Matt Cooper's Open Championship diary: Tuesday's notes from Portrush

Smylie face

At last year’s Open the young Aussie Elvis Smylie became the focus of a nice little side-story off the back of his tennis star mother, Liz, and the fact that Troon (or Prestwick airport at the end of the course) is where Elvis briefly set foot on British soil.

Elvis (Smylie) is back this year and now a DP World Tour winner after triumph in last November’s Australian PGA Championship. “Very, very exciting to be back at the Open,” he told me. “Portrush is such a special place, a lot of history, Rory is a hometown hero – it’s just really cool.”

Last year was not his first trip to Royal Troon – he’d been there as a fan in 2016. “I still remember watching the Stenson and Mickelson showdown coming down the stretch on Sunday. It was very cool – a genuine pinch-me moment. That younger version of Elvis would have been very proud of what happened last year!”

His biggest learning curve last year was discovering just how capricious an Open venue can be. “It can just throw every kind of weather condition at you and then it can change just like that. The wind was prevailing off the right for the first few holes in practice. Then, as soon as you get into the tournament days, it completely switches. Any thought of hitting the same clubs went completely out the window. So you need to be ready to adapt. That’s what I’ve learned.”

He has a new bagman, Brad Beecher, this year – one of Australia’s most respected caddies. In fact, he’s a seven-time major winner on the LPGA who has worked with Minjee Lee and Inbee Park. “We’ve been together for seven months and I really like how we’re working together,” Smylie said. “He’s got so much experience.”

As an Australian 23-year-old you’d half expect him to be bumming round the world at the moment with a backpack. Instead he’s got his golf bag but there’s a similar vibe going on.

“I’m still getting used to all these new countries, and courses, and just everything’s getting thrown at me at once,” he said with a smile. “The amount of travel stories I have this year from lost bags to having to take a 12 hour train because I had a burst eardrum and not being able to fly – the list goes on. But I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way, it’s character building.”

Hat-trick man Matthew Jordan

Two years ago Matthew Jordan had the wonderful experience of playing an Open on his home course, Royal Liverpool in Hoylake. It was astonishing to watch him walk around the property, politely nodding and smiling to every bit of encouragement he was offered. He finished tenth to land a return last year and he relished that too, even repeating the result. So he’s back again and he can’t wait.

Typical of, Jordan, however, his words are just very lovely and very polite.

“The infrastructure, the people, and certainly the fans – how good they are and everything like that – it just makes you feel very special as a golfer,” he said. “It almost makes you feel famous.

“Hoylake was immense and it was also the most pressure I’ve felt, but you wouldn't want it any other way. I really wanted to do it again so I got lucky and now I get to do it for a third time.”

The fact he acknowledged so many RLGC members and friends that week two years ago remains amazing. “Oh, I’ll always say hello and thank you,” he said. “It wouldn’t be very nice to blank them. I don’t think the support would last very long if I did!”

If you had a daughter, you’d probably want her to meet Matthew, but what about Portrush this week?

“We came over a couple of weeks back to play it. It was the first time I’d seen it and it’s just another really good, strong links course and it helped me know what sort of shots to have in mind for the last two weeks to be ready for this week.”

Top amateur

It has become tradition for the diary to take a close look at the top amateur market for the simple reason that I get to see a far bit of amateur action every spring and summer.

I’ve discounted four of them: Justin Hastings from the Cayman Islands did make the cut at the US Open which has to be respected but he has little links experience; Filip Jakubcik was the first Czech winner of the European Amateur Championship but is also raw by the seaside; 19-year-old Englishman Frazer Jones got through Final Qualifying but it was his first decent effort on the links this summer; and Bryan Newman is a 17-year-old winner of the Africa Amateur Championship who has struggled in amateur links events this summer.

That leaves five and yesterday I wrote about the intriguing back story of Richard Teder. The Estonian was quite down on his ability to play fast-running heathland golf at Hankley Common during the Brabazon Trophy, but bounced back to perform well at Royal St George’s in the Amateur Championship as well as when landing a spot at Final Qualifying. I’d love to see him do well but this is more likely to be a learning experience.

So this quartet are the likeliest winners:

Seb Cave – the Englishman struggled in the elite amateur events on the links and admitted that returning from college in the States was the problem. He dug deep, however, and rediscovered his seaside mojo to qualify at Royal Cinque Ports. His links pedigree is strong – he won last year’s St Andrews Links Trophy.

Ethan Fang – an impressive winner of the Amateur Championship at Royal St George’s. He went to the University of California, like Collin Morikawa who also won in Sandwich and he watched videos of Morikawa triumphing on YouTube during his own win. The worry would be that, as when Morikawa won on the south coast, the conditions were ideal: sunny, not much win, very little rough.

Connor Graham – the 18-year-old Scot led the strokeplay section in the last two Amateur Championships at Ballyliffin and Royal St George’s. He is also a winner of the 2022 Junior Open at Monifieth. The worry with him is that abundant skills are sometimes stymied by a hot head.

Cameron Adam – this year’s winner of the St Andrews Links Trophy and he also won the 2023 Scottish Amateur when he carded opening 63s to break the course record at both Royal Dornoch and Tan. He plays out of grandly titled The Royal Burgess Golfing Society in Edinburgh which claims to be the oldest club in the world.

The world amateur rankings would place them in this order: Fang 4, Jakubcik 7, Hastings 12, Adam 29, Graham 39. The books have Fang favourite and while that’s fair enough there might be a chance to take him on, especially if the weather throws a few curve balls. Those books make Jakubcik, Hastings and Graham the next most likely.

I’m going to take them all on with Adam (7/1) and Cave (10/1) who have deeper links know-how and experience.

“Here’s the Claret Jug – take it!”

The afternoon concluded with Xander Schauffele returning the Claret Jug to the R&A and the Champion Golfer of 2024 did a good job of saying the right things, but he’d earlier revealed that he’s not a baubles and gongs man.

Asked where his Olympic golf medal is he said: “I actually have no idea where that is to be completely honest.”

“Why?” Someone asked.

“What am I going to do with it?” he countered with a smile. “I don’t really invite people over to my house. Am I just going to go look at it myself? That’s the way I feel about it. I don’t want to walk into a trophy room so it’s like “Look how great I am.””

• Monday's Open diary