The PGA Tour contests its final major this week as it returns to Ireland and Royal Portrush Golf Club for the 153rd playing of The Open Championship. Royal Portrush first opened in 1888, with the Dunluce Links (championship course the Open plays on) being designed by Harry Colt. This year, Royal Portrush will play as a par 71, 7,381 layout, a stout test for the best golfers in the world.
Links golf is a challenge, plain and simple. The best of shots can take an unlucky bounce and turn a player’s round upside down in a heartbeat. The players best primed for success are elite ball strikers. Players who hit lots of fairways, hit lots of greens and have a high ball flight are bound to succeed. You can’t just hit the ball and hope for the best. With thick fescue, tons of pot bunkers (62 in total) and the ever-looming threat of coastal winds and the usual across the pond weather, players must be prepared to battle both the elements and nature in its purest form if they want a chance to etch their name into golf history by winning the sport’s oldest major. Hitting the greens is also a challenge in this event due to their large size and undulating surfaces. You can’t just half ass your iron shots and hope for the best. Players must truly be on with their irons if they want to have even a sniff of victory. With all the variables in play, short game specialists also reign supreme in this tournament. Having a light touch around the green and being imaginative in your recovery efforts really comes in handy, especially when the wind picks up. Despite challenging course and weather conditions, going low is still a must. With eight of the last ten winners of The Open finishing at double digits under par for the week, a premium is put on making the most of your birdie opportunities, but also, you have to equally avoid making large numbers. Big numbers can creep up in a hurry at the majors. Just one bad score could quickly derail your entire tournament. Minimizing errors and avoiding those rookie mistakes play a big factor at the Open Championship, which has traditionally favored veteran players, as seven of the past 13 winners of The Open Championship have been age 35 or older at the time of their win and eight of the past 13 have been age 32 or older at the time of their win. Finally, just play smart. Taking what the course gives you, minimizing bad results after being the recipient of a bad bounce and simply withstanding the major championship pressure cooker will separate the best from the rest come Sunday. Which player is primed to add their name to the annals of history and hoist the Claret Jug as the Champion Golfer of the Year?
The Open Championship is golf’s oldest major, with the first edition taking place back in 1860. As is the new normal, the best of the best from the PGA Tour, LIV and everywhere in between will be teeing it up. Studs like Ludvig Åberg, Bryson DeChambeau, Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Xander Schauffele and Scottie Scheffler are all teeing it up this week, as well as other cagey vets like Jason Day, Sergio Garcia, Patrick Reed, Adam Scott, Justin Rose and Jordan Spieth, just to name a few.
Past winners of the Open Championship at Royal Portrush is a short, but sweet list, with Max Faulkner winning the title in 1951 and Shane Lowry finding victory in his home country in 2019. Harry Vardon has the most wins in The Open Championship, hoisting the Claret Jug six times in his career. James Braid, John Henry Taylor, Peter Thomson and Tom Watson have each won The Open five times in their career. Walter Hagen, Bobby Locke, Old Tom Morris, Young Tom Morris and Willie Park Sr. have each won the Open four times. Jamie Anderson, Seve Ballesteros, Henry Cotton, Nick Faldo, Bob Ferguson, Bobby Jones, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tiger Woods have each been Champion Golfer of the Year three times in their career, while Ernie Els, Padraig Harrington, Harold Hilton, Bob Martin, Greg Norman, Arnold Palmer, Willie Park Jr. and Lee Trevino are both multi-time winners of the Open.
Last year’s edition was won by Xander Schauffele, who came from one stroke behind on the final day, closing with a 65 to beat Billy Horschel and Justin Rose by two strokes, claiming his second major victory of 2024. Thriston Lawrence finished in solo fourth, three strokes back, and Russell Henley rounded out the top five, four strokes off the pace.
Dustin Johnson is a man on a mission. He’s trying to avoid a pretty unfortunate Grand Slam of his own in 2025. Three majors so far in 2025, and three missed cuts for Johnson. No rounds under par in any of the three majors, minimal signs of life at all three as well. Johnson’s game itself isn’t that bad though, as evidenced by his one top five, four top 10’s and five top 15’s across 10 starts while playing on LIV this season. He just simply struggles more going up against the best of the best players on the biggest and toughest courses in the majors, which is an issue for many other elite players, too. Johnson has had recent success in the Open, posting top 10’s in both 2021 and 2022. Johnson has not had much success at Royal Portrush though, finishing T-51 in 2019 after closing with a final round 76. Not going too far off the limb this weekend. Give me Dustin Johnson for the Early Exit Slam, with another missed cut in a major.
Dark Horse:
A few days shy of turning 45, Justin Rose has shown that he still has plenty of pop left in his game, posting top 10’s on the biggest stages in 2025, including the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, the Genesis Scottish Open, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Masters Tournament. In his last 11 majors starts, Rose has very much been feast or famine, posting a pair of runner-up finishes at this year’s Masters Tournament, finishing on the wrong end of a playoff and having a front row seat for McIlroy’s history-making moment, as well as last year’s Open Championship, where he finished two strokes behind winner Xander Schauffele, as well as posting four top 10’s, five top 20’s and six missed cuts. Rose’s game has been heating up on the greens, gaining half a stroke or more in three of his last four starts, but has been cooling off with the irons, losing 0.75 strokes or more on approach over the same stretch. Rose has unfinished business at Royal Portrush, finishing T-20 in 2019 thanks to an eight over par round of 79 on the final day. Rose was a top five player for most of the week the last time the Open was held here and with his recent form, being valued at $7,600 on DraftKings is absolutely criminal. Give me Justin Rose for another top 20 at Royal Portrush, only this time, with less dramatics and better vibes.
If you would’ve told me at the start of the week that Russell Henley was ranked inside the top five in the Official World Golf Ranking, I would’ve asked what kind of crack were smoking. But alas, here we are. Russell Henley is having a career season on tour, picking up his fifth career win at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. The stat line: one win, eight top 10’s and just two missed cuts in 14 starts. Not too shabby. Henley ranks inside the top 35 in five of the six major Strokes Gained categories, including 6th in Around-The-Green, 9th in Tee-to-Green and 15th in Approach the Green. Henley’s biggest Achilles is his length, ranking 171st on tour this season in Driving Distance, but makes up for it by being an elite ball striker, ranking 14th in both Driving Accuracy Percentage and Greens in Regulation Percentage. Henley’s name often isn’t the first to come to mind when it comes to major contenders, but he’s quietly been on the leaderboards of late, finishing T-4 at the Masters Tournament in 2023, posting three straight top 15 finishes at the U. S. Open and finishing 5th in the Open last season. Henley is making his first start at Royal Portrush and enters on the heels of three straight top 10 finishes, including a T-2 finish in his most recent start at the Travelers Championship. Expect Henley to turn some heads this week with a second straight top 10 finish in the Open Championship.
He’s been right on the edge of a victory all season long, and this week is finally the week. Jon Rahm has posted four top 5’s, nine top 10’s and a worst finish of 11th in 10 LIV starts. The majors? Two top 10’s and three top 15 finishes. Also pretty solid at the end of the day. The stats are tough to handicap for Rahm, given the limited numbers players in LIV, but he does rank first in Greens in Regulation Percentage, third in Scrambling and seventh in Driving Distance, but also ranks T-25 in Putting Average. The putter has always been Rahm’s nemesis in his career, but when he gets that putter rolling, he’s right up there with Scottie and Rory. Rahm has yet to win the Open Championship, but has been in the mix seemingly every year, posting top three finishes in two of the last four editions and finishing in the top 10 in three of the last four editions. Rahm finished T-11 the last time Royal Portrush hosted the Open in 2019, which could’ve been even better if not for a final round 75. A two-time major winner, I predict that Jon Rahm will take home the coveted Claret Jug and become one PGA Championship victory away from the career Grand Slam, as he takes down the best of the best and is named Champion Golfer of the Year by winning the 153rd Open Championship!
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