Local Historian Likes Hoylake’s Own Matthew Jordan and Ludvig Aberg at British Open

Prior to the British Open, in an interview for The Golf Show 2.0, Dr. Blyth T. Bell, one of the historians at Royal Liverpool Golf Club, suggested two names from the field as ones that should do well.

The two may qualify as dark horse candidates to most people, but not to this history buff or the members at Hoylake.

“Last week at West Links, one of our young amateurs, who grew up at Hoylake who now plays on the European Tour, qualified for the Open Championship at West Langston Regional Qualifying,” Bell said. “His name is Matthew Jordan.”

As it turns out, Jordan, who is a member at Liverpool, has been chosen to hit the first tee shot of the tournament.

“It’s an amazing honor. I’m sure the first tee, no matter what was going to be special,” Jordan said in a pre-championship press conference for the British Open. “I used to wake up early, 6:30, and that was The Open commencing.”

"“I think certainly, from my opinion, 18 especially has been a brilliant change.” — Matthew Jordan"

Jordan said a lot of his memories are of collecting autographs from the pros when he was younger.  He saw Tiger Woods on the putting green in 2006 but could not work up the courage to approach him. He couldn’t do it in 2014 either, but that year he was more inspired to play golf, and he has better memories of it than the others.

Woods, Matthew Jordan noted, was his hero.

“Being able to see him in the flesh, and watching him do what he did, especially around your home course, was immense,” he admitted.

As to the changes in the course, Jordan thinks without wind, the new par three 17th is not going to have the drama people hope it will.

“If we get a bit of wind into, I think you will see guys make 2, but they will still miss the green,” Jordan explained.

And he had thoughts on the 18th with the internal out-of-bounds.

“I think it makes it a proper risk and reward hole. If you hit a good drive, you can go for it,” Jordan noted. “Then even bailing out on the left, it makes the lay-up a lot tougher because it’s a bit longer now. I think certainly, from my opinion, 18 especially has been a brilliant change.”

Matthew Jordan has posted a 62 from the very back tees.

His goal this week is to play the course like he does in practice.

“If I feel like I can do that, then I know that I can do well around here,” he added.

While Jordan is a great pick by Dr. Bell, who knows a lot about the history of Royal Liverpool, he also offered up another name that has recently made its way to the top of leaderboards in the U.S. That is Ludvig Aberg, the Swedish phenom who played collegiately for Texas Tech and was the inaugural PGA TOUR U winner.

Winning the PGA Tour U spot gave him a Tour card for the rest of 2023 and for 2024.

“He’s a fantastic young player,” Dr. Bell noted. “He may not go on to win The Open, but he’s got a great chance of making the cut, and the members would be ecstatic if he could do that.”

Dr. Bell said he watched Aberg play in an amateur event a couple of years ago. He was clearly impressed.

“You get them at about 300 to one and each way back, and you know, you never know,” he suggested. “Those are those are just maybe not names to win but maybe names for the future.”