Scotland holds a special place in Tiger Christensen’s heart.
It’s where the Arizona men’s golf senior saw for himself just how he matched up against professional golfers in July of 2023, when he participated as an amateur in The Open at the Royal Troon Golf Club.
The Hamburg, Germany, native admitted it was game-changing. He walked away with more knowledge and the little things he needed to do to raise his game to another level.
And he’s done just that over the last 15 months winning two tournaments last season — the Jackson T. Stephens Cup and Arizona Thunderbirds Intercollegiate — and finishing in the top 10 in four events.
This fall, he’s continued this consistency, finishing sixth or better in the first three tournaments, including leading the Wildcats to a first-place finish at Windon Memorial Classic in late September, when he took second individually.
Sometimes, all it takes is one moment.
“I think that week (at The Open) really opened up his eyes to the fact that the that the gap between his good golf and that of some of the best in the world, it’s not as far as you might think,” UA men’s golf coach Jim Anderson said.
“When you’re hitting balls in Tucson or back home in Hamburg, alone, dreaming about playing at the biggest stage, The Open, for example, you have to guess how good your competition is, in a way. But when you actually get to play it, and you get to hit the shots from the same spots, and you get to post a score, and you get to see those conditions, and you realize like, ‘Oh, if I made one different decision on that hole, or maybe if I would have hit just a little better shot here or chipped it a little closer there, that’s the difference in me making a cut or not that week.’ … Pretty soon the game speed starts to slow down … I think that’s what we’re seeing with Tiger.”
Arizona hopes the game keeps slowing down for Christensen as the Wildcats play in the St. Andrews Links Collegiate an the St. Andrews Links Old Course in Scotland from Monday through Wednesday. The tournament is televised on Golf Channel starting at 7 a.m.
The UA women’s golf team is also competing in the event.
This is one of the rare times during the season that the entire squads travel for a tournament. While only six will be competing, all golfers were allowed to take a practice round on the historic course.
Playing in The Open was “definitely a dream come true,” Christensen said.
He admitted to being a little nervous for that first practice round, but then he settled in and “Once the visor kind of came down like a race driver, it was the same feeling as every other tournament,” Christensen said.
This summer, Christensen played in a lot of tournaments, including a few on the DP World Tour: the BMW Championships and the European Open. In addition, at the U.S. Amateur, he defeated the second-ranked amateur in the world, Gordon Sargent, 4&3.
A recent change in Christensen’s routine that gradually happened — it wasn’t planned and none of his coaches nudged him to do it — was in his preparation for tournaments. He’s focused “more on getting to know the golf course and staying loose and feeling good about my swing.
“Now, I try to get really dialed on the green speeds, see visually the brakes the way I want them to, and get comfortable with how that how the greens are feeling that week.” Christensen said.
“I think that’s helped me a lot on the putting green during tournaments this year.”
It looks like it’s working. The Wildcats have only played three tournaments to date — nine rounds — but he is shooting an average of 69.67 per round, while last season, his average was 72.25.
Christensen hasn’t played on the St. Andrews Links Old Course before, which is considered the birthplace of the game, but he has plenty of experience playing links courses in Scotland. Besides playing on the Royal Troon Golf Club, as a junior he played in numerous tournaments in Scotland.
Not only are the links courses different — no trees, water, thick roughs — it’s the weather conditions, windy, that also make these playing fields unique. This week, the forecast is, of course, windy with temperatures in the 50s, with a chance of rain on Wednesday.
There is really no way to prepare for this in Arizona.
“It is completely different and just complete different look of golf,” Christensen said. “It’s definitely a grind. And the conditions, I think are going to be as hard as ever.”
How can you be successful on a course like this in those conditions?
“It’s definitely important to keep the ball low,” Christensen said. “In America, you try to keep it very high. But over there, you got to keep it as low as possible, and definitely have some creativity with certain shots and just, I don’t know, the first couple of days, trying to figure out a way that best suits you to kind of not get hit by the wind too much. And really got to stay patient out there.”
Patience is something that has been on display for Christensen as of late. This is also something that came out of his experience at The Open.
“Staying predictable, having a very predictable ball flight, and having control over the ball, and really staying patient with just the game and how it flows throughout the round,” Christensen said.
He added that he hasn’t been starting off these fall tournaments well but he’s stayed steady and waited for the right opportunities to attack. He’s also making little adjustments on the go for example, if his ball is curving slightly more to the left than he wants it to, he’ll tweak just a bit.
“I think that further demonstrates the experience that he’s picking up, and the maturity that he demonstrates, and his awareness,” Christensen said. “He doesn’t waver with adversity or bad shots or a bad stretch of holes. … He refuses to let his mind get to a negative place, which is part of why he’s such a strong and unflappable competitor. He has the ability to just block out a mistake.”
Anderson added that Christensen has so much “self-belief, it’s really neat to be around. I wish I could bottle some of it up and use it down the road with future teams. Because it’s impressive.”
