British Open 2025: Tour pro gives most relatable answer after his ‘one of us’ 10 at Royal Portrush

When Shaun Norris walked off the fourth green on Friday at Royal Portrush on Friday, his fate at the 2025 British Open had essentially been decided. It’s hard to avoid missing the cut at a major championship when you’ve written a sextuple-bogey 10 on your scorecard.

To the credit of the 43-year-old South African, however, Norris didn’t let his bad fortune turn worse. Five birdies (including one straight away on the fifth hole) and two bogeys over his next 14 holes left him with a four-over 75 total and as positive an attitude as you could carry for a man who failed to make it to the weekend for the fifth time in seven Open starts.

But about that 10. It came when Norris’ tee shot floated right and out of bounds. His third then ended up in a fairway bunker that required three more swings to get back into the fairway, with 196 yards still to play. His eighth shot was short left of the green in the rough, from which he got up and down after making a seven footer for his Laurel and Hardy.

“I mean, I hit a very poor tee shot, the first one. 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, what was it, 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.”

Mind you, Norris could have been a lot more upset about what happened considering that the day before, he made a double-bogey 6 on that hole after hitting it in same fairway bunker that gave him fits on Friday.

A winner on the DP World Tour in January who has been globetrotting in 2025, moonlighting on the Japan Tour, Norris qualified for Portrush off his Race to Dubai ranking. His journeyman career is such that this could be his last chance to play in golf’s oldest championship. He could have been bitter about what happened on Friday, but instead didn’t let his emotions get the best of him.

Not only that, but in an era where players seem to be looking for any excuse not to speak to the media, Norris didn’t shy away from talking. And in the process, he became all that more relatable to everyday golfers who are more than familiar with posting a 10 on a hole.

“Golf is golf,” Norris said. “You've just got to accept it. Plain and simple, you've got to accept it. There's nothing you can do about it. The past is the past. I knew that it happened. I made the number. I made the 10 on the hole.”

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Is it the British Open or the Open Championship? The name of the final men’s major of the golf season is a subject of continued discussion. The event’s official name, as explained in this op-ed by former R&A chairman Ian Pattinson, is the Open Championship. But since many United States golf fans continue to refer to it as the British Open, and search news around the event accordingly, Golf Digest continues to utilize both names in its coverage.

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