Still No.1: Scottie Wins The Open
By Dáire McConville
Royal Portrush, the home for the infamous Claret Jug during the 2025 Open Championship. Home soil, a home crowd and the local hero Rory McIlroy would shape the final golfing major of the season. The cliffs off the Antrim coast would set the stage for golf’s oldest major with the enduring tradition of links golf hosting the biggest talents in the sport to see who would become the champion golfer of the year. Almost 50,000 spectators attended the four days of competition, flying in from destinations as far as New Zealand and Canada, . [1]
The rugged, raw and scenic Royal Portrush is a masterpiece of links golf that has been home to many championships since 1888 and has been a major driving force behind the growth of golf in Ireland. The Dunluce links is a mix of stunning scenery and tough challenges with narrow fairways, unpredictable coastal weather and tight landing zones that has offered icons of the sport a taste of Northern Ireland, such as Arnold Palmer and Tiger Woods.
2025 is not the first time Royal Portrush has held The Open, but rather the third. The golf club made history by welcoming the championship in 1951, marking the 1st time the major was played outside of Great Britain since its inception in 1860.[2] And of course more recently hosting the 148th Open in 2019 that proved to be a memorable outing for Shane Lowry, and an emotional victory for Irish golf fans as the Offaly golfer claimed the championship.
All eyes were undoubtedly on this years Masters champion Rory McIlroy, especially as it was a course so familiar to the Grand slam golfer. So familiar in fact that 16 year old Rory set the course record at Royal Portrush 20 years prior with a round of 61 (10 under par) at the North of Ireland Amateur Championship in 2005, a record that still stands today.
For McIlroy, a home venue was personal, most notably from the thousands of patrons that followed each round of the Holywood golfer. Missing the cut in 2019 in the same course had clearly lingered in Rory’s memory and the 2025 Open offered a rare shot at redemption in front of the home crowd again. Now over a decade on from his Open victory in 2014, a second Claret Jug had proved elusive to the Northern Irishman.
It was no surprise to fans that local players and previous winners McIlroy and Lowry stole most of the headlines and attention across the tournament. Could this have been an unexpected level of pressure on the pair? It certainly seemed to be a factor, as Lowry finished his week at T40 and -5, while Rory with a better performance finished T7, still 7 shots back from the leader and eventual winner, world number 1 Scottie Scheffler. With the green jacket on his back, McIlroy’s Portrush experience gave him pretty much all he could’ve asked for bar the Claret Jug, ‘one person was just a little bit better than the rest of us’. [3]
Across the week appeared to show many scoring rounds of golf, largely thanks to the weather, with seasoned professionals like Matt Fitzpatrick and 2024 champion Xander Schauffle, along with more newly emerging talents on the bigger stage like Li Haotong. However, known of these players came close to Schefflers finishing of -17 under par. A final Sunday round of 68 would have the Texas State University alumni finish four shots clear of the lead.
On the final round at Royal Portrush, Scottie Scheffler entered the history books claiming his first ever Claret Jug. The American golfer entered the final round with a commanding four stroke lead, a lead that would see many other professionals perish at the pressure. Not Scottie Scheffler though, as he remained four strokes clear right until his last put on the 18th in front of the grand stand. It is the 10th consecutive tournament that Scheffler has closed out a 54-hole lead and is his 17th PGA Tour title in just over three and a half years. [4]
Early into his final round, Scheffler managed to extend his already significant lead to 7 shots following 3 birdies within the first five holes. A stumbling double-bogey on the 8th hole was the only hope for the chasing pack, however the world number 1 remained unchallenged, never relinquishing control.
Finding fairways and greens, six pars on the last six holes of his round was enough to earn Scheffler his 4th major title, his 1st Open championship, and made him the first player in the modern game to win each of his major titles by at least three shots. [5]
Following his round, Scheffler stated ‘Thank you to the fans for all the support, I know I wasn’t fan favourite this week’, which came after comments he had made earlier in the week that divided fans, ‘Golf does not fill the deepest wants and desires of my heart’, as stated in a press conference earlier in the week. [6] Fans however where quick to forget this as he raised the Claret Jug on the 18th green at Royal Portrush alongside his wife Meredith and son Bennett, to become champion golfer of the year.
References
[1]- https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c939zp17rr4o
[2]- http://www.royalportrushgolfclub.com/history/
[3]- https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/golf/articles/cvg8d855nrzo
[5]- https://www.southernliving.com/scottie-scheffler-british-open-son-bennnett-11776028
[6]- https://www.golfmonthly.com/news/live/the-open-2025-leaderboard-final-round-royal-portrush
