Adam Scott during the first round of The 152nd Open. | Photo by Paul Ellis/Getty Images
A couple of familiar names lurk towards the top of the leaderboard as Adam Scott and Justin Rose carded beautiful opening rounds.
A critical attribute of links golf only comes with age.
Experience is always needed, especially at a seaside course like Royal Troon, where the wind hallows off the sea and seemingly pushes every shot towards one of the 99 pot bunkers that line these fairways and greens. Avoiding those is paramount, but knowing what shot to hit—and how to control your golf ball in the wind is a skill that takes years to master.
Both 44-year-old Adam Scott and 43-year-old Justin Rose have done so, as they have combined to play in 43 Open Championships. Scott’s best result came at Royal Lytham and St. Anne’s in 2012, when he bogeyed the final four holes to finish one stroke behind Ernie Els. Rose, meanwhile, tied for second at Carnoustie in 2018 when Francesco Molinari won. Both are still searching for their first Claret Jug, but they have given themselves an excellent opportunity to contend for golf’s oldest major this week after round one.
Rose carded an impressive 2-under 69 that featured zero bogies—a testament to how good of a links player he is. He trails Justin Thomas by one.
“Happy to keep it clean out there. Bogey-free is probably the thing I’m happiest about,” Rose said.
Photo by Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images
Justin Rose on day one of The Open.
“I felt like I had a good handle on the course. I felt like I knew where the course was playing tough, where the opportunities were, and yeah, I stayed focused enough to hit a lot of good shots today.”
Scott finished one stroke behind the Englishman, posting a 1-under 70 to keep his momentum intact from last week’s Genesis Scottish Open, where he finished runner-up to Robert MacIntyre.
“It was pretty solid,” Scott assessed.
“I think the wind change made the back nine play tough even though it was downwind. I hadn’t played in that wind and made some errors, but it was a fairly uneventful day. I played solid and am pretty happy to start under par.”
Scott made three birdies to two bogies, one of which came on the par-5 16th, where he drove it into the burn. He misjudged the wind, and his drive did not stop before reaching the tiny creek that treks across the 3rd and 16th holes.
But Rose had the more impressive day, especially considering that he had to make it to this tournament via Final Qualifying. Rose tied for first at Burnham & Berrow, one of the four Final Qualifying sites that sent four players to The Open. The Englishman shot rounds of 66 and 68 over 36 holes to book his ticket to Troon, and because of that, he feels especially thankful to play in The 152nd Open.
“I probably just have a bit more gratitude just to be here from that point of view. Twenty years probably-ish ballpark where you make your schedule in December, and you go, ‘Okay, Masters, Open, U.S. Open, PGA, how do we plan around that?’ And this year it’s like, ‘Hang on a second, I’m not guaranteed in the Open or the U.S. Open at this point,” Rose explained.
“I had to do a little bit of extra hard work just to make sure I was here. Obviously, it’s a special event for me being a Brit. It’s the one I’ve dreamed about winning ever since I was a kid, so obviously, you’ve got to be in it to win it. That was the first part of the jigsaw puzzle, to make sure I qualified.”
As one ages, making it to and playing in major championships becomes much more difficult. But Scott and Rose are off to terrific starts, and considering a pair of veterans took home the Claret Jug the last two times at Royal Troon—Todd Hamilton at 38 years old in 2004 and Henrik Stenson at 40 years old in 2016—Scott and Rose could certainly follow in their footsteps.
They have the skill, the experience, and the knowledge to do it. Now, they need some luck to go their way.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.
