10 Open sights, sounds, gripes and joys from Portrush

Welcome back to the Monday Finish, where we still have the same number of U.S. Opens as Scottie Scheffler — but we’re losing ground everywhere else. To the news:

10 OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP SIGHTS AND SOUNDS

I’m on a direct flight home from Dublin to Seattle, which takes a shockingly northern route, so I’m currently cruising over some fascinating, seemingly uninhabitable stretch of Northern Canada, on the lookout for Santa Claus. (Nunavut, I think? Is that Qikiqtarjuaq I see out the window?!) But my mind is stuck in Northern Ireland. It was a joy to spend the week at Royal Portrush, to be at the Open, to witness a little slice of history, to soak in peak summer from such a special summer place. This weekend I wrote a little about Scottie and a little about Rory — now, for this Monday Finish, I’m here to empty my notebook with a few sights, sounds, joys, gripes and takes before we put this men’s major season to bed.

1. Every major should be accessible by train.

The towns get smaller as you head north from Dublin towards Country Antrim; from the airport the easiest route is a bus to Belfast’s Grand Central Station and then a train to Coleraine followed by a smaller train to Portrush. Things get greener as you go. The cow count goes up. Your blood pressure goes down. There’s something about the rhythm of a train that’s good for the soul, and when you can walk from the train right into town that’s even better. There are a lot of good trains on the Open rota. That’s an excellent thing.

2. Every major should be accessible by beach.

This feels like a slightly needier request, but after a week commuting by walk-across-the-beach it’s going to be tough to get used to anything else. Portrush (in good weather) is a fun, cheery little beach town, filled with bars and restaurants and arcades and ice cream shops. But the really cool thing is the way its “town centre” — which includes the Harbour Bar, the center of the social scene, which you likely saw on the broadcast — sticks out into the ocean, a jagged peninsula flanked by wide, flat, welcoming beaches. And if you cut directly across one of those beaches you just so happen to get to one of the best golf courses in the world. At every Open venue, the walk from course to town means something special and different. This walk is better than most.

3. Rory McIlroy wasn’t at the bars.

But his name sure was. Several times I heard groups of lads breaking into Rory chants outside the bars or on their walks home, like he was their favorite football club. I wrote on Sunday that McIlroy seems clearly to mean more to Northern Ireland than any other golfer would to their respective home crowd — this felt like strong supporting evidence.

(Sidenote: Jon rahm actually was at the bar…)

I asked him about the visit post-round Sunday (after he’d finished answering several questions, somewhat despondently, about his T63) and he lit up, though he clarified the “aliens” thing was a joke.

“There was some pretty good lore about some giants, though,” he said.

8. Haotong Li lost his game. This was quite the comeback

In the last several years 大全 has been so embattled with swing yips off the tee that he has considered giving up the game. To make a long story short: it’s good he didn’t! Because on Sunday he played alongside Scheffler in the final tee time in the final round of a major.

Li admitted something interesting on the eve of battle: he was ready to play free.

“Nothing to lose,” he said. “Especially from two years ago, swing yips, couldn’t even pull the trigger until now. It’s a massive step for me.

Li admitted that he didn’t expect to catch Scheffler from four shots back — “playing for second, especially playing with [Scheffler]. I’ll just try to play my best out there and hopefully make something happen.

9. I had two special guests at this week’s Open.

I want to write more about this, so I won’t go too deep, but just know how cool it was that my mom and her sister planned an Irish adventure that centered on a pair of Friday tickets to Portrush. The absolute highlight of my week. More to come.

10. It’s always a come-down, leaving a major championship.

I write this every major, but I cannot believe these guys finish an event like this and then just go do it again the following week. Granted, the very top tier aren’t playing the 3M Open, but the likes of Gotterup, Mav McNealy and Sam Burns headline a pretty deep field chasing valuable points. Not me — I’m headed home.

RYDER CUP WATCH

Things just started to get very real.

Team USA faces a slew of new questions after Sunday’s results at Portrush. Is Harris English a lock after his T2? Is Gotterup a serious contender after finishing third? Is there legitimate concern around Collin Morikawa? Did Ben Griffin peak early? Could JJ SPAUN slip outside the top six and if so, what are his chances? Does captain Keegan Bradley need one more top finish to pick himself? At the moment it feels like there are five locks — Scheffler, Schauffele, DeChambeau, Henley, Thomas — and then a whole bunch of guys who will look to prove their worth come playoff time.

Team Europe didn’t experience the same level of shake-up but its core remains rock-solid. One interesting plot point was both Hojgaard twins, Rasmus (No. 7) and Nicolai (No. 25) in and around contention for much of the week, though they faded slightly to T14 and T16. Harry Hall (No. 24) is another promising pro who’s further down the rankings than he feels like he should be. Matt Fitzpatrick made the biggest move of all, though — he’s up to No. 13 and trending better every day.

TEAM USA RYDER CUP RANKINGS

1. Scheffler 2. Schauffele 3. Spaun 4. Henley 5. DeChambeau 6. English 7. Thomas 8. Morikawa 9. Griffin 10. Bradley 11. McNealy 12. Harman 13. Novak 14. Cantlay 15. Burns

TEAM EUROPE RYDER CUP RANKINGS

1.

Complete standings here.

NEWS FROM SEATTLE

Monday Finish HQ.

I have no news to provide other than I’m excited to re-enter real life. And I’ll triple down on my gratitude that Seattle has a direct flight to Dublin. It’s the little things.

We’ll see you next week!

Dylan Dethier welcomes your comments at dylan_dethier@golf.com.

“>