British Open: Royal Portrush taking its pound of flesh from Americans

This British Open has been a classic links test at Royal Portrush – one which many Americans have struggled to master.

Links golf does not love the Americans, though the Americans claim to love it back. This must be what Shakespeare meant by unrequited love. At the end of the second round of the British Open Championship at Royal Portrush the leaderboard looks strikingly different than the World Golf Rankings heading into this, the season’s last major.

As of the week of July 14 to July 20, four Americans found themselves in the top eight positions. Bash brothers and workout buddies Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson are first and second in the world respectively with Tiger Woods at number five and Bryson DeChambeau ranked sixth. In fact, twelve of the top twenty golfers in the world heading into the Open Championship–that’s fully 60 percent–were Yanks.

Not so this week, where the British Open leaderboard at the the Links at Dunluce tells a dramatically different story, with long-hitting J.B. Holmes the only American in the top seven slots at the conclusion of the second round, and with American Ryder and Presidents Cup mainstays Woods and Mickelson already sent packing.

Woods’ fate was predictable. Unable or unwilling to put the Irish and Scottish Open in his schedule, Woods’ entered his practice rounds woefully rusty at links golf. Phil Mickelson famously dropped fifteen pounds in a six-day fast in preparation for the seaside battle royale, and yet missed the cut by seven shots.

Call the failure of the Yanks to make an early tournament splash mere anecdotal evidence, but the pattern of big misses and big messes on the Other Side of the Pond is a long-standing one , despite the newfound popularity of links-styled golf in the US (think recent major championship venues like Chambers Bay, Whistling Straits and even, by some definitions, Pebble Beach). In post-round comments after a second consecutive major championship missed cut, Woods said, in a rare moment of unadulterated emotional honesty, “I just want to go home.”

Bobby Jones could surely relate. While Woods shot an opening nine score of 41 on Thursday Bobby Jones carded a whopping 46 on his front nine at St. Andrews in 1921. Jones picked up his ball and walked off the course in what he later called  his “most inglorious failure” in golf. Woods was no doubt tempted to do likewise as he made his inglorious turn on Thursday.

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Past British Open champion David Duval didn’t fare much better, playing the wrong ball on Thursday, and taking a 14 on the par four seventh hole on Thursday en route to a front-nine 49. Duval received high marks from Golf Digest for not pulling a Jones and walking off the course, and for his classy comments after the bloodletting-by-the-sea:

"“You have an obligation as a professional athlete. If you play, you post your score. Am I happy about that? Is there some embarrassment to it? I don’t know. But I teed off in the Open and I shot [91] today. So put it on the board.”"

Plucky as it is, “Put it on the board” won’t be enough for Americans Koepka, Jordan Spieth, Tony Finau, Patrick Reed, and Matt Kuchar looking to climb the leaderboard this weekend. Look for this group of never-say-die Americans, most of whom are veterans of Ryder and Presidents Cups past, to charge back up the leaderboard once they have their bearings on Northern Ireland soil.

It won’t be easy. Five of the top seven finishers after two rounds hail from links-endowed Ireland and the British Isles. For the likes of Shane Lowry, Lee Westwood, and Tommy Fleetwood, in particular, familiarity breeds success rather than contempt.