Hojgaard twins in top 10 at British Open for another cool sight at Royal Portrush

PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland (AP) – Nicolai Hojgaard remembers his amateur days when things got tense during a playoff with his twin brother Rasmus.

“Back then we couldn’t handle those situations,” he said.

Now they’re feeding off them.

Adding to the many cool sights at Royal Portrush’s historic links this week was the British Open leaderboard on Friday showing 24-year-old Danish twins pretty much next to each other.

Rasmus tied for fifth. Nicolai tied for 10th, a stroke back.

And they both have designs on lifting the claret jug.

“Hopefully we’ll have a good weekend,” Nicolai said, “and maybe battle it out on Sunday.”

The Hojgaard brothers – who, in 2023, became the first twins to play at golf’s oldest championship – have been pretty much inseparable since they turned pro in 2019, having first hit a golf ball at the age of 4.

They were soon champions on the European tour, even winning on consecutive weeks in August-September 2021 – another first on the tour for a pair of brothers.

Since last year, they have both had cards to play on the PGA Tour.

In fact, don’t put it past them to be teaming up at the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black in September.

“We couldn’t handle each other’s success when we were younger,” Nicolai said, “but we can do that now and support each other and get motivated by each other. When you get older, you get slightly more mature.”

The big question now is who will be the first to win a major title?

And will it happen this week?

“I’m going to root for him,” Rasmus said, “until we are on Sunday, back nine.”

Rasmus has a one-shot advantage over his brother and also the positive experience of a big links victory in Ireland last year, when he birdied his last three holes to win the Irish Open at the expense of Rory McIlroy at Royal County Down.

Nicolai has a better Open record, though, making the cut three times and having a best finish of tied for 23rd at Hoylake in 2023.

Rasmus has got to the weekend once, tying for 60th at Royal Troon last year.

U.S. Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley already was in the conversation to be the first playing captain since 1963 when he won the Travelers Championship last month. And then he shot 67 to stay in the mix at the British Open.

Points are worth one-and-a-half in the majors (one point equals $1,000). Bradley is No. 9 in the U.S. standings with the top six qualifying, and then he has six captain’s picks. One of them could be him.

“I’m going to look at myself as just another player,” Bradley said. “We have to look at every single possibility, just like we’d look at any other player in my position. Anybody in the top 12 or top 15 or top 20, you want to look at the player that’s playing the best.”

The PGA Tour has two regular tournaments left and then two $20 million playoff events before the end of qualifying. The picks are made after the Tour Championship ends on Aug. 24.

“If I continue my play, then we’ll talk about this,” Bradley said. “But you never know how this golf thing is.”

There will be no silver medal handed out on the 18th green at Royal Portrush on Sunday.

Nine amateurs started out on Thursday and all are headed home. That hasn’t happened at a completed Open Championship since 2019.

To win the silver medal for low amateur, a player must complete 72 holes.

The best-placed amateur in the 156-player field was Ethan Fang, an American who shot 75-70 to finish on 3-over par.

Chris Gotterup might have thought he’d be in the British Isles for only a week when he came over for the Scottish Open, the warmup event for the Open Championship.

The American wound up outlasting Rory McIlroy to win in North Berwick on Sunday for his second PGA Tour title, securing a spot in the field at Royal Portrush in the process.

Gotterup is sticking around for the weekend there, too, with a second-round 65 lifting him to fifth place.

He was flying solo in Scotland last week and his parents have since come over to watch his British Open debut. His girlfriend was thinking of coming over but it didn’t work out.

“I feel like if I had a ton of people here, it’s always fun, but it just drains you a little bit with entertaining,” he said.

Gotterup wasn’t allowing himself to think of winning again.

“I felt like I was playing with house money coming into the weekend, or into the week in general,” he said. “I’m happy to be where I’m at.”

Shaun Norris of South Africa played some reasonable golf on Friday. He had four birdies against only two bogeys. He made 11 pars.

Unfortunately for Norris, that only adds up to 17 holes.

The other hole was a 10 on the par-4 fourth hole.

“One hole killed me today, so it was a fight there on in,” Norris said after a hard-earned 75.

Here’s the quick summary: A drive out-of-bounds. A third shot into a fairway bunker. Four shots to get out of the pot bunker. An approach that missed the green. A chip. And a 7-foot putt to save sextuple-bogey 10.

“I hit a very poor tee shot, the first one,” he said. “Then proceeded to hit the next one straight in the bunker. Now I’m trying to chase something, trying to make the best score out of it. Unfortunately, the fourth shot caught the lip, then stuck with the same club and tried to do the same.

“After that, the mind sort of went a little bit numb. But it happens. Golf is golf. There’s nothing you can do about it. Made a number, and I had to accept it and carry on.”