If you want to rub the R&A high heid yins up the wrong way then it really is quite easy. By simply uttering the sacrilegious words “the British Open” within ear shot of an official, there is a good chance you will be dragged to St Andrews and locked in stocks on the Bruce Embankment.
When Collin Morikawa won The Open in 2021 at St George’s, the American said “British Open” in his thank you speech and the Claret Jug itself just about keeled over.
“I definitely called it the British Open the year I won,” he reflected with a smile. “And then people gave me hate for it, so then I called it The Open last year, but I played better when I called it the British Open so I might call it the British Open. At the end of the day, if you win it you can call it whatever the hell you want.”
Morikawa’s thrilling emergence on the Major scene a couple of years ago was so explosive it just about left craters on the golfing landscape. On his debut in the US PGA Championship in 2020, he won it. On his Open debut – not British Open, Collin, – the following year, he won again. Morikawa was the first player to win two different Majors at the first go.
It was a rousing purple patch but maintaining that winning form is not easy in this game. The 26-year-old Californian won the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai at the end of that sparkling 2021 campaign but has not tasted victory since.
Not that he has simply slithered out of the picture. In 38 events since that win in the desert, Morikawa has posted 11 top-10 finishes but getting over the line again has proved troublesome.
“I would say the last two years have been interesting, not the way I would have guessed it would have gone two years ago but that’s golf and that’s life,” said Morikawa, who lost in a play-off for the Rocket Mortgage Classic on the PGA Tour two weeks ago.
“You really don’t know what to expect. Would I have changed anything? Would I have done anything differently? Maybe a couple of things.
“But being in contention two weeks ago was the best feeling, walking down those last nine holes, it felt like it was just back to normal. It didn’t feel like it was out of the norm. It just felt like, man, we’re here to make birdies, we’re here to win the tournament.
“The play-off didn’t go the way I wanted, but it just felt comfortable. To know that it’s still there, that’s the best feeling.”
Morikawa was only a nipper when Tiger Woods plotted his way to a majestic Open victory at Hoylake in 2006 without hitting a single driver all week.
Back then, the course was firm, fast and singed to a crisp in the midst of a heatwave. Here in 2023, it has been pelted by rain and is a lush green. So, what is the strategy this time?
“Whatever allows you to win,” said Morikawa. “I think it’s a mix. Even today in practice with no wind I was hitting 3-iron, 3-wood, driver. I hit every club off the tee. It’s about how much you want to take on the bunkers, how aggressive you want to be off the tee. Is that going to give you a 9-iron versus a 6-iron? For me it’s about plotting my way around this golf course and taking advantage of certain holes where I might have a wedge in.”
Talking of short dinks into the green, the new 17th hole, a 137-yarder which has generated plenty of discussion, debate and division, at least has one big fan in the shape of US PGA champion Brooks Koepka.
“I’m a big believer in the short par-3s,” he said of a hole that is not everyone’s cup of tea and was described as a “monstrosity” by well-kent caddie Billy Foster.
“I think all the best par-3s in the world that have ever been designed are 165 yards or shorter. The 12th at Augusta, Sawgrass [17th], the Postage Stamp [eighth at Royal Troon]. I like it.”
Not everybody will agree.
