Rahm, McIlroy, Thomas Playing Scottish Open as Warm Up for British Open
It’s become a tradition for some players. Instead of flying to the UK the Saturday or Sunday ahead of the British Open, they play the week before in the Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open. Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas are no different.
They are joined by Collin Morikawa, already a PGA champ, and Xander Schauffele, who recently got married.
“I always love coming back,” Rahm said about returning to Europe. “It’s refreshing to be here where it’s not a million degrees like Arizona or like anywhere else.”
He decided to play because the course is a links test, and he wanted to refresh his memory on those kinds of challenges. However, the location at Royal St. George’s, next week’s British Open, has a lot of wind.
“Royal St. George’s is quite different to this golf course,” he explained. “It’s a little trickier. This one might be a little bit longer, but for the most part, you hit a tee shot to the center of the fairway, you won’t get of those wayward bounces that happen the St. George’s.”
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Justin Thomas is going on previous experience as his reason for playing the Scottish Open.
“My best Open Championship finish came the year that I played The Scottish Open before. So I’m strictly going off of that. I feel like for me, it can’t hurt,” he explained.
He noted that it was about adjusting to the different grasses, playing of different turf surfaces and putting on different kinds of greens in that part of the world.
“The thing I have the hardest time with is getting a consistent strike in hitting it exactly how I want,” he noted. “In America, I have a pretty good idea of how it’s going to come out every time.”
He recalled his best memory coming a week early as playing North Berwick with his father and Kevin Kisner. They took “trolleys,” which in Great Britain are pull-carts, played 18 holes and visited a pub after the round for a few pints. He said playing golf at a local course before a tournament in the U.S. is something he would never do.
North Berwick was founded in 1832, making it one of the world’s oldest courses. Its 15th hole has the original Redan green which golf architects allover the world have copied.
McIlroy was looking forward to practicing some links style shots, putting from off the green, playing chip and runs and the sort of shots that PGA Tour players seldom use in the U.S.. And he still has some work to do on his game.
“I was pretty rusty last week in Ireland,” he admitted, adding that he did not practice after the U.S. Open.
There was a reason for that. He knew that he would spend several weeks away from family, and he wanted to be with them before coming to the Ireland, Scotland and England.
This week, he’s looking forward to seeing the European fans back at golf courses.
“It is great that at least there’s going to be a few people out here to create a nice atmosphere,” he added.
As for looking ahead to next week’s British Open, he explained his thinking on majors is that what he needs to do is to just hang around the lead.
“You don’t have to do anything spectacular. You can sort of par the course to death,” he said.
What he remembers about the last British Open at Royal St. George’s is the rain and the transformation in Darren Clarke’s game from before the tournament to during it. He played a practice round with Clarke Wednesday morning, and according to McIlroy, Clarke didn’t seem to have his game in good enough form for a victory.
Later in the week, McIlroy recalled playing 13 holes in the rain on Saturday and then, when the rain let up, he took the rain jacket off and proceeded to hit a shot out of bounds.
But the biggest challenge for the British Open, McIlroy said, was going to be all of the odd bounces that all the players will experience at that course.
“Pack your patience, and understand that it’s the same for everyone,” he concluded.