Thoughts following the 2024 Open Championship

The final men’s major championship of the 2024 season has come to an end and Xander Schauffele is the Champion Golfer of the Year! Schauffele took care of the elements at Royal Troon Golf Club all weekend and claimed his second career major championship title with a two shot victory over Justin Rose and Billy Horschel at the 2024 Open Championship. The victory was also his second major victory in his last three major starts. Below are some thoughts I have following the completion of the 152nd playing of The Open Championship at Royal Troon Golf Club in Scotland!

XANDER SCHAUFFELE

Many fans in golf felt that if Xander Schauffele could just break through in one major he’d potentially open the floodgates. That proved to be true this weekend as he backed up his PGA Championship at Valhalla in May with a Claret Jug victory just two majors later. While most of the leaders struggled in the extremely challenging conditions on Saturday, Schauffele fired a 2-under par 69. He would then follow that by firing a bogey free 65 on Sunday to win the tournament. The display of golf shown by Schauffele this past weekend was terrific. With his consistent play and now his two major titles, he’s truly solidified himself as one of the best golfers we’ve seen in the last 15 years. 

I’m not out on Tiger Woods just yet....but I’m getting there. I get that he’s got his exemptions into certain majors, but it’s getting upsetting to watch him show up and miss the cut. The Masters is the one major I still enjoy watching him play in because it’s held yearly at Augusta National and he knows how to make his way around the golf course. However, the other majors are just getting pointless. Woods is showing up to play a course that he hasn’t seen in years and is coming nowhere close to the cut line. Part of this involves Woods barely playing tournament golf as well. He can’t keep showing up once a month to miss a cut. If Tiger isn’t going to be playing more to be ready for the majors then I don’t want to constantly be watching him pack it up on Friday and go home. Sorry. 

Links golf showed its ugly, yet beautiful head on Saturday afternoon. According to Justin Ray on twitter, the final ten groups played their third rounds at 55 OVER PAR. Xander Schauffele and Billy Horschel combined to go five under par while the other 18 golfers went a combined 55 over. The most beautiful example of how bad the weather was on Saturday was when both Daniel Brown and Shane Lowry hit driver on the par 3 17th hole and neither got the ball to the green. That is the beauty of links golf and the beauty of this game.

The Masters will always be my favorite major but The Open Championship is an extremely close second. Building on that last piece about the conditions on Saturday, links golf is just awesome. The creativity needed to play The Open Championship is something that we don’t really see week in and week out on the PGA Tour. Open Championship week is always a great break from the “just hit it a far way” course and a great example of golfers needing to use their imagination.

For the first time since 1982, American golfers have swept all four major championships in a season. The Americans have now won nine of the last 10 major championships. There’s no doubt that the talent pool in the U.S. is a rich one. Can they figure out a way to come together every two years and beat the Europeans at the Ryder Cup? Only time will tell on that one.

Well, the Masters is sort of next. We still have the Olympics, the remainder of the PGA Tour season, and the AIG Women’s Open which will be held at St. Andrews this year! But the end of The Open Championship means that we have the long wait for the next major championship....The Masters!