Golf

5 players to watch at Open Championship as Rory McIlroy seeks to bounce back

Brian Harman is the defending champion while Scottie Scheffler will look to continue a remarkable year.

Rory McIlroy will bid to bounce back from his US Open heartbreak in the 152nd Open at Royal Troon
Rory McIlroy will bid to bounce back from his US Open heartbreak in the 152nd Open at Royal Troon (Brian Lawless/PA)
By Phil Casey, PA Golf Correspondent

Brian Harman will defend his title when the 152nd Open Championship takes place at Royal Troon from July 18-21.

Harman, who won by six shots at Royal Liverpool last year, failed to qualify for the Open the last time it was staged at Troon in 2016, when Henrik Stenson lifted the Claret Jug following an epic duel with Phil Mickelson.

Here, the PA news agency picks out five players to watch in the year’s final major championship.

Rory McIlroy

All eyes will be on McIlroy to see how he reacts to the gut-wrenching events of June’s US Open, when he held a two-shot lead late in the final round but bogeyed three of the last four holes at Pinehurst to finish one behind Bryson DeChambeau. McIlroy famously bounced back from his collapse in the final round of the 2011 Masters by winning his first major in the US Open two months later and did finish joint fifth at Troon in 2016, albeit a long way behind Stenson.

Bryson DeChambeau

Bryson DeChambeau saved par from a bunker on the 72nd hole to win the US Open (Matt York/AP)
Bryson DeChambeau saved par from a bunker on the 72nd hole to win the US Open (Matt York/AP) (Matt York/AP)

DeChambeau sealed his second US Open title with a brilliant up and down from a bunker on the 72nd hole and has been in superb form in this season’s majors, finishing sixth in the Masters and second in the US PGA Championship, where it took a major-record of 21 under par from Xander Schauffele to get over the line. Has recorded just one top 10, at St Andrews in 2022, in six Open appearances to date.

Tyrrell Hatton

Finished alongside McIlroy in a tie for fifth in 2016, although he is the first to acknowledge that Stenson and Mickelson were in a league of their own that week. Won his first LIV Golf event by six shots in Nashville in June, a week after finishing 26th in the US Open following a costly closing 77. Finished ninth in the Masters and is a two-time winner of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.

Scottie Scheffler

Scottie Scheffler won his sixth tournament of the year in the Travelers Championship (Seth Wenig/AP)
Scottie Scheffler won his sixth tournament of the year in the Travelers Championship (Seth Wenig/AP) (Seth Wenig/AP)

A tie for 41st in the US Open was Scheffler’s worst finish since he was 45th in the CJ Cup in October 2022 and he followed that by claiming his sixth win of 2024 seven days later by beating Tom Kim in a play-off for the Travelers Championship. The two-time Masters champion, 28, will be making just his fourth Open appearance at Troon, having finished eighth on his debut in 2021 and just outside the top 20 in each of the last two years.

Brian Harman

Brian Harman kisses the Claret Jug after winning The Open at Royal Liverpool
Brian Harman kisses the Claret Jug after winning The Open at Royal Liverpool (Richard Sellers/PA)

Harman will bid to become the first back-to-back winner of the Open since Padraig Harrington in 2008 and has enjoyed a quietly impressive year, including a tie for second in the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass. One of two missed cuts this season came in the Masters but the left-hander finished 26th in the US PGA Championship and 21st in the US Open.