Rory McIlroy’s candid take on LIV golf, PGA Tour merger, PIF and the future of golf
Rory McIlroy talks to the media after announcement of LIV Golf – PGA Tour merger. He also talks about the PIF and how it’s better to partner with them than be enemies.
USA TODAY
After a first round full of surprises and a frustrating 18th hole for several players, the second round of the 2023 British Open is complete at Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake, England.
American Brian Harman is atop the leaderboard at 10-under-par for the tournament, five strokes above Englishman Tommy Fleetwood, who is in second place at 5-under-par. Austrian Sepp Straka is in third with 4-under-par.
The cut line was set at 3-over-par. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, 2023 PGA Championship winner Brooks Koepka, South African amateur Christo Lamprecht, who was tied for first place after the first round, barely made the cut, all at 3-over-par.
Here’s a recap and highlights from the second round of the Open Championship from Royal Liverpool:
The cut line sits at 3-over-par and past winners Phil Mickelson, the 2013 Open champion, and Collin Morikawa, the 2021 Open champion, are on the wrong side of it after two rounds of play.
Mickelson (+9) and Morikawa (+4) join a list of champions who didn’t make it into the weekend, including Shane Lowry (+7) of Ireland, the 2019 Open champion, and American John Daly (+12), the 1995 Open champion.
Canadian Nick Taylor, Americans Tony Finau and Dustin Johnson also missed the cut.
At 10-under through two rounds at the 2023 Open Championship, Brian Harman is in the lead and will be pursued by the field on Saturday and Sunday.
“I’ve had a hot putter the last couple days so try to ride it through the weekend,” Harman said after his round Friday. “Thirty-six holes to go, so try to rest up and get ready.”
This isn’t new territory for Harman, who held the lead through three rounds in the 2017 U.S. Open at Erin Hills, but shot a 72 on Sunday and finished tied for second, four strokes behind champion Brooks Koepka.
“When I held the 54-hole lead at the U.S. Open, I just probably thought about it too much,” Harman said. “Just didn’t focus on getting sleep and eating right. So that would be my focus this weekend.”
John Daly shot a 6-over 77 in the second round at Royal Liverpool on Friday – his second day in a row with the score – and is at 12-over overall, surely missing the cut. Daly had four bogeys and a double-bogey on the front nine Friday, but finished even on the back nine with seven pars and his only birdie of the day on 18.
The 1995 Open winner, Daly has failed to make the cut at this tournament since 2013.
— Most of the 156 competitors in the field at the 151st Open Championship have an opinion about the 80-odd pot bunkers that litter Royal Liverpool like landmines, and few of them are effusive. The word “penal” hasn’t been used this often by a group of male jocks since autocorrect was invented 30 years ago.
HOYLAKE, England — Most of the 156 competitors in the field at the 151st Open Championship have an opinion about the 80-odd pot bunkers that litter Royal Liverpool like landmines, and few of them are effusive.
Some players were sanguine about the challenges faced in the sand, including two whose misadventures on the final hole in the first round saw them either playing backward or pin-balling off the revetted sod walls.
“Proper penalty structures,” said Jon Rahm.
“You’re riding your luck,” said Rory McIlroy.
The trauma about traps owes to the fact that bunkers at Royal Liverpool aren’t maintained in a customary concave style, with sand slopes flashing up the walls to provide loft for escape and help balls roll toward the flat center of the hazard. Instead, bunker floors are flat or even slope slightly toward the walls, which are mostly perpendicular. This setup substantially increases the chances of a player finding his ball flush against the wall, or at the very least having to manufacture a body-bending stance seldom achieved by any athlete not working a balance beam.
– Eamon Lynch, Golfweek
Only two left-handed players have ever won the Open Championship: Bob Charles in 1963 and Phil Mickelson in 2013. But at 10-under after his second round Friday, American Brian Harman is in good shape to become the third.
Charles’ triumph in 1963 was the first time that a lefty won a major and it didn’t happen again for 40 years, when Mike Weir won the 2003 Masters.
In total, eight majors have been won by left-handers, with Mickelson accounting for five of those (2004 Masters, 2005 PGA, 2006 Masters, 2010 Masters and 2013 Open). His 2013 Open Championship was the most recent won by a lefty.
Tommy Fleetwood started his round with a par and is still five shots back. Some of the other notables: Stewart Cink (3-under), Jordan Spieth (3-under), Wyndham Clark (3-under), and Tyrrell Hatton, who is 2-under for the day and 2-under for the tournament.
Brian Harman has completed his second round and did so in grand style. On the par 5 18th at 596 yards, Harman drove the tee shot onto the fairway, and then 14 feet from the cup on his third shot, he drained it for an eagle.
He finished the round at 10-under, five shots clear of the second-place golfers. Through two rounds, the 36-year-old American has made only one bogey.
The Just Stop Oil protesters made their way to the 17th hole and one of them threw what looked like to be orange paint or powder which landed on the side of the green. Three protesters were promptly taken away by police in a golf cart.
Just Stop Oil has been known to interrupt sporting events, such as Premier League soccer matches, and on Thursday spray painted the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.
Brian Harman shot out to a lead during the second round after making four birdies in a row on the front nine and currently has a three-shot lead at 8-under, after saving par at 12 with an incredible chip shot from the rough. He is ahead of Tommy Fleetwood and amateur Christo Lamprecht, who have yet to tee off.
Emiliano Grillo has moved to 4-under after a nice birdie on 13, and Min Woo Lee is starting to make noise after a nice shot on 16 to settle in at 3-under.
The first hole-in-one of the British Open came on the par-3 17th at Royal Liverpool, set at 132 yards. While a chance for an easy score to hop back into the tournament, Lucas Herbert made a triple bogey on the hole in the first round, but during Friday’s round, Travis Smyth made good on the hole, especially after a bogey on the previous hole. Symth finish the round at 1-over 72, good for 8-over. Smyth’s chances of making the cut are slim.
How to watch 2023 Open Championship
Coverage will start Friday at 1:30 a.m. ET on the Peacock streaming service. USA Network will have live TV coverage at 4 a.m. until 3 p.m., with Peacock resuming coverage until 4 p.m.
Golfers can be followed on the live stream on Peacock from 1:30 a.m. until 4 a.m. and from 3 p.m. until 4 p.m.
What is the weather forecast for Friday?
It was a mostly dry start to the tournament, but Friday isn’t as promising with a few light-to-moderate showers likely to occur in the morning before it gets sunny in the afternoon. Temperatures are expected to be around the same as Thursday, and winds gusts around 15 mph could begin in the morning and continue to increase in the afternoon.
PGA Championship tee times, groupings for Friday
The action will begin early in the U.S., with the first round teeing off at 1:35 a.m. ET. Tee times will roll through 11:16 a.m., with 11-minute intervals in between groups.
- 1:35 a.m.: Rasmus Højgaard, Matthew Southgate, Alex Fitzpatrick
- 1:46 a.m.: Daniel Hillier, Kyung Nam Kang, Kensei Hirata
- 1:57 a.m.: Callum Shinkwin, Kazuki Higa, Michael Kim
- 2:08 a.m.: Zack Fischer, Taichi Kho, Kyle Barker
- 2:19 a.m.: Brendon Todd, Romain Langasque, Travis Smyth
- 2:30 a.m.: Gary Woodland, Adrian Otaegui, Alexander Bjork
- 2:41 a.m.: Min Woo Lee, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Harrison Crowe (a)
- 2:52 a.m.: Corey Conners, Billy Horschel, Alex Noren
- 3:03 a.m.: Tom Kim, Tom Hoge, Abraham Ancer
- 3:14 a.m.: Zach Johnson, Matt Wallace, David Micheluzzi
- 3:25 a.m.: Sahith Theegala, Emiliano Grillo, Dustin Johnson
- 3:36 a.m.: Francesco Molinari, Denny McCarthy, Mateo Fernandez De Oliveira (a)
- 3:47 a.m.: Brian Harman, Thriston Lawrence, Thomas Detry
- 4:03 a.m.: John Daly, Taylor Moore, Danny Willett
- 4:14 a.m.: David Lingmerth, Ben Griffin, Ockie Strydom
- 4:25 a.m.: Adri Arnaus, Ewen Ferguson, Keita Nakajima
- 4:36 a.m.: Keegan Bradley, Sungjae Im, Joaquin Niemann
- 4:47 a.m.: Viktor Hovland, Tony Finau, Justin Thomas
- 4:58 a.m.: Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Justin Rose
- 5:09 a.m.: Collin Morikawa, Max Homa, Tyrrell Hatton
- 5:20 a.m.: Phil Mickelson, Nick Taylor, Adam Schenk
- 5:31 a.m.: Nacho Elvira, Marc Warren, Alejandro Cañizares
- 5:42 a.m.: Guido Migliozzi, Oliver Wilson, Connor McKinney
- 5:53 a.m.: Kalle Samooja, Shubhankar Sharma, Gunner Wiebe
- 6:04 a.m.: Jorge Campillo, Brandon Robinson Thompson, Michael Stewart
- 6:15 a.m.: Hurly Long, Seungsu Han, Marco Penge
- 6:36 a.m.: Matthew Jordan, Richie Ramsay, Branden Grace
- 6:47 a.m.: Russell Henley, Jazz Janewattananond, Graeme Robertson (a)
- 6:58 a.m.: Ryan Fox, Lucas Herbert, Byeong Hun An
- 7:09 a.m.: Rikuya Hoshino, Charl Schwartzel, Alex Maguire (a)
- 7:20 a.m.: Adrian Meronk, Pablo Larrazabal, Hiroshi Iwata
- 7:31 a.m.: Patrick Reed, Connor Syme, Jose Luis Ballester Barrio (a)
- 7:42 a.m.: Darren Clarke, Victor Perez, Thomas Pieters
- 7:53 a.m.: Louis Oosthuizen, Joost Luiten, Christo Lamprecht (a)
- 8:04 a.m.: Stewart Cink, JT Poston, Trey Mullinax
- 8:15 a.m.: Henrik Stenson, Harris English, Andrew Putnam
- 8:26 a.m.: Scott Stallings, Jordan Smith, Thorbjorn Olesen
- 8:37 a.m.: Ernie Els, Kurt Kitayama, Takumi Kanaya
- 8:48 a.m.: Sam Burns, Sepp Straka, Chris Kirk
- 9:04 a.m.: Jordan Spieth, Matt Fitzpatrick, Jason Day
- 9:15 a.m.: Padraig Harrington, Seamus Power, Talor Gooch
- 9:26 a.m.: KH Lee, Davis Riley, Taiga Semikawa
- 9:37 a.m.: Patrick Cantlay, Brooks Koepka, Hideki Matsuyama
- 9:48 a.m.: Scottie Scheffler, Tommy Fleetwood, Adam Scott
- 9:59 a.m.: Cameron Smith, Xander Schauffele, Wyndham Clark
- 10:10 a.m.: Shane Lowry, Rickie Fowler, Robert MacIntyre
- 10:21 a.m.: Cameron Young, Si Woo Kim, Bryson DeChambeau
- 10:32 a.m.: Nicolai Højgaard, Bio Kim, Kazuki Yasumori
- 10:43 a.m.: Dan Bradbury, Oliver Farr, Haydn Barron
- 10:54 a.m.: Marcel Siem, Martin Rohwer, Tiger Christensen (a)
- 11:05 a.m.: Lee Hodges, Antoine Rozner, Richard Bland
- 11:16 a.m.: Yannik Paul, Sami Välimäki, Laurie Canter
Who is Christo Lamprecht?
The surprise of the first round, Christo Lamprecht had only two bogeys in his first round as he propelled his way toward to the top of the leaderboard at 5-under-par.
A senior golfer at Georgia Tech, the South Africa native is one of the tallest players in the tournament at 6-foot-8. The 22-year-old is believed to be the tallest golfer in Georgia Tech history.
He qualified for The Open after winning the Amateur Championship last month and has had a successful amateur career as he led the International Team to beat Team USA at the 2022 Arnold Palmer Cup. At this year’s Arnold Palmer Cup, he lost three of four matches as Team USA won.
No matter how Lamprecht fares in England, it won’t be the last time you see him at a major; because of his Amateur Championship win, he qualified for the 2024 Masters and 2024 U.S. Open.
18th proving difficult closing hole at Royal Liverpool
Taichi Kho was in one of the greenside bunkers on Royal Liverpool’s closing par 5 in two shots Thursday during the first round of the 2023 Open Championship.
It took him eight shots (with a penalty stroke in there) to get the ball in the cup. Nearly pin high in two shots, eight more before he was walking off the green.
The 18th at Royal Liverpool is proving to be one of the more difficult closing holes in recent major championship history, and it looks as if it could provide a huge swing down the stretch on Sunday.
Kho wasn’t spared, carding a 10.
Players will compete for record purse at 2023 Open Championship
The R&A announced the prize money payouts for the Open Championship at Royal Liverpool, July 19-23, where the 2023 Champion Golfer of the Year will receive the highest earnings in championship history.
The man who hoists the Claret Jug at the end of the week will walk away with $3 million, while second ($1,708,000) and third ($1,095,000) will each clear seven figures, as well. The total purse will be $16.5 million, an 18% increase from 2022. – Adam Woodard, Golfweek
