HOLMES MOVES INTO OPEN LEAD AS MCILROY FALTERS
Kentucky native avoids mistakes that have doomed Northern Irish favourite’s weekend
Royal Portrush waited 68 years to welcome back the world’s best players and it was more than ready to greet them.
The 148th Open Championship kicked off in Northern Ireland on a Thursday that saw, well, everything. Mother Nature gave us all she had and Royal Portrush gave us the rest. There was rain, sunshine, wind, heartbreak, embarrassment, pain, a hole-inone, a 14 on a hole and a 29 over nine holes.
At the end of the first round, Rory Mcilroy and Tiger Woods are seemingly down for the count and Kentucky’s J.B. Holmes is leading golf’s oldest major.
Holmes fired a 5-under 66 that began with a bogey. It was the only bogey on the 37-year-old’s card and he quickly turned the tables, scoring birdies on three of his next four holes.
“I hit it great, I didn’t miss too many shots,” Holmes said. “When I did, I missed them in the right spot. I putted well. Stuck to our game plan and just executed about as perfectly as I could do it.”
Holmes finished with six birdies, including a closing bogey at an 18th hole that gave players fits all day. After his round, Holmes was asked if he knew the historical significance of bringing the Open Championship back to Northern Ireland, a country torn apart for years by violence and the fear of violence that began in the 1960s.
“To put it bluntly, no,” Holmes said. “As far as the significance for the people locally, no, I’m oblivious.”
Irishman Shane Lowry is one shot behind Holmes after shooting a 4-under 67.
Behind Lowry there is a massive group of 14 players tied for third at 3 under. Headlining that bunch is Mr. Major Brooks Koepka, who looked every bit the man who has racked up wins at four of the last nine major championships.
Entering the week, there was no bigger story than Mcilroy. With the weight of a nation on his shoulders, he hit his first tee shot out of bounds. Stunned Northern Irish fans at the golf course and at home cringed as their hero made a ghastly quadruple-bogey eight on the first hole.
Mcilroy pulled himself together and played his next 14 holes at 1 under and appeared as though he might survive his first-hole disaster. But a double bogey on the 16th hole, which included a mindless missed tap-in, and a triple bogey at the 18th appear to have sealed his fate this week.
Mcilroy was asked if there is a way back from his opening round of 8-over-par 79.
“Definitely a way back to Florida,” Mcilroy said, managing to crack a joke. “Look, I definitely think if I can put the ball in the fairway tomorrow I can shoot a good enough score to be around for the weekend. Obviously I’m pretty sure anyone starting with a 79 in this golf tournament doesn’t think about winning at this point.”
DUVAL’S NIGHTMARE
They are still trying to add up David Duval’s score at the seventh hole.
Normally we wait until something is over and done with before writing, but enough is enough, let’s go.
When this story was filed, it had been two hours since Duval finished his first round. We thought it took the 2001 champion 13 strokes to finish the par-5 seventh hole at Royal Portrush. At least that’s what the 100-foot scoreboard directly in front of us said at the time. But we were warned that it was unofficial.
But c’mon, how many of your golf scores could be considered official?
Since it seems unlikely they would change Duval’s score from 13 to, say, a 5 or a 4, it looks like the golfer-turned-tv commentator’s 2019 Open Championship is going to be one to forget. As if that’s possible.
The Coles Notes version of Duval’s hole from hell is he lost his first two balls off the tee and then hit a third drive. After apparently finding that drive, he hit his next shot (technically his sixth).
That’s when it gets silly, or, well, sillier. Turns out Duval played the wrong ball after his third drive. Whoops.
“I asked if it was a 2, Titleist 2,” Duval said after his round. “And then I looked at it and saw 2 and then played almost the entirety of the hole and it turns out with the wrong ball. So then I had to go back to the tee, basically start the hole over.”
Two-stroke penalty and go directly back to the tee. (At least they gave him a cart ride.) His fourth tee shot on the hole (never good) was finally in play and then after six or seven more strokes, the ball was finally in the hole.
“It was fairly unsettling, obviously,” Duval said of the situation.
Update: We’ve just been alerted that Mr. Duval’s score has been changed to a 14 for an 18-hole total of 91. (Read faster, we’re going to try to wrap this up before it becomes a 15.)
The good news is Royal Portrush has a history of naming spots on the course after players, even for futility. At the 1951 Open Championship, Bobby Locke played into the hollow left of the green at the ridiculously difficult par-3 named Calamity in all four rounds. For bailing out every day, not once taking on the 50-foot drop to the right of the green, the course named the hollow after Locke.
So next time you’re at the seventh hole at Royal Portrush, you might be trying a shot from the Duval Tee. But if you find your drive, just make sure it’s your ball before you
hit it.
I’m pretty sure anyone starting with a 79 in this golf tournament doesn’t think about winning.