Tattoos are forever … but so is the 2023 European Ryder Cup team. Led by Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm (with a little Shane Lowry energy thrown in), the squad took over Marco Simone two years ago, starting with a 4-0 lead and eventually turning that into a 16.

The simplest one is to wager on the in-form golfers, a list led by Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler. McIlroy may get the nod over Scheffler in some circles this week because he's playing on home soil at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland.

Open Championship golfers and the British Open favorite to win ahead of the year's final major at Royal Portrush

Royal Portrush is hosting the final major of the year, welcoming the world's top players to Northern Ireland for the 2025 Open Championship. The first round begins on Thursday morning with the new champion golfer of the year being crowned on Sunday afternoon.

Erskine, the club’s then-secretary of 35 years—who many credit with bringing the Open to Portrush—was waiting for a defining moment. Some visual cue from the universe to signify the accomplishment that Portrush, after decades of political turmoil on the island of Ireland before a peace in 1998, had enticed the R&A back to this part of the world.

Shane Lowry is six years removed from his greatest golf moment, which took place at Royal Portrush, when he lifted the Claret Jug as the 2019 British Open winner. This week, he returns to the scene of that glory as the 153rd Open begins there on Thursday.

The 2025 major season in men’s professional golf culminates this week with The Open Championship ... to defend his 2024 title. Irishman Shane Lowry should also have some good vibes on property, as he won The British Open at Portrush in 2019.

If we have any quarrel with the mural, it's that Lowry stands alone. Portrush proper is home to barely 6,000 souls, yet the R&A expects over a quarter-million pilgrims this week. The mathematics should spell chaos, but when an entire community vibrates at the same frequency—when everyone wants to be here—logistics become footnotes. It just works.