PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland (AP) — A hole-by-hole look at Royal Portrush Golf Club, site of the 153rd British Open to be played July 17-20:
Avoid two bunkers off the tee, and out-of-bounds to the left, then the real challenge begins. The second shot is to an elevated, two-tier green with a false front. The front two pin positions are the most demanding because any shot that comes up short will fall back off the front and run down the approach or into the cavernous bunkers.
Players will have to avoid three bunkers down the right side. A bunker on the left side also comes into play. A good tee shot allows the player to decide whether to lay up short of the cross bunkers or go for the contoured green.
The first of the par 3s is one of the high points on the golf course, with a view over most of the links and out to the Scottish island of Islay. The green falls away on all sides and requires a very accurate tee shot to hold the putting surface. Anything that misses will be a difficult par save from all sides.
One of the signature holes is named after Portrush local Fred Daly, the 1947 champion golfer. The out-of-bounds runs all the way down the right. The tee shot needs to thread the left fairway bunkers and the out-of-bounds. The green is surrounded by sand hills, making it difficult to hit. The flag typically is partially hidden from view.
The green teeters on the edge of the cliffs, providing a gorgeous backdrop. Two bunkers add some definition to the tee shot, but most players will take on the green. Out-of-bounds is just over the back of the green, and there is a ridge in the green that makes it challenging to hit. Players will be disappointed to walk away without making birdie.
With no bunkers around the green, this par 3 is defended by the natural undulations of its surroundings. The elevated green has a false front that will punish any shot that comes up short.
This par 5 cuts through the dunes starting with a downhill tee shot. A replica of the “Big Nellie” bunker is on the right, but the bunker on the left figures to be more in play. The second shot is uphill through a narrow approach to a well-contoured green. The wind strength and direction will determine how many players can reach in two shots.
This slight dogleg left begins with a tee shot over a ravine and tempts players to take off as much of the steep dune bank as they can. Players will need to avoid the bunkers down the right side to leave a short, simple shot to the green. Any approach short and left will find some difficult spots well below the elevated green.
This is typically the hardest hole for the members. The hole bends gently from right to left, and a bunker on the right will cause problems for players who want to keep driver in the bag. Two cross bunkers from the approach make the green appear closer than it is. The green is protected by a bank to the right, leaving a tough up-and-down.
A strong tee shot is required to get to the corner of the short dogleg to have a clear view of the green. There are no bunkers on this hole. The defense is dramatic contours in play on the tee shot and approach, and more contours on the long, narrow green.
Padraig Harrington once said this tee shot was the most difficult in golf. It starts with a narrow shot through the mounds on either side of the fairway. A good tee shot to the corner brings the putting surface into view. The green is perched among sand dunes above fairway level with a false front that will repel anything short.
A championship tee left of the 11th green adds 50 yards to the hole and allows it to be played as a par 5. The fairway slopes from the left, bringing bunkers on the right into play. The green can be reached in two, but it is elevated with a false front.
One of the most photogenic par 3s, this hole has a dramatic elevation change from tee to green. The putting surface slopes toward the back and is surrounded by five bunkers. The toughest pin position is to the front and the left.
The narrow tee shot should avoid the bunkers, including one down the left. The fairway slopes to the left, but the test is the second shot to an elevated green with a severe slope to the front and back, and a difficult bunker from which to get up-and-down on the left.
The tee shot is uphill to a wide fairway that slopes against the route of the hole. A fairway bunker to right will make players think twice before hitting drive, but laying too far back will leave the green out of view on the approach. The green is small and guarded by bunkers on the left and severe slope front and right.
No bunkers are required for “calamity” to strike. The tee shot is slightly uphill over an expansive ravine of rough. And a shot short and right is a tough par save from as much as 50 feet below the green. Bobby Locke decided to play to the left all four rounds in 1951, aiming to a hollow that now bears his name. He got up-and-down all four times.
This requires a good tee shot to find the slope and take on the green. The severe slope means players might be tempted to go for the green, but a bunker to the left might cause second thoughts. Playing safely to the top of the hill leaves a tricky, downhill pitch to a narrow greens protected by bunkers on the left and right.
The tee shot needs to be down the left portion of the fairway for the best view of the green on the second shot. The green sits slightly sideways with a drop-off to the left that will collect anything missing in that direction. Max Faulkner played a spectacular shot from against the out-of-bounds fence down the left when he won in 1951.
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FILE - Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy, in blue top and cap, squats down to look at his putt on the 6th green during the first round of the British Open Golf Championships at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland, July 18, 2019. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States carried out a lightning military strike on Venezuela early Saturday, capturing President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and spiriting them out of the country. President Donald Trump said the U.S. is “going to run” Venezuela until a transition of power can occur and the U.S. will tap the country's vast oil reserves as part of a rebuilding effort.
American officials say Maduro and his wife will face narco-terrorism charges in U.S. courts.
The overnight operation left Venezuela reeling, with its leadership uncertain and details of casualties and the impact on its military still to emerge. Countries across the region and the wider world were absorbing the destabilizing implications of the apparently unilateral U.S. action.
Here’s what we know — and what we don’t.
Explosions rang out and low-flying aircraft swept through Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, early Saturday. At least seven blasts were heard in an attack that lasted less than 30 minutes. The targets appeared to include military infrastructure. Smoke was seen rising from the hangar of a military base in Caracas and another military installation in the capital was without power.
Venezuelan ruling party leader Nahum Fernández told The Associated Press that Maduro and Flores were at their home within the Ft. Tiuna military installation outside Caracas when they were captured.
Venezuelan officials said people had been killed, but the scale of casualties was unclear.
The attack followed months of escalating pressure by the Trump administration, which has built up naval forces in the waters off South America and since early September has carried out deadly strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean. Last week the U.S. struck Venezuelan soil with a CIA drone strike at a docking area alleged to have been used by drug cartels.
Trump said during a news conference Saturday the U.S. would run the country and gestured to officials arrayed behind, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and said they’d be the ones doing it “for a period of time.”
Trump claimed the American presence was already in place, though there were no immediate signs of this. He suggested the U.S. would use revenues from oil sales to pay for running the country.
“We’re going to get reimbursed for everything that we spend,” he said.
Trump claimed that Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez had been sworn in as president shortly before he spoke to reporters and added she had spoken with Rubio.
“She is essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again. Very simple,” Trump said.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said on social network X that Maduro and Flores had both been indicted in the Southern District of New York and “will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts.”
Maduro was indicted in March 2020, during Trump’s first term, but the indictment against Flores was not previously made public.
In the indictment made public on Saturday, Maduro is charged with narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.
U.S. authorities accused Maduro of leading a “a corrupt, illegitimate government that, for decades, has leveraged government power to protect and promote illegal activity, including drug trafficking.” The indictment alleges the drug trafficking “enriched and entrenched Venezuela’s political and military elite.”
Authorities estimate that as much as 250 tons of cocaine were trafficked through Venezuela by 2020, according to the indictment. The drugs were moved on go-fast vessels, fishing boats and container ships or by plane from clandestine airstrips, authorities allege.
Trump said Maduro and his wife are aboard a U.S. warship and will face prosecution in New York.
Trump gave some details of the operation during a Saturday morning interview on “Fox and Friends.”
He said a few U.S. members of the operation were injured but he believed no one was killed.
He said Maduro was “highly guarded” in a presidential palace akin to a “fortress” and the Venezuelan leader tried to get to a safe room but wasn’t able to get there in time.
Trump said U.S. forces practiced the operation ahead of time on a replica building, and the U.S. turned off “almost all of the lights in Caracas,” although he didn’t detail how they accomplished that.
Venezuela’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, also offered some details of the operation, saying some Venezuelan civilians and members of the military were killed.
The U.S. does not recognize the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, and the legal implications of the strike under U.S. law were not immediately clear.
The Trump administration maintains that Maduro is not the legitimate leader of Venezuela and claims he has effectively turned Venezuela into a criminal enterprise at the service of drug traffickers and terrorist groups.
Mike Lee, a U.S. senator from Utah, said on X that the action “likely falls within the president’s inherent authority under Article II of the Constitution to protect U.S. personnel from an actual or imminent attack.”
But some Democrats were more critical.
Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, said in a statement, “President Trump’s unauthorized military attack on Venezuela to arrest Maduro — however terrible he is — is a sickening return to a day when the United States asserted the right to dominate the internal political affairs of all nations in the Western Hemisphere.”
Maduro’s government accused the United States of an “imperialist attack” on civilian and military installations and urged citizens to take to the streets.
Armed individuals and uniformed members of a civilian militia took to the streets of a Caracas neighborhood long considered a stronghold of the ruling party. But in other areas of the city, the streets remained empty hours after the attack. Parts of the city remained without power, but vehicles moved freely.
Venezuela’s neighbor Colombia sent troops to the border and anticipated an influx of refugees.
Latin American leaders were sharply divided over the strikes. Trump’s right-wing ally President Javier Milei of Argentina celebrated the operation, while leftist Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva condemned American actions and warned of the sharp repercussions of past American interventions in Latin America.
Cuba, a supporter of the Maduro government and a longtime adversary of the United States, urged the international community to respond to what President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez called “the criminal attack.”
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said the attack and capture of Maduro would be “an unacceptable infringement on the sovereignty of an independent state.”
U.S. allies in Europe — critical of Maduro but mindful of international law — offered muted responses as they scrambled to understand the scale and implications of the attack.
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the bloc “has repeatedly stated that Mr Maduro lacks legitimacy and has defended a peaceful transition. Under all circumstances, the principles of international law and the U.N. Charter must be respected. We call for restraint.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he had not spoken to Trump about the attack and stressed that “the U.K. was not involved in any way.” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said Spain was “conducting a thorough monitoring of the events in Venezuela” and called for “de-escalation and responsibility.”
Lawless reported from London. Associated Press Writer Danica Kirka in London contributed to this story.
FILE - President Nicolas Maduro acknowledges supporters alongside first lady Cilia Flores during his closing election campaign rally in Caracas, Venezuela, July 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara, File)
Pro-government armed civilians patrol in La Guaira, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that President Nicolás Maduro had been captured and flown out of the country. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Supporters of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro embrace in downtown Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that Maduro had been captured and flown out of the country. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)
Men watch smoke rising from a dock after explosions were heard at La Guaira port, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Smoke raises at La Carlota airport after explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
