RAIN TAKES FIRE OUT OF OPEN COURSE

As the world's best players arrived at Royal St. George's for this week's Open Championship, they found something they likely hadn't expected.

A green golf course.

The famous course on England's southeast coast is known for its undulated and unpredictable fairways. In their more natural shade of brown, the dramatic fairways can whisk a golf ball away on wild adventures. In many ways, it's the ability to stomach this loss of control and accept your fate with good spirit that makes for a successful links player.

“I've heard over the years that at St. George's, you can hit decent shots and they get bounces onto the fairway and kicked into the rough,” said defending Open champion Shane Lowry. “I didn't see any of that out there today.”

Following a heavy dose of summer rain, Royal St. George's is being described with words seldom used at Open Championships.

“It's a lot more lush, it's a lot more green,” Rory Mcilroy said on Tuesday.

The Northern Irish star played the course in 2011, the last time it hosted the championship. It wasn't firm and fast that year, either, but players were nearly blown off the course on the weekend as wind and rain battered Royal St. George's.

Mcilroy remembers the 2003 Open won by Ben Curtis as the fiery, unpredictable test that St. George's is more known for.

“It looked really burnt and crispy then, and it looked like a bit of a pinball machine out there,” Mcilroy said of 2003.

“But that's not going to be the case this week . ... I think the biggest thing this week is, if you do hit it offline, you've got some really thick, juicy rough on either side of the fairway, which you just have to avoid.”

With all the rain, the rough just off the fairways is quite healthy and, according to players, accuracy off the tee will be a major advantage. In years past, in firmer conditions, players would lament good drives that run seemingly forever before skipping into bunkers or the rough.

That's links golf, and that's Royal St. George's, but that might not be the case this week.

Defending champ Lowry isn't so sure, though.

Understanding how fast the sand-based turf can dry, the burly Irishman — who just gave back the Claret Jug after keeping it an extra year because of 2020's pandemic cancellation — isn't banking on the course playing soft throughout the championship.

He played a late practice round on Tuesday trying to give the course a chance to firm up.

IT'S STILL LINKS GOLF

Even if Royal St. George's plays softer than expected, it's still a very different test than the world's best see week to week on the PGA Tour.

If you need proof, just take a peek inside Adam Scott's golf bag.

“I have quite a different bag setup,” the Aussie said. “I'm using a 3-wood, which I don't normally use, and then I've taken the 4-wood and the 7-wood out, which I do normally use, and I've put in a driving iron and a 3-iron is back in the bag, which I don't normally use. I've taken one of my wedges out ... because I feel like you don't need to use all the loft when you're at the Open. Certainly if it's windy, you don't need to play the ball in the air.”

CHIP ON HIS SHOULDER

Nobody plays with a chip on their shoulder more than Brooks Koepka.

On Tuesday, he went after a new target though: the golf course.

“It's not my favourite venue that we've played,” he said of Royal St. George's. “I haven't seen all 18. I'll see the back nine today. Quite a few blind tee shots, kind of hitting to nothing. Fairways are quite undulating. I don't know, it's not my favourite of the rotation, put it that way.”

The four-time major champ also touched on his ongoing feud with Bryson Dechambeau, clarifying earlier comments he made about Dechambeau reneging on an understanding the pair had. Apparently, the two men had agreed not to speak of one another publicly. But Koepka says Dechambeau reneged on that agreement when he mentioned him during a Twitch livestream while playing video games.

So now it's fair game, Koepka says.