ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — The sky opted for some good Scottish brooding Saturday evening instead of the inappropriate sunshine that marred previous days. A frenzied seriousness settled over this 150th British Open. And from the grandstand behind No. 18 with the stately old buildings bunched around, a marketing sign in capital letters seemed to tack on a fresh meaning.
Rory McIlroy and Viktor Hovland, cordial playing partners, set up duel
EVERYTHING HAS LED TO THIS, it has read all week, always seeming to mean this birthplace of golf and the 149 preceding Opens, but maybe it pertained also to the four majors Rory McIlroy won and then the 29 ensuing majors he has not. Those 29 color his pursuit of a drought-destroyer at the world’s foremost course and event. Those 29 help make the meaning inflate and the noise boom.
“It’s what dreams are made of,” McIlroy said late Saturday at a seasoned age 33.
He was a rambunctious 25 in August 2014 when he won his fourth major title in the last 11 played, and he has searched through fields near and far since then without winning one or even squandering one. It has led him all the way to this hopeful, precarious Sunday: sesquicentennial Open, runaway sentiment, tied for the Sunday morning lead with 24-year-old Norwegian phenom Viktor Hovland at 16 under par, well out ahead of Cameron Smith and Cameron Young at 12 under, Scottie Scheffler and Si Woo Kim at 11 under.
The knowledgeable galleries of Britain realize all of it clear from Scotland to his native Northern Ireland, so they’re chanting his name even at times when other players pass in front of them. They fill the stands behind the famed Road Hole, No. 17, sounding just a little bit like soccer beneath good soccer clouds.
“How can you not root for Rory?” said Scheffler, No. 1 in the world at the moment.
What noise they made around 8 p.m. as the northern daylight persisted and the clubhouse chandelier came on. What a Sunday they promised with their lungs and throats. Both McIlroy and Hovland had reached that Road Hole and had reached, unfortunately, the road, either side of it. McIlroy bogeyed from back near the stone wall near the fans standing five or more deep, and Hovland parred by putting up the slope from the path beside the road.
They drove the hell out of No. 18 on this course full of drivable par-4s, and then they walked, McIlroy looking up at the Rusacks Hotel for the windows from which his parents, wife and daughter watch. “I know what rooms we’re staying in,” he said. They both birdied, and they both made off for what looks like a Sunday loud in all the ways of loudness.
The great sports bridge will shove them together, this 33-year-old from Holywood in Northern Ireland who turned up at Carnoustie at the 2007 Open and introduced himself as low amateur, and this 24-year-old from the cross-country skiing haven of Earth who made that weathered old trek from Norway to Oklahoma State to, now, St. Andrews. “I was thinking, ‘What the hell am I doing here?’ ” Hovland said to much laughter.
As players of the meanest game, they will have the kindest chats.
“Talked about a whole bunch of stuff,” McIlroy said about Saturday. “Talked about footwear. Talked about what he did the last couple of weeks. He went back home to Norway. He’s going back to Norway after this. Just kept it nice and loose.”
“I think we were obviously both kind of doing our own thing,” Hovland said. “But as we saw, it was still pretty slow out there, and we had to wait on a lot of tee boxes.”
“Yeah, we got very close at the Ryder Cup last year,” McIlroy said.
“Yeah, Rory and [caddie Harry Diamond] are good guys,” Hovland said, “and we chatted it up a little bit. So it was a good mix.”
“Certainly there wasn’t a lot of chat going on through the last few holes this evening either,” McIlroy said. “But I think it’s the nature of the golf course, and those holes coming in are pretty tricky. And it takes massive concentration to sort of navigate them. But, yeah, I’m not averse to having a chat on the way around. It’s fine. It probably keeps both of us a little loose.”
Whether anyone gallops up to catch them or not, they will figure to play roles like Henrik Stenson and Phil Mickelson did across Scotland at Royal Troon in 2016: out front alone together. (They dueled from six and five shots ahead of all others, and Stenson won by three.) McIlroy and Hovland got there Saturday because both shot 66s, because Hovland made four straight birdies (some of them monsters) from No. 3 to No. 6 and because McIlroy snared that fast-famous eagle 2 from the bunker on No. 10, among other smiles.
“We sort of fed off each other,” McIlroy said, and Scheffler agreed.
“I think for sure,” he said. “I think definitely you see a correlation with that out on tour. It’s not easy to shoot 9 under when the guy in front of you is shooting 4 under. It’s always nice seeing good shots and then be able to judge off those and stuff like that.”
As they fed, the roars followed Rors, as some call him here. He called the support “absolutely incredible.” He said, “I appreciate it and feel it out there.” He said, “But at the same time I’m trying my hardest just to stay in my own little world because that’s the best way for me to get the best out of myself.”
Hovland did not mind, because some nationalities are always road teams in a sport with four majors in just two countries. “Yeah, I mean, it’s pretty crazy from where I grew up and so far away from playing the PGA Tour, European Tour, for that matter major championships,” he said. “Just to be here is very special, but to have a chance to win one, yeah, I have to pinch myself. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to hold back tomorrow.”
They spoke after finishing under the dark-gray clouds and shaking hands all around, whereupon the great grandstands started emptying in a hurry, with long queues toward the downward steps. Crowds along the fence beside No. 18 began to thin even if empty cans and cups on the ground did not.
But wait, one group remained. Here came Smith and Young.
But then, everyone knew the story here, as well as everything that has led to this.
Source: WP
