The 154th Open Championship tees off Thursday at Royal Birkdale in Southport, England, and Barstool's golf division is treating it like the biggest week of the summer. Fore Play dropped a full preview pod breaking down the field, the course, and the storylines, and Chasing Greens with Kirk and Riggs made its long-awaited return just in time for major week.
The Open Championship Preview Pod is LIVE: https://t.co/x1E8O3Scbv
Royal Birkdale isn't just another Open venue -- it's got one of the sport's all-time champion lists, and Fore Play leaned into that history in its buildup, running through past winners at the course, including Tom Watson's win there back in 1983, to set the stage for who might add their name to it this week.
Fore Play ran through Royal Birkdale's champion history to hype the week.
The obvious center of gravity is Scottie Scheffler, who's trying to become the first player since Padraig Harrington in 2008 to successfully defend an Open title. He won last year's Claret Jug at Royal Portrush at 17-under, four shots clear of the field. But the form heading into Birkdale is shakier than usual -- Scheffler missed the cut at last week's Genesis Scottish Open, snapping a run of 78 straight PGA Tour starts without missing a weekend. He's still the betting favorite, and he's still the best strokes-gained player on tour, but the vibes are different.
Nobody captures that better than Scheffler's press conferences, which have become their own genre of content. Fore Play's clip contrasts last year's now-famous "what's the point" existential answer with this year's version, and the energy is somehow even more unhinged.
Scheffler's Open press conferences have turned into must-watch content on their own.
Barstool's main account got in on the bit too, slapping an "Emo Scottie Scheffler" label on the same podium moment -- worth noting the guy's actually laughing and covering his face in the clip, so the doom-and-gloom framing is more joke than transcript. Either way, it's fueling the pre-tournament chatter about the world No. 1's mental state heading into a course he's never had to defend a major on before.
There's plenty of real golf news feeding the hype beyond Scheffler, too. Tom Kim snapped a multi-year drought with a bogey-free final-round 64 to win the Scottish Open by 2 shots over Min Woo Lee, his first PGA Tour title since the fall of 2023 -- exactly the kind of momentum story that gets flagged on a podcast rundown heading into a major. Jordan Spieth's name is floating around the same conversation, another former champion in the mix as the field descends on Birkdale.
Chasing Greens with Kirk and Riggs came back for tournament week, with Tom Kim's win and Scheffler's cut streak on the rundown.
The return of Chasing Greens says as much about the week as anything -- Barstool doesn't bring back a dormant golf pod unless there's a major with real stakes attached. Between Scheffler chasing history, Kim riding a hot streak into Birkdale, and a course with an all-time champion list waiting for a new name, there's no shortage of angles for the crew to run with over the next 4 days.