The 73rd Hole: US Open & Open Championship predictions, Koepka validates LIV Golf, more after PGA Championship

1. Predicting the 2023 Open Championship winner at Royal Liverpool

After The Open Championship not being played at Royal Liverpool in nearly 40 years, the R&A returned the British Open to Hoylake in 2006, with Tiger Woods fittingly capturing the Claret Jug in golf’s return to an iconic venue. And then we got another fitting champion the next time it was played there in 2014 when Rory McIlroy took the crown, capturing his third major and what would be his first of the year.

At most venues for The Open Championship, though, the fact of the matter is that it can be extremely difficult to predict the outcome because, mainly, weather is such a crucial factor in how much teeth many of the courses in the rota have too them. We saw Royal St. George’s offer little resistance when the wind was down, the same of which was also true at St. Andrew’s last year.

Having said that — and I am nothing if not relentless in being a parody of myself — I’m getting up my hopes that Rory McIlroy returns to Hoylake and gets it done once again for his first major victory in nearly a decade.

Obviously, there is prodigious talent when it comes to Rory, but the major monkey has become burdensome on his back as everyone expects him to win another but he hasn’t pulled through. At the PGA Championship, though, there was something that stuck out to me about McIlroy that really bolsters my confidence for his future in 2023 and even majors moving forward.

In most instances, we’ve either seen Rory front-run by going low immediately and then fading (see the 2022 PGA Championship) or just eject entirely (see this year’s Masters, The Open at Portrush, etc.). But it’s rare that we’ve seen him very clearly not have it as he did at Oak Hill, specifically with the driver, arguably his biggest weapon, and still piece it together to finish T7.

Sure, that’s not a win, but it’s showing a moxie that, frankly, hasn’t always been there with McIlroy during this major drought. It buoys my confidence going into a Royal Liverpool track where he boat-raced the field in 2014 and cruised through Sunday to a win that he has the mentality coupled with the elite ability with a club in his hand to get back into the winner’s circle at a major championship.

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