Anyone who’s played golf has a favorite course, a club where they can relax with a few holes, a few rounds and a few post-round drinks, a club they might even know better than their own backyard. You might just have a club of your own in mind.
Now, imagine one of the most famous and prestigious tournaments coming to that club. Beyond that, imagine that you’re the one who’s going to start that tournament with an opening tee shot.
Snap back to reality, because that’s Matthew Jordan’s life we’re describing, not yours. Jordan, the 27-year-old DP World Tour pro whose entire major experience up to this moment is a single missed cut at St. Andrews last year, nevertheless got the honor of starting the 151st Open Championship at 6:35 am Thursday morning.
Jordan is a member at Royal Liverpool in Hoylake, and as such knows the course better than any other player in the field. He rode that knowledge to a two-under opening round and, briefly, a share of the lead. Crowds of locals followed him around the course, cheering every shot.
“I’m kind of running out of words to describe it. It was crazy, mental, loud, everything that I could have wished for,” Jordan said after the round. “I’m certainly trying to think of a better experience than that, and I don’t think I can.”
Jordan briefly held a share of the lead, in part because of stunning shots like this one, an escape from one of Royal Liverpool’s vicious pot bunkers:
“I haven’t seen the bunkers like this at all. I don’t know who’s annoyed the green keeper,” Jordan said. “They’re just so flat and they’re so penal. You just can’t hit it in any bunkers whatever.”
Jordan saw family, friends and fellow members all over the course, throughout his round, from the opening tee shot to the final par putt.
“It was good to see. I think it was just nice being out there first out with him because obviously there was a lot of people watching and a lot of cheers going up and stuff like that,” Richie Ramsay, Jordan’s playing partner, said after the round. “Open fans are the best.”
One who didn’t stick with him long: his girlfriend. But Jordan made sure to note that she didn’t leave because of his play.
“Girlfriend was there for the first six, seven holes,” he said. “She had to work. She didn’t leave me. She didn’t see me make bogey and leave, she had to go and work.”
Jordan will get an extra few hours of sleep on Thursday night; his Friday tee time is at 11:36 am local time. He’ll then have another round to see if he can stick around and play Royal Liverpool some more on the weekend … before playing again next week or next month.