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.”
AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
Keegan Bradley of the United States plays from the rough on the 7th hole during the second round of the British Open golf championship at the Royal Portrush Golf Club, Northern Ireland, Friday, July 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Nicolai Hojgaard of Denmark watches his ball as he plays the 15th hole during a practice round for the British Open golf championship at the Royal Portrush Golf Club, Northern Ireland, Tuesday, July 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)
Rasmus Hojgaard of Denmark acknowledges the crowd on the 8th green during the second round of the British Open golf championship at the Royal Portrush Golf Club, Northern Ireland, Friday, July 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AP) — Thousands of people flocked to Bethlehem's Manger Square on Christmas Eve as families heralded a much-needed boost of holiday spirit. The giant Christmas tree that was absent during the Israel-Hamas war returned on Wednesday, overlooking a parade of scouts playing songs on bagpipes.
The city where Christians believe Jesus was born cancelled Christmas celebrations for the past two years. Manger Square had instead featured a nativity scene of baby Jesus surrounded by rubble and barbed wire in homage to the situation in Gaza.
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the top Catholic leader in the Holy Land, kicked off this year's celebrations during the traditional procession from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, calling for “a Christmas full of light.”
Arriving in Manger Square, Pizzaballa said he came bearing greetings from Gaza's tiny Christian community, where he held a pre-Christmas Mass on Sunday. Among the devastation, he saw a desire to rebuild.
“We, all together, we decide to be the light, and the light of Bethlehem is the light of the world,” he told thousands of people, Christian and Muslim.
Despite the holiday cheer, the impact of the war in the Israeli-occupied West Bank is acute, especially in Bethlehem, where around 80% of the Muslim-majority city’s residents depend upon tourism-related businesses, according to the local government.
The vast majority of people celebrating were residents, with a handful of foreigners in the crowd. But some residents said they are starting to see signs of change as tourism slowly returns.
“Today is a day of joy, a day of hope, the beginning of the return of normal life here,” said Bethlehem resident Georgette Jackaman, a tour guide who has not worked in more than two years.
She and her husband, Michael Jackaman, another guide, are from established Christian Bethlehem families that stretch back generations. This is the first real Christmas celebration for their two children, aged 2 1/2 and 10 months.
During the war, the Jackamans pivoted to create a website selling Palestinian handicrafts to try to support others who have lost their livelihoods.
During the Gaza war, the unemployment rate in the city jumped from 14% to 65%, Bethlehem Mayor Maher Nicola Canawati said earlier this month.
A visitor from France, Mona Riewer, said that “I came because I wanted to better understand what people in Palestine are going through, and you can sense people have been through a very hard time."
Although friends and family cautioned her against coming due to the volatile situation, Riewer said being in Bethlehem helped her appreciate the meaning of the holiday.
“Christmas is like hope in very dark situations, a very vulnerable child experiencing harshness,” she said.
Despite the Gaza ceasefire that began in October, tensions remain high across much of the West Bank.
Israel’s military continues to carry out frequent raids in what it says is a crackdown on militants. Attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians have reached their highest level since the United Nations humanitarian office started collecting data in 2006. Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war.
The internationally recognized Palestinian Authority has limited autonomy in parts of the territory, including Bethlehem. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to attend midnight Mass for the first time in two years, the mayor said.
As poverty and unemployment have soared, about 4,000 people have left Bethlehem in search of work, the mayor said. It’s part of a worrying trend for Christians, who are leaving the region in droves.
Christians account for less than 2% of the West Bank’s roughly 3 million residents. Across the Middle East, the Christian population has steadily declined as people have fled conflict and attacks.
Fadi Zoughbi, who previously worked overseeing logistics for tour groups, said his children were ecstatic to see marching bands streaming through Bethlehem's streets.
The scouts represent cities and towns across the West Bank, with Palestinian flags and tartan draped on their bagpipes, drummers spinning mallets adorned with pompoms. For the past two years, the scouts marched silently as a protest against the war.
Irene Kirmiz, who grew up in Bethlehem and now lives in Ramallah, said the scout parade is among her favorite Christmas traditions. Her 15-year-old daughter plays the tenor drum with the Ramallah scouts.
But her family had to wake up at 5 a.m. to arrive in time for the parade and waited upwards of three hours at Israeli checkpoints. The drive previously took 40 minutes without the checkpoints that have increasingly made travel difficult for Palestinians, she said.
“It's very emotional seeing people trying to bounce back, trying to celebrate peace and love,” Kirmiz said.
The Israeli Ministry of Tourism estimates 130,000 tourists will visit Israel by the end of December, including 40,000 Christians. In 2019, a banner year for tourism before the pandemic, the tourism ministry said 150,000 Christian tourists visited during Christmas week alone.
During the previous two years, the heads of churches in Jerusalem urged congregations to forgo “any unnecessarily festive activities.” They encouraged priests and the faithful to focus on Christmas’ spiritual meaning and called for “fervent prayers for a just and lasting peace for our beloved Holy Land.”
Palestinian scout bands parade at the Manger Square near the Church of the Nativity, traditionally believed to be the birthplace of Jesus, on Christmas Eve, in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Palestinian scout bands parade toward the Manger Square near the Church of the Nativity, traditionally believed to be the birthplace of Jesus, on Christmas Eve, in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Palestinians and tourists visit the Manger Square and the Church of the Nativity, believed to be Jesus' birthplace, ahead of Christmas, in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)
Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the top Catholic clergyman in the Holy Land, is received by local community while crossing an Israeli military checkpoint from Jerusalem ahead of celebrations at the Church of the Nativity, traditionally believed to be the birthplace of Jesus, on Christmas Eve, in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the top Catholic clergyman in the Holy Land, is received by local community while crossing an Israeli military checkpoint from Jerusalem ahead of celebrations at the Church of the Nativity, traditionally believed to be the birthplace of Jesus, on Christmas Eve, in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
