2021 Open Championship: Round 2 Matchups

Jul 15, 2021

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The 149th edition of The Open Championship, in all of its summer beauty, returned to Royal St. George's on Thursday for the first time since 2011. And after a two-year hiatus, the final major of the 2021 golf season got off to a roaring start with major tournament stalwarts, Louis Oosthuizen (6-under par) and Jordan Spieth (5-under), already rising to the top of the leaderboard after the opening round. Both, along with Brian Harman (5-under) took advantage of a morning wave that scored 1.64 strokes easier than the afternoon wave. With the course being much softer than expected, and the winds manageable, the overall scoring average of 70.95 was one of the lowest days in Open history. In fact, nearly 50 players were under par. While the course lacked teeth, winds are forecast to continue, which should firm up the course as we head into the weekend. With no strokes gained data to utilize in analyzing round-by-round matchups this week, we must rely on the pre-tournament model, common sense and some old-fashioned stats like Driving Accuracy%, GIR%, and putting average.