Links Specialist Re-Emerges at Royal Portrush

In the lead-up to the 2025 Open Championship, we heard all of the top players in the game wax poetic about the unique challenge links golf presents. It’s a different style of golf that propels different skill sets to the forefront.

Over the last three years, this style of golf has allowed us to get to know Matthew Jordan, a DP World Tour pro. Jordan made his Open Championship debut in 2023 at Royal Liverpool, his home club. Ranked No. 329 in the world, Jordan entered the week a relative unknown who was struggling to keep his card, yet became the week’s best story. The 27-year-old struck the opening tee shot and was a fixture in the championship, finishing in a tie for 10th and earning a spot in the 2024 Open.

Last year at Royal Troon, Jordan entered the championship slightly more well-known, but he was still struggling on the DP World Tour and ranked 198th in the world. Jordan put on another stellar performance, shooting four straight rounds of even-par 71 to again finish in a tie for 10th and earn a spot in this year’s Open at Royal Portrush.

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Jordan is back near the top of the leaderboard after a six-birdie 68 on Thursday and sits one shot behind the leaders. The past two years taught us not to overlook Jordan and signal how a different style of golf clearly elevates his game from a middle-of-the-road player to one of the best in an elite field. Links golf, with its firm turf and blustery conditions, gives Jordan, who grew up playing one of the world’s greatest links courses, an edge. When asked about what the secret to links golf was after his round, the Englishman responded, “being able to understand how far to hit half shots, different flights, start lines....It's not just kind of stand there and hit it. So being able to adapt and understand exactly how to hit those kinds of shots.”

Sadly, most golf courses on the DP World Tour are more of the “stand there and hit it” variety, and the pro game spends very little time on the golf courses that created the game. Outside of the Open, the only other surefire “links” examinations are the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship and the Scottish Open at Renaissance Club. The most influential courses and style of golf represent a tiny fraction of the game at the highest level.

For a player like Jordan, I would hypothesize that if links golf was played more often, he would be more of a household name. He has played 170 OWGR events in his career, and by this author's count, less than 10 of those came on links courses. Of his nine best finishes in his career, four have come at the Open (T-10, 2023 and 2024) and the Dunhill Links (T-5, 2019; T-10, 2024). More links golf would probably elevate Matthew Jordan from a middling DP World Tour player to one of the world’s best links specialists.