Good afternoon. At 1am ET tomorrow morning, the final major of the year will begin at Royal Troon.

The 8th hole at Royal Troon, which is one of the most difficult par 3’s in golf, is only 123 yards. It begs the question…Are short par 3’s better than long ones?

3 Basic Steps For Effortless Golf Swing Consistency

Watch: Best Ball Striking Drills

Preview: The Open Championship

Who’s ready for some major championship links golf?

The 152nd Open Championship is finally here, bringing with it all the qualities of links golf that we love: wind, weather, brutally difficult pot bunkers, and blind tee shots.

Legends of the game, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, are in the field. Will either of them make the cut? They both missed it at the U.S. Open.

Speaking of the U.S. Open, Rory McIlroy is back after his heartbreak, looking to end his almost 10-year major drought. Can he finally get the job done?

The completely reinvented Bryson DeChambeau is also in the field, still riding the high of his U.S. Open win. He said he knows he can’t overpower Troon and believes it will require a lot of strategy to win this week, but he’d love nothing more than to let all the fans touch the Claret Jug.

Oh, and that one guy who’s won six times already this year?

He’s also in the field although it seems like people have forgotten.

🚩Location: Royal Troon

💰 Purse: $17M - $3.6M to first.

👀Watch On: USA, NBC, and ESPN+

👑Previous Winners:

• 2023: Brian Harman

• 2022: Cameron Smith

• 2021: Collin Morikawa

What The Analytics Say: A tale of two nines. The front nine is fairly tame and will provide some scoring looks. The back nine? Much more difficult. Greens are slower - getting up and down will be difficult.

What Our Guts Tell Us: A European hasn’t won The Open in a while.

How To Watch The Open

Thursday, July 18: 4 a.m.-3 p.m. (USA)
Friday, July 19: 4 a.m.-3 p.m. (USA)
Saturday, July 20: 5-7 a.m. (USA); 7 a.m.-3 p.m. (NBC)
Sunday, July 21: 4-7 a.m. (USA); 7 a.m.-2 p.m. (NBC)

Weather Report - Royal Troon

Rain and wind are on the forecast! Gusts will be as high as 25mph the first two rounds, with some rain mixed in.

Favorites: The Open Championship

Scottie Scheffler (+450), Rory McIlroy (+850), Xander Schauffele (+1100), Collin Morikawa (+1400), Ludvig Aberg (+1800), Bryson DeChambeau (+1800), Jon Rahm (+2500), Tommy Fleetwood (+2500), Tyrrell Hatton (+2800), and Viktor Hovland (+3300).

Full Field, Tee Times, Pairings For The First Two Rounds

Big Brain Analytics

Data: Data Golf put together a really cool visual that demonstrates how wave splits effect majors. The Open Championship has had the largest wave splits (R1+R2) since 2004.

Shanks Picks

A brutal week last week as we try to finish the entire season with positive units. Time to fight back for The Open Championship.

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• Outright: Tyrrell Hatton +2800

• Top 10: Tom Kim +320

• Top 10: Sahith Theegala +320

• Top 20: Adam Scott +175

• Top 20: Aaron Rai +150

• Longshot: Akshay +11000

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Rithmm is the perfect companion for The Open Championship - and they’re giving you a FREE 7-day trial to get started.

Tiger Says Trump Assassination Attempt Effected His Open Preparation.

Woods arrived in Scotland on an overnight flight, which was strategically planned as he hoped to get some sleep while in the air to avoid jet lag, but any chance at rest flew out the window after news of Trump's assassination attempt made its way to Woods.

Just a few hours after landing, Woods was on the first tee at Royal Troon to begin preparation for this week's Open Championship. While he reportedly looked the part during his first loop around the historic track, Woods admitted to the BBC that his mind was elsewhere.

"I didn’t accomplish a lot because I wasn’t in the right frame of mind," Woods explained. "It was a long night, and that’s all we watched the entire time on the way over here. I didn’t sleep at all on the flight, and then we just got on the golf course."

Read More

Shots Heard Round The World

🏡The Best House In Golf Is For Sale Golf Digest recently put together a video on the estate ahead of this week’s Open Championship.Read

🏆️Rory’s Hometown Waits and Hopes Holywood has experienced the ups and downs as McIlroy has gone through 37 major tournaments without a win. Read

🫲Phil Mickelson Knows He’s Being Written Off Over the course of a career that can perhaps best be described as “colorful,” Phil Mickelson has been accused of many things. His judgment has been questioned, on and off the course. His choice of shot in certain situations—see the final hole of the 2006 U.S. Open at Winged Foot—has been second-guessed.Read.

Two Minutes Of Fred Couples Smooth Swing

Divots…

Quote:“It’s a very simple hole just hit the ball on the green. Green good. Missed green bad. It doesn’t get any simpler than that. You don’t need a 240 yard par 3 for it to be hard.”

That’s Tiger Woods, talking about The Postage Stamp.

Fun Fact: Troon has both the shortest Par 3 and the longest Par 5 on The Open Championship circuit.

Read:What makes Troon distinctive? Experts weigh in.

Thing We’d Buy: Rain Shirt

Frankly, we haven’t loved everything that they’ve dropped under Tiger’s Sun Day Red brand, but the new rain gear is pretty sweet.

There’s a full zip, pants, and the short sleeve rain shirt you see above.

Only issue? It’s pricey at $500.

SHOP

That’s all folks! See you Saturday Morning.