There is no golf course on earth that generates the particular brand of existential dread and euphoric possibility of St Andrews in Open week. The Old Course asks questions that no amount of technical preparation can fully answer. The wind comes from nowhere, the Road Hole obliterates careers, and the Swilcan Bridge demands a certain reverence that seems to loosen even the most composed champion's grip.
What the Old Course Demands
St Andrews is not a conventional links test. It is wide — absurdly wide in places — and the premium is not on accuracy so much as positioning and course management. The strategic questions are constant: where to miss, how to attack when the flag is on, when to take the conservative line and accept a regulation par rather than risk the burn, the bunker, or the road. Players who have won here before share one quality: they think in scenarios, not in shots.
The Form Guide Entering Open Week
Rory McIlroy arrives at St Andrews having won the Scottish Open at Dundonald Links on the Sunday before, his second Open warm-up win in three years. The combination of links form, an obviously hot putter, and the accumulated emotional weight of his unfinished business with the Claret Jug makes him the sentimental favourite. Whether sentimentality translates to the fourteenth hole on Sunday afternoon is another question entirely.
Scottie Scheffler: The World Number One's Record at Links
Scheffler's game is built for inland courses with firm, bouncy fairways and relatively predictable wind. St Andrews' coastal exposure — which can produce four-club gusts inside a single round — has historically troubled ball-strikers who rely on trajectory control. His 2022 performance here was functional but not exceptional. That said, world number ones at major championships are dangerous regardless of course fit.
“Every time I walk across the Swilcan Bridge I think: this is why we play golf. And then the Road Hole reminds me why golf is so hard.”
— Tom Watson, in conversation with the R&A, 2025
Five Players Who Can Win the Claret Jug
- ·Rory McIlroy: Links form is at its peak. Emotional motivation is undeniable. One Major away from completing the career Slam.
- ·Tommy Fleetwood: The Southport native is among the best links players of his generation. His ball-flight in wind is exceptional.
- ·Shane Lowry: The 2019 champion knows how to win an Open and is quietly playing some of the best golf of his career.
- ·Viktor Hovland: His ball-striking precision off the tee is ideally suited to St Andrews' wide fairways and strategic demands.
- ·Tyrrell Hatton: Plays angry, which somehow suits the Old Course perfectly. His course management at St Andrews is outstanding.
The Dark Horse: An American Who Has Been Studying the Course Since January
Several PGA Tour players made a specific pre-season trip to St Andrews in January 2026 to walk the course and study the ground game in conditions close to what Open week typically produces. The most serious of these reconnaissance missions was undertaken by a top-15 world-ranked American whose St Andrews record has previously been unremarkable but whose analytical approach to course preparation is among the most rigorous on tour.
Key Stat
In the last four Opens at St Andrews, the winner has been inside the top 4 in the field for Driving Accuracy. The Road Hole still extracts its toll, but the players who lift the Claret Jug here drive it straight.
Full coverage across the week — tee times, round-by-round analysis, and the moment the champion emerges — is available in the Golf section.
About this article
Written by the ACES Arena Sport editorial team. Our journalists cover Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A, Ligue 1, and international tournaments with first-hand knowledge of the game. Content is fact-checked against primary sources including Premier League, BBC Sport, and UEFA.
