It’s safe to say Scottie Scheffler wants to win the year’s final men’s major, the British Open, next week at Royal Portrush. To do so, of course, requires something a little different than what’s needed at the Masters, PGA Championship or U.S. Open. To hold the claret jug means solving the riddle of links golf.
Scheffler explained the challenge he and others are facing simply—and brilliantly—ahead of this week’s Genesis Scottish Open.
“Over here, there are just more options,” the No. 1 player in the world said. “In the States, if we’re practicing short game around the green, playing a practice round, I probably will use two clubs. I’ll use a 60-degree and a 56. Here, I’m bringing like five or six clubs, sometimes all the way down to an 8-iron.”
So it is that the Scottish Open serves as a cram session of sorts for Scheffler and many others acclimating once more to the unique style of play—and the unique shots it calls for. It’s time to find out which of these shots in the arsenal have a bit too much rust on them—and knock that rust off as quickly as possible.
And just what are the shots players need to conquer links golf? Let’s run through some the ones I think will be especially important this week. I’ve tried to give each of them fun-sounding names.
Otherwise known as the knockdown. Ball back in the stance, grip down and swing a little softer. Tour players don’t have to hit these all that often in the U.S., because it’s rare the day that winds will gust as much as they do in links golf, plus run-up areas into greens in the States are more limited even when they do. But these are important shots during Open weeks. Keeping the ball close to earth from the fairway, and running it up when the wind is howling, is essential.
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This is basically the same shot as the Punchy, but it’s used with longer clubs off the tee. Hitting a proper stinger also requires pros to swing faster than for a knockdown, which gives their shot shape a more piercing look. You can hit stingers with drivers—that’s the Rory McIlroy special—but the ultimate goal is the same as with the Punchy. Keep the ball low to the ground and rolling when it lands.
The sand is different in links golf; it’s lighter and more powdery. I’m not sure why it is, but it is. And it requires a slightly different technique than bunker shots in the U.S.: You have to be more aggressive hitting down into the sand. If you don’t, your clubhead won’t have enough speed to get through that sand and your ball won’t have enough horsepower to get out. Get some speed into the sand and the ball will fly softly out—the floofer. You can see Johnson Wagner rave about it below.
The greens are usually kept slower on links courses, because if they didn’t, the wind could blow the ball all over the place. The longer grass on the greens makes the ball stick, and it means that on those mid-range birdie putts, pros have to make a mental adjustment. They need to hit them firmer, and with less break, than they usually would.
“It can be quite an adjustment for European players coming over to the U.S., trusting that a birdie putt has that much break,” says Stephen Sweeney, Shane Lowry’s putting coach. “These players grew up with a more aggressive mindset on these putts, because the greens run a little slower.”
Here’s your classic bump-and-run that Scheffler talked about earlier. Whether it’s an 8-iron, a fairway wood or just a putter, the tight runoffs around the green and wind blowing over the top of them mean players need to master the short game shot that runs across the ground.
The best recent example was this masterclass from Jordan Spieth, back in 2022, from the road on the 17th hole on the Old Course. He got this up-and-down; no chance he could’ve with a flop shot from here.
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I call this one the slapper because sometimes, when the weather is nasty and golf feels more difficult than it should, you need a shot you can just slap into play. Not pretty, but safe. This is sort of how Lowry won his Open at Portrush in 2019. The weather was horrible, and he mastered the art of slapping a safe cut into play.
The fescue is usually quite playable at most Open courses—but there are patches where it’s very nasty. Here, the goal is simple: chop it back out into the fairway. Players should have plenty of practice with the chopper courtesy of the heavy rough at Oakmont and the U.S. Open.
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The floater is when the hole is long, and wind is straight behind you. The goal here is simple: launch that ball high into the air. From there, the wind will both send it further and, interestingly, has the effect of straightening it out. The 72nd hole of the 2022 Open Championship was a classic floater opportunity. Cam Young, already a high ball hitter by trade, hit a masterful one into the Old Course’s 18th.
I call this one the improviser because this is when you’re forced to take a weird stance in a pot bunker. It’s the kind of situation that you have to fully improvise once you find yourself in it, though during Open Championship weeks, you’ll see pros trying their best to practice these one-of-a-kind situations.
Finally, we have the blind approach shot. Certain links courses are full of this stuff—aim for that third gorse bush; the line is over the top of the hotel; just right of that church spire is ideal. It can be a tricky mental challenge for pros because it makes it difficult to fully connect with your target. You just have to trust it’s out there, and find some kind of peace hitting your ball into the unknown.
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Is it the British Open or the Open Championship? The name of the final men’s major of the golf season is a subject of continued discussion. The event’s official name, as explained in this op-ed by former R&A chairman Ian Pattinson, is the Open Championship. But since many United States golf fans continue to refer to it as the British Open, and search news around the event accordingly, Golf Digest continues to utilize both names in its coverage.
