Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Scott takes week getting to know Royal Portrush
PORTRUSH, NORTHERN IRELAND >> Adam Scott already has spent seven days at Royal Portrush, three of them with Darren Clarke, and the advice was invaluable to the end. They stood off the 18th green Sunday as Scott listened intently to a British Open champion whose game was forged on these links.
How the course plays in different wind directions?
Whether it’s worth hitting driver down the steep hill on the 17th?
No, this was where to spend the next few days away from the course, with the Bushmills Distillery the leading option.
“I’ve seen enough now,” Scott said. “I feel ready.”
What he saw was better than he imagined. Royal Portrush hasn’t hosted golf’s oldest championship since 1951 and has a mystique except for the few who know it well. Clarke is on that list, having made Portrush his adopted home. Graeme McDowell is the only player who was raised in Portrush. Rory McIlroy is famous for the course record he set (61) at the North of Ireland Amateur when he was 16.
It’s not usual for Scott to show up at the Open a full week ahead of time, as he did at Carnoustie a year ago.
“I was a bit surprised, my first look, at how demanding a golf course it is,” Scott said. “Sometimes on a links you can get away with wide shots. Here, you don’t. It’s so penal off the tee, no matter what you hit. If you start spraying it, there’s going to be reloading a lot. If the wind doesn’t blow, there will be less of that. It is a very, very strong golf course.”
The strength of this Open might be the support. For the first time in 159 years of this championship, tickets for the competition days had to be purchased in advance (and since then, the same “all ticket” policy applies to Tuesday and Wednesday practice rounds). Tickets were even sold on Sunday, a rarity, and several grandstands along the back nine were filled.
The largest crowd in the morning made it clear that Tiger Woods was on site. Woods, who has not played since June 16 at the U.S. Open, arrived Sunday morning and played 18 holes with Patrick Reed.
“Where’s Tiger?” one fan asked a marshal, and he was told to find the big gallery across the way at the 17th.
Scott says Clarke gave him more than he could have wanted. He asked for a practice round, just to see how Clarke approached these links, and wound up playing three times with him.
“He’s gone out of his way to spend way too much time with me,” Scott said. “I love watching how he plays the links he grew up on, to see what he thinks and how he navigates. He’s been incredibly helpful. It’s nice to have a good level of comfort to go play the tournament.”
The advantage of playing so much so early was seeing at least three different wind directions.
“This is not the wind we will see,” Clarke said as they walked up to the 16th tee, a ferocious par 3 known as “Calamity Corner,” and the name fits. It is 236 yards on the card, with a steep drop to the right of the green that can send a golf ball 50 feet below the green unless the thick grass holds it up.
Frittelli wins John Deere for first PGA Tour title
SILVIS, ILL. >> Dylan Frittelli won the John Deere Classic on Sunday for his first PGA Tour title, closing with a 7-under 64 for a two-stroke victory over Russell Henley.
The South African earned a spot next week in the British Open, finishing at 21-under 263 after the bogey-free final round at TPC Deere Run. He opened with rounds of 66, 68 and 65 to begin the day two strokes back.
A two-time winner on the European Tour, Frittelli birdied the par-5 17th after blasting out of a greenside bunker to 11 feet, and closed with a par on the par-4 18th.
Henley shot a tournament-best 61. Andrew Landry was 18 under after a 69.
Rookie Collin Morikawa (66), the runner-up last week in Minnesota, and Chris Stroud (67) followed at 17 under. Morikawa hit all 18 greens in regulation. PGA TOUR CHAMPIONS >> Retief Goosen birdied the final two holes to win the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship at Firestone Country Club for his first PGA Tour Champions title.
The 50-year-old Hall of Famer from South Africa broke a tie for the lead with a 15-foot putt on the par-4 17th and made a 10-footer on the par-4 18th for a 2-under 68 and a two-stroke victory over 65-year-old Jay Haas and Tim Petrovic.
Three strokes ahead after opening rounds of 69 and 62, Goosen dropped a stroke behind Scott Parel on Saturday with a 75. The two-time U.S. Open champion rebounded from a bogey on the par-4 first with an eagle on the par-5 second, then parred the next eight. He offset a double bogey on the par-4 11th with birdies on the par-3 12th and par-4 13th, but dropped another stroke on the par-4 14th.
Haas, trying to become the oldest winner in tour history, closed with a 67. Petrovic shot 68.
Parel had a 73 to tie for fourth with Kent Jones (71) at 2 under. EUROPEAN TOUR >> Austria’s Bernd Wiesberger beat France’s Benjamin Hebert with a par on the third playoff hole in the Scottish Open for his sixth European Tour title.
Hebert shot 9-under 62 to set the clubhouse target at 22 under at The Renaissance Club, but overnight leader Wiesberger (69) recovered from a slow start to reclaim top spot with ha birdie on the 16th, only to bogey the 17th and then par the last to force a playoff.
Also the Made in Denmark winner in May, Wiesberger moved to the top of the Race to Dubai standings.
Hebert earned one of the three qualifying places in the British Open next week at Royal Portrush. England’s Andrew Johnston (62) and Italy’s Nino Bertasio (68) took the other two spots after tying for fourth. LPGA TOUR >> Sei Young Kim won the Marathon Classic for her second LPGA Tour victory of the season, making five straight birdies in a mid-round burst and shooting a 6-under 65 for a twostroke victory over Lexi Thompson.
Kim began the birdie run on No. 7 and finished at a tournament-record 22-under 262 at Highland Meadows Golf Club. The 26-yearold South Korean player has nine tour titles, also winning the LPGA MEDIHEAL Championship in May in California.
Thompson, a stroke behind Kim entering the day, closed birdie-eagle for a 66.
Six shots ahead of Thompson after the birdie run, Kim played the final seven holes in even par, offsetting a birdie on 15 with a bogey on 1. Kim broke the event mark of 263 set by InKyung Kim in 2017.
Stacy Lewis was third at 16 under after a 66. She was born in nearby Toledo.