In the Open Championship, golf’s stars face off against a unique foe one last time
The Open Championship is a celebration — of golf’s origins, its past champions, its DNA, its habitats. For the past seven years, since the PGA Championship moved to May, it has also served as the final chapter of golf’s major season — the last chance for players to put their names in history before the eight-and-a-half-month wait for the Masters begins.
And it’s the last time of year that the face of golf, the players to whom the game is thrown, faces a different opponent: big, existential, possibly unanswerable questions about dreams, legacy, the long arc of pro golf, death and everything in between.
This week at Royal Birkdale is no different. While major tournaments bring pressure and chippy interactions at press conferences, players are usually in a happy mood at the Open, enjoying playing a different style of golf in the birthplace of the game and feeling excited about their chances of achieving a lifelong dream of becoming the Champion Golfer of the Year (again, in some cases). So when the weird, philosophical questions come their way (they always do), the players seem more than willing to entertain and ponder something bigger than what their 6-iron might be working on this week.
The presentation began with Tommy Fleetwood, a local star who grew up in Southport and used to sneak into Royal Birkdale as a child. Now 35, Fleetwood is still chasing his first championship. He has eight career top-10s, including runner-up finishes at the 2018 US Open and the 2019 Open Championship. But Tommy Lad hasn’t recorded a top-10 finish since the 2023 Masters, and as a result, he was asked to face the possibility that he would never become a major champion.
As we’ve come to expect from Fleetwood, he was optimistic about the road ahead while admitting that his pursuit of golf won’t be limited to four tournaments a year. That would be an understatement for the work he has put in to chase his dreams.
“I’ll have to wait and find out,” Fleetwood said on Monday at Royal Birkdale. “There’s no doubt about it, I think winning the majors is like the highest honor in our sport. It’s hard. I don’t think I want to look to the future and worry or think that I have to win a major to feel fulfilled. I think, like everyone here, we spend our lives giving everything, and it may happen to me, it may not happen what I think. I spent it chasing my dreams, what was it for, whatever happens in my career, I will have – I’ll be able to look back and say I did it all and had an amazing time doing it, I’d love to have a big part or two or three in my resume when my career is over.
“Dreams do come true, we watch them all the time, but you’ll never know if yours will unless you chase after it. Mine might come true; it might not. I think I’ve done a lot in my career so far, but yes, there’s still a lot to do. Until the end of my time, I’ll keep trying and keep working hard, and I hope you can ask me that question and how I’ll hear that question.”
On Monday it was an interesting match of the Open Championship of big questions, there are. Tuesday was the main course.
The 46-year-old Justin Rose, who had his Birkdale debut as a novice in 1998 before missing 21 cuts in a row to start his professional career, was asked what his career – the big, World No. 1, Olympic gold medal, etc.
One of golf’s geniuses, Rose admitted he would have liked to have done more in other areas; there are those close to him who may go his way and change the way he is viewed. But overall, 28 years into the professional career, Justin Rose has no regrets at all and believes that what he longs for is yet to come.
“It’s probably an impossible answer, but the only way to answer it is: Would I like to do it again and think I could do better? I think maybe I’ll pass. Maybe I can say I’ll let the chips go – I’ll stay. I’ll stick around,” said Rose. “I’m very happy where I am. Would I have done more? Would I have won more of what I’ve won? Yes. Would I like to be a major champion? Yes. Do I feel like I’m pushing close to a grand slam? Yes. I’ve had results that almost put me in that category. So a little bit of luck here and there, I’d look for a very different career, if I could get a different career here. No. 1. I’m a major champion, an Olympic gold medal, I’ve won the more I can gain from the game, even if it’s just one stupid thing, no matter what, the situation, life, there are many things that can get in the way during 28 years of work.”
Our tour of golf philosophy ends with two of the best players in the world, Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy.
At last year’s Open, Scheffler famously described the unsatisfied nature of winning tournaments and how things outside of golf fulfilled his heart’s deepest desires. A year later, Scheffler explained what those who heard parts of his speech did, or what he misspoke. What he was trying to say is that it is important to know “your reason”. That he is driven by competition, he thrives on the field and the process that leads to it, not the fleeting feeling that comes when he finishes at the top.
World No. 1 featured a frustrating year that saw him finish second four times while winning just once. Scheffler compared the constant rivalry and the fatigue that comes with an NFL team that keeps going deep into the playoffs. The grind and the pressure of being in the spotlight is overwhelming. He accepts it, but it is hard to bear. Then, Scheffler was asked about legacy and what he thinks about becoming and cementing his place in history is a motivating factor. Although numbers like 19 and 83 have hit Tiger Woods, Scheffler said he doesn’t care because he won’t say anything if he’s gone.
“I don’t really play a place in history. I don’t play something like that because – this is going to sound awkward – at the end of the day, I will live my life, and it will end. When it ends, I will go somewhere else, and I will not be here anymore. Legacy and all those things, I was never a competition for me. one to play for history or legacy or anything like that.
“If I’m not remembered – like I don’t want to be remembered for winning the championships that I’ve won. I’d rather be remembered for how I do than for the championships that I’ve won. So if I do things the right way, I treat people the right way – like I said, a successful week for me is when I look at things the right way, when I’m willing to do the right thing but remember to do the right thing. There’s a guy who’s won every tournament.”
Rory McIlroy has shrugged off big pre-Open questions by commenting that he has “learned the hard way” that chasing records and medals is a dangerous path, one that does not lead to the desired destination. A six-time major champion, McIlroy’s legacy is already cemented. Everything from here on is gravy. But like Scheffler, that’s not the North Star for the two-time defending Masters champion.
“No, I don’t really care,” McIlroy said about whether he was worried about how he would be remembered. “I like to think that people who love and care about me think a certain way about me, but yeah, I’ll be long gone, I’ll be dead, I don’t think I’ll be seeing what people say about me. I’ll be six feet under, I don’t think I’ll be a ghost.”
“I’m sure Scottie said the same thing, but I think it can be a very unsatisfying job if you’re chasing records and chasing results. You’ve got to enjoy the process. You’ve got to enjoy the journey to get there. … If all you’re thinking about is winning and getting results, you’re playing the wrong game. To see how good I can be. To see if the work I’ve put in can put a lot of pressure and we can put a lot of pressure in practice. down, which is big tournaments.”
The last one of the year starts on Thursday. On Sunday, many big questions will hang in the air. They will probably stay there until April.
