Power Rankings: The 152nd Open Championship

It’s time to drop the anchor. The final major of 2024 has arrived.

The 152nd edition of The Open Championship will be contested at Royal Troon this week. It’s the 10th time that the quintessential links layout has hosted. Its previous turn was in 2016. Look it up in a dictionary and you’ll see a photo of it beside the definition of tradition. Well, that and challenging. And go ahead and flip to visceral reactions like grimace and sigh, and you’ll see it there, too. But it’ll also appear next to the reward for grit, a phrase that should be in the dictionary because the tangible prize is the claret jug.

Details of what the expanded field of 158 will face, how it fared eight years ago and much more is below the ranking of those projected to contend.

If you think that the field size stated at the top is wrong, think again. The field construct of The Open hasn’t wavered much in recent years but there’s some elasticity possible. Because eligible former champions who step away for a period of time are known to return to the site where they prevailed, field size can increase. This year, both Justin Leonard (1997) and Todd Hamilton (2004) have committed as former champions at Royal Troon. It’s Leonard’s first start in the major since the last time Royal Troon hosted eight years ago. Hamilton’s last appearance was in 2018. As a result, alternates will not be called unless the field drops below 156.

Royal Troon can be found hard against the Firth of Clyde southwest of Glasgow. To put its position on the globe into perspective, its latitude is about 12 miles north of an American cruise port, Ketchikan, Alaska. Thoughts of escaping to cooler climes nowadays are timely, but you don’t visit Ketchikan to play golf. Conditions forever are in focus when The Open rolls around, and you won’t be disappointed as a fan.

For starters, yes, the wind will blow, and then blow some more. Classic Scottish summer weather is in store pretty much throughout with daytime highs reaching and eclipsing 60 degrees. But there’s a potential benefit to the breezes. For the first two days but perhaps also on the weekend, the push will be from the south, so it would be helping for the majority of the inward nine.

Royal Troon is a par 71 with respective nines of 36 and 35. It tips at 7,385 yards. The inward half is 307 yards longer and it played 2.009 strokes over par in 2016, hardest in relation to par of all second nines on the PGA TOUR that season. The opening nine averaged just 0.153 strokes over par. So, the wind will effectively shorten most holes coming in. If golfers can de-club, that’s not insignificant with so much trouble lurking across the property.

Since 2016, the course is 195 yards longer. That includes an increase of 23 yards at the 623-yard, par-5 sixth hole, which will become the longest hole in Open history. But they dare not touch – and they didn’t – the par-3 eighth commonly known as the “Postage Stamp.” It’s still 123 yards and probably will play sub-100 in at least one round.

All of the last seven champions at Royal Troon won a tournament previously in the same calendar year. The first six were Americans. Henrik Stenson of Sweden kept the trend alive when he outdueled Phil Mickelson three weeks after taking the title at the BMW International Open. Stenson and Mickelson are among 40 in this field who pegged it here in 2016.

The cut at The Open is low 70 and ties after two rounds. The champion will receive an exemption into the tournament through age 55. That reflects an adjustment from the previous cap of age 60. He’ll also secure exemptions into the next five editions of each of the other three majors in addition to 750 FedExCup points, a record $3.1 million and a five-year PGA TOUR membership exemption.

ROB BOLTON’S SCHEDULE

MONDAY: Power Rankings (Open)
TUESDAY*: Power Rankings (Barracuda); Sleepers (Open)
WEDNESDAY: Golfbet Insider
SUNDAY: Points and Payouts (Open); Points and Payouts (Barracuda); Medical Extensions; Qualifiers; Reshuffle

*Rob is a member of the panel for PGATOUR.COM’s Expert Picks for PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf, which also publishes on Tuesday.