Six players could make history at this year’s British Open

Six players could improve their career or peak status with strong showings at this week’s British Open at Royal Portrush.

Victory at this week’s British Open would be a career-maker for most of the competitors. But for a select few, those burnishing their place in golfing history, Royal Portrush presents a particular opportunity.

If one of those players wins – or even finishes close to the top – that performance will enhance their standing among the game’s all-time greats. In a few cases, it will also complete a 2019 season that could rank among the best ever.

We’re looking here at players – and it’s not much more than a handful – for whom Royal Portrush presents a chance to move up the game’s all-time ladder for either five-season peak or career performance. In both instances, the standard of measurement is as explained in “The Hole Truth: Determining The Greatest Players in Golf History Using SABRmetrics,” by the author.

The measuring stick is the standard deviation of performance relative to the field. In a sentence, that measurement asks how superior each player’s score was compared to his fellow competitors playing the same course at the same time in substantially the same conditions with the same equipment.

This technique facilitates cross-era comparison by normalizing for the kinds of normal changes across time – in location, in equipment, in weather, in training regimes – that would otherwise muddy such comparisons.

More than a half dozen of this week’s competitors stand among the list of the all-time top 100 as the tournament begins, and several of those are positioned to enhance their standing with a good showing this week.

There are also, on the other hand, players whose career reputations could slide – relative to the greats of previous eras – with sub-par performances at the British Open this week at Portrush.

Here’s a look at the potential impact on the peak or career reputations of several in this week’s field.