings.

On Sunday morning Woods made his first appearance in Northern Ireland, on Portrush’s venerable links within two hours of his overnight Florida flight landing. The 43-year-old, who has recently changed his practice schedule at majors to accommodate the limitations of his body, played 18 holes with Patrick Reed, with observers noting Woods looked a tad rusty off seven-hour journey.

Of course, that rust could also be attributed to a lack of reps. Woods has vacationed across the world in the past month, and since his triumph at Augusta National, the 15-time major winner has played in just three tournaments. It’s a schedule that has led some pundits and players, such as Ryder Cup captain Padraig Harrington, to question Woods’ game plan.

Jan Kruger/R&A

That sentiment was lost on the crowds, as Woods was greeted with shouts and cries throughout his round, many of the locals seeing Woods for the first time in his career.

Woods is a three-time Open champ, his last win coming at Royal Liverpool in 2006. He led last year’s Open at Carnoustie on the back nine, although ultimately finished T-6.

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