The Five: Players with most at stake at The British Open Championship

Opportunity beckons when major championship season begins each April. Players have aspirations of claiming their maiden major, changing their lives in the process. Others are looking to snap droughts or chase history. It’s a time for optimism. Anything is possible.

But on the eve of The Open Championship, the year’s last major, that optimism has morphed into anxiety for many. It is everyone’s last shot to grab a major in 2024. Players in good form are trying to strike while the iron is hot, and those who had close calls are looking for a shot at redemption. Otherwise, they will have to wait nine months for another chance.

On the eve of The Open at Royal Troon, here’s a look at five players with the most at stake this week.

1. Rory McIlroy

The list of close calls is getting a bit long for Rory McIlroy’s liking. There was the final round at St. Andrews two years ago, where he stayed in neutral all day and was chased down by Cameron Smith. McIlroy finished one behind Wyndham Clark at last year's U.S. Open, playing the sort of measured round usually required at U.S. Opens, before a bogey at the par-5 14th proved to be the difference. And now, he's coming off the disastrous finish at Pinehurst to miss out on yet another chance for elusive major No. 5.

McIlroy has long said nobody deserves anything in the game of golf, but he’s starting to believe he’s owed something from the golf gods.

“I am finally getting to the point where I feel like I deserve something,” he told the Guardian. “That doesn’t mean to say I’ll get it. I always felt if you say you deserve something, it reeks of entitlement. Nobody is entitled to anything in this game or life in general. You have to earn everything. But I feel like I am in a great position to go and earn it.”

McIlroy has been in this spot before. He’s taken some of the toughest moments of his career and used it as fuel. He was the favorite to win the 2011 Masters through three days but famously shot a final-round 80 to lose a four-shot lead. Two months later, he won the U.S. Open by eight shots. After his heartbreak at St. Andrews, where he had 36 putts and shot 70 to be passed by Smith's 64, McIlroy rebounded to win the FedExCup. McIlroy won the Genesis Scottish Open in dramatic fashion, with birdies on the final two holes, less than a month after his agonizing finish at Los Angeles Country Club last year. His win in Scotland included one of the most memorable shots of his career, the 2-iron into 18 that set up his closing birdie for a one-shot win.

Many expect him to do it again at Royal Troon and finally claim major No. 5. He acquitted himself well in his return, finishing in a tie for fourth at the Genesis Scottish Open. A top 5 won’t cut it this week. It’s win or bust for McIlroy at The Open. That’s as high as the stakes can get.

2. Scottie Scheffler

Scheffler doesn’t need to win this week. His dominant 2024 campaign will remain dominant regardless of the result. But every time Scheffler tees it up, it is another opportunity for the Texan to further cement this season among the best in modern PGA TOUR history.

A win this week would give Scheffler seven this season, including two majors. That would equal the best single season of Jack Nicklaus’ career, who won seven times in 1972, including the Masters and the U.S. Open.

Scheffler is already the quickest to reach six wins in a season since Arnold Palmer in 1962. Coincidentally, Palmer won his seventh title at The Open at Royal Troon. Can Scheffler repeat history?

Scheffler’s performance this season certainly feels deserving of more than just a single major championship, though history has shown us golf rarely gives players “what they deserve.”

Scheffler isn’t paying much attention to it, either.

“I've talked a good amount about (how) I don't really define myself by my wins or by my losses, and so I do my best to compete and have the right attitude,” Scheffler said at the Travelers Championship last month. “Going into The Open Championship, I don't need to feel any sort of validation or anything like that. It's been a tremendous year and I'm grateful to have some wins, and I'm looking forward to going out and competing and playing in the Open Championship, playing in the Olympics, and then playing the Playoffs as well.”

With that said, adding a victory at Royal Troon and picking up his third career major would be a fitting exclamation point on a stunningly impressive season.

3. Justin Thomas

It was at The Open Championship last year that Thomas hit his breaking point. The two-time major winner had struggled mightily all season, and with the pressure of a Ryder Cup spot and a FedExCup Playoffs berth hanging over him, Thomas shot the worst round of his year, an 82 in the first round of The Open.

As he returns to Scotland, Thomas’s game and standing are in a much better place. He ranks inside the top 20 of the FedExCup and is comfortably in the conversation for a Presidents Cup berth.

The nut he still hasn’t cracked? His major championship performances. Thomas has been pedestrian in the majors since winning the PGA Championship at Southern Hills two years ago. He’s missed five cuts (out of nine), and his T8 at this year’s PGA is his only top 30 in that span.

Links golf should be the type of test that fits Thomas. The weather and course conditions require creativity and shotmaking. Few players have embodied those traits better than Thomas over the last decade. Yet, it hasn’t yielded much at The Open. It’s the only major where he hasn’t carded a top-10. He has at least two top 10s in each of the other three.

Thomas fancies himself a big game hunter, but he hasn’t been in contention in one since his win at Southern Hills. It’s about time he changes that.

4. Tiger Woods

In the aftermath of Woods’ car crash in 2021 that nearly cost him his leg, most of the conversation surrounding the 15-time major winner was about whether he would play at all. Every major he showed up to was a semi-surprise. The collective golf world diligently refreshed Woods’ social media accounts in the weeks leading up to a major, hoping for the good news that we’d see him play again.

The novelty of Woods playing in majors has largely worn off. That’s a good thing. Woods will play in all four majors for the first time since 2019. He’s healthy enough to reliably show up but not enough to get the requisite competitive reps he needs to contend.

“I'm physically getting better as the year has gone on. I just haven't been able to play as much because I just don't want to hurt myself (before), then I won't be able to play in the major championships,” Woods said. “It's pick your poison, right? Play a lot with the potential of not playing, or not playing and fight being not as sharp.”

Woods has left all three majors this season frustrated. He’s shown flashes of impressive golf, but they rarely last a full round. Woods would like to save the dramatics for Sunday, but they’ve often come on Fridays as he fights to make the cut. He’s made just two cuts since 2022, both at the Masters.

Woods maintains that he will only continue playing if he believes he can win. There’s no reason not to believe him. But if the missed cuts continue to stack up, when will his own belief waver?

Woods has earned the right to play for as long as he wants, but it’s fair to wonder if that desire will wane if he doesn’t see a positive result soon. He can put that to bed at Troon this week. The terrain is flat, and he can use his experience playing the ball on the ground. If the weather cooperates, he should have a good chance to play the weekend.

5. Wyndham Clark

It might seem weird to have last year’s U.S. Open champion on this list, but Clark’s record since his maiden major victory has left much to be desired. Since his triumphant victory over McIlroy at The Los Angeles Country Club, Clark has gone T33-CUT-CUT-T56 in majors. The win is his only top-30 in 10 career major appearances.

Ahead of this year’s first major, Clark was arguably the second-best player in the world behind Scheffler. He had won earlier in the year at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and went toe-to-toe with Scheffler at THE PLAYERS and the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, finishing runner-up on both occasions. The missed cut at the Masters was the first true misstep of the season. Then came another at the PGA Championship, shooting a second-round 75 to miss the cut. He was a non-factor in his U.S. Open defense, too. With so few major championships each season, it’s fickle to judge players based on just those performances, but it’s often how the best players in the world are evaluated, and Clark is among them now.

Clark has shown an ability to contend on a multitude of different golf courses. Los Angeles Country Club, Pebble Beach, Quail Hollow, TPC Sawgrass and Bay Hill are all widely different tests of golf, and Clark has excelled on all of them.

Now it’s time to show he can do it on the Scottish links. Clark is having a better season than his major record indicates. It’s time to validate the year he’s put together with a top result at Royal Troon.