SOUTHPORT, England (AP) — Scottie Scheffler finally heard about the text his PGA Tour friend never sent, a reminder that even the No. 1 player in golf with four majors and more than 20 victories doesn’t know everything.
It was a list of things to do on the weekend after missing the cut.
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Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland gestures after putting on the 4th green during a practice round for the British Open Golf championships at Royal Birkdale golf club, in Southport, England, Tuesday, July 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)
Tommy Fleetwood of England plays out of a bunker on the 13th hole during a practice round for the British Open Golf championships at Royal Birkdale golf club, in Southport, England, Tuesday, July 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)
Collin Morikawa of the United States plays out of a bunker on the 11th green during a practice round for the British Open Golf championships at Royal Birkdale golf club, in Southport, England, Tuesday, July 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Jon Super)
US golfer Scottie Scheffler tees off during a practice round at the British Open Golf Championship at Royal Birkdale, Southport, England, Monday, July 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)
US golfer Scottie Scheffler plays out of the bunker during a practice round at the British Open Golf Championship at Royal Birkdale, Southport, England, Monday, July 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)
“He was like: ‘Hey, you can practice at the facilities. You can still go to the gym. You can also go to the next tournament.’ It was basically all my options,” Scheffler said Tuesday ahead of the British Open. “He never sent it to me, but he told me about it.”
The reason the text was created — without being sent, to Scheffler's disappointment — was missing the cut at the Scottish Open, his first missed cut in nearly four years, a streak of 78 consecutive cuts that was the longest since Tiger Woods set the record (142) from 1998 to 2005.
Frustrating, yes. Despair? Hardly.
“You never want to have a weekend off, but going into a tournament when you're defending, there's always a bit more stuff to do,” Scheffler said. “So it wasn't the worst thing in the world.”
Among his duties was officially returning the claret jug he won last year at Royal Portrush, a ritual the Royal & Ancient has turned into a ceremony. Then, it was playing an exhibition with Jordan Spieth, Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose and others.
But key to Scheffler's early arrival was Royal Birkdale, which has hosted the British Open more than any other links course in England since it first joined the rotation in 1954.
He had never seen it. Scheffler had not seen conditions like this — a combination of yellow and brown, which translates to firm and fiery in a links vocabulary. St. Andrews came close in 2022, but Jon Rahm recalls the greens still being soft enough to allow for low scoring.
Scheffler ticked off two items on his friend's list — he went to the gym in Scotland and then headed to the next tournament. That allowed him time to play 18 holes on Sunday, and to limit his energy in sunbaked Blighty to nine holes on Monday and Tuesday.
His general assessment: “The ball is just going to run forever.”
Is it driver to take it over the bunkers and possibly reach the green on the 393-yard, downwind 16th hole, or hit iron off the tee? Is the redesigned fifth hole at 321 yards worth trying to reach with a pond to the right, a series of bunkers short and a wee part of a wee burn to the left?
“On each hole there's a good bit of strategy. There's a decent amount of thinking,” Scheffler said. “If it wasn't as firm as it is now, there would be as much decision-making. But I think with the firmness, it creates a whole lot more challenges.”
Rose is among four players — and at 45, the youngest — to have played Royal Birkdale three times in the Open dating to 1998. He was a 17-year-old amateur that year, full of joy and optimism when he holed out a wedge for birdie on the 18th to tie for fourth. He didn't finish in the top 50 his two times as a professional.
Rose certainly has more experience than Scheffler, but only to a point.
“A links course is interesting because you never really get to know them that well,” Rose said. "Like 2008 I think it was, weather was dreadful. It was wet. You might have been hitting 2-irons and 3-woods into par 4s, and now you could be flicking 52-degree wedges.
“A golf course can play so differently decade to decade when we come back that you never really get to know the course that well.”
Scheffler said he felt at peace about his game, and he certainly looked the part. His game didn't look deplorable in the Scottish Open, just a matter of not hitting it terribly close and not making many putts and then moving on.
It was no less frustrating — Scheffler is a killer when it comes to competing, which is one reason he has been No. 1 longer than anyone since Woods — but it was filled with perspective.
“I don’t think it hurts as much as coming close to winning and finishing second,” Scheffler said. “I felt like coming in second at Travelers hurt more than missing the cut, but missing the cut is significantly more frustrating is how I would describe it.”
He's had plenty of experience finishing second. Scheffler's lone victory this year was his first tournament in January at The American Express. Since then, he has had four runner-up finishes, including the Masters. The most recent was a playoff loss to Viktor Hovland at the Travelers Championship two weeks ago when Scheffler missed a 4-foot slider.
“I think just towards the end of the season, you get a little tired,” Scheffler said. "I got a couple days off, reset the mind, reset the body, and just kind of get back to feeling even and at peace. I've had a very solid year, but like I said, frustrating at times because I’ve been close and I haven’t been able to get it done like I have been in years past.
“I'm excited to try and defend my title this week.”
That hasn't been done at the British Open since 2008 when Padraig Harrington won at Royal Birkdale. One week could change Scheffler's outlook on the year. But it's a week that presents a test the likes of which he hasn't seen all year.
AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland gestures after putting on the 4th green during a practice round for the British Open Golf championships at Royal Birkdale golf club, in Southport, England, Tuesday, July 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)
Tommy Fleetwood of England plays out of a bunker on the 13th hole during a practice round for the British Open Golf championships at Royal Birkdale golf club, in Southport, England, Tuesday, July 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)
Collin Morikawa of the United States plays out of a bunker on the 11th green during a practice round for the British Open Golf championships at Royal Birkdale golf club, in Southport, England, Tuesday, July 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Jon Super)
US golfer Scottie Scheffler tees off during a practice round at the British Open Golf Championship at Royal Birkdale, Southport, England, Monday, July 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)
US golfer Scottie Scheffler plays out of the bunker during a practice round at the British Open Golf Championship at Royal Birkdale, Southport, England, Monday, July 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Todd Blanche is heading into a high-stakes test this week in his bid to become attorney general, with key Republicans still undecided about whether to back his nomination.
Blanche will need the support of all GOP lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee in order to advance his nomination to lead the Justice Department, which he has done in an acting capacity since April.
Blanche is expected to face scrutiny over issues including the department's investigations into President Donald Trump's foes, a contentious deal to settle Trump's IRS lawsuit and its handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files when he appears before the committee for his confirmation hearing on Wednesday.
Here's a look at key topics likely to dominate the hearing:
Blanche came into the public spotlight as the lead attorney defending Trump in his hush money trial in New York. The close relationship they forged then — and the unwavering loyalty Blanche has shown to Trump since joining the Justice Department last year — is likely to command the spotlight at the hearing.
Trump has made clear his desire to use the Justice Department to pursue his political opponents. And Blanche has accelerated investigations into perceived foes of the president since Pam Bondi was fired after failing to deliver criminal cases against Trump's political enemies.
Democrats say Blanche is acting as if he were still Trump's personal attorney.
In a social media post on Tuesday, Trump praised Blanche's record at the Justice Department, calling him “tough, brilliant, and 100% LOYAL to our Constitution, and the American People.”
"He is a great lawyer, always very fair, and every Republican Senator should vote to CONFIRM Todd Blanche, ASAP!" Trump wrote.
Blanche has strongly rejected accusations that the administration has weaponized the department for political purposes, saying in an ABC interview in February that "there’s not a whiff of political partisanship in what we’re doing.”
The Justice Department has historically prided itself on independence from the White House when it comes to prosecutorial decisions. But Blanche has insisted he sees no problem with the president’s interest in Justice Department matters and says he has felt no pressure to placate Trump.
“We have thousands of ongoing investigations and prosecutions going on in this country right now," Blanche said at a press conference in May. “And it is true that some of them involve men, women and entities that the president in the past has had issues with and believes should be investigated. That is his right, and indeed it is his duty to do that.”
When asked at the time about his potential nomination for attorney general, Blanche said that if Trump chose someone else for the job he would say: “Thank you very much. I love you, sir.”
Blanche's past comments surrounding the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, could face renewed scrutiny.
Blanche has said he was not consulted on Trump's sweeping clemency grant for some 1,500 people charged in the riot, including people convicted of attacking police. Pressed on the matter during his confirmation hearing for deputy attorney general last year, Blanche said that people who commit violence against law enforcement “should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Asked whether he would advise the president in the future against pardoning violent offenders, Blanche told lawmakers last year that “violence against law enforcement is never something that should be tolerated.”
But in front of a crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference in May, Blanche touted the Jan. 6 pardons as an accomplishment for the administration, saying to cheers in the audience that “by 5 p.m. on Jan. 20, every one of them was either pardoned or had their sentence commuted."
“So when folks say we’ve done nothing, I say ‘you have a very short memory,’" Blanche told the crowd.
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, whose vote is likely to be crucial for Blanche's nomination, has said he will not support anyone for attorney general who equivocates on the events of Jan 6. Tillis, however, recently said he doesn't have any concerns about Blanche's record regarding Jan. 6.
With the death of South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who was a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, there are 11 Republicans and 10 Democrats on the panel. If even one Republican on the committee votes against Blanche, it could scuttle his nomination.
Arguably the rockiest stretch of Blanche’s tenure atop the Justice Department has been a $1.776 billion fund meant to compensate allies of the president who feel mistreated by the criminal justice system.
Blanche was the public face of the initiative, which emerged from a settlement of Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns. The fund faced instant bipartisan congressional backlash, exemplified by a tense closed-door meeting at which shouting Republicans confronted Blanche over the planned payouts.
Weeks later, he revealed on behalf of the administration that the idea had been scrapped, saying at a hearing, “We are not moving forward with the fund, period.”
Nonetheless, expect Democrats to press Blanche on whether he has truly foreclosed the possibility of reviving the fund, especially since Trump remains vocal about his desire for compensation for his supporters and since the Justice Department has balked at a judge’s insistence that it assert in writing that it won’t bring back the compensation.
Tillis has been sharply critical of not only the fund but a separate aspect of the IRS that guarantees Trump and members of his family immunity from audits. Blanche has repeatedly said that the IRS protection remains intact, something that Tillis and others are expected to demand answers about. A federal judge on Monday stopped short of voiding the audit immunity deal but called into question its legal legitimacy.
Blanche was deputy attorney general when the Justice Department in the summer of 2025 found itself besieged by crisis over its handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files. A year later, questions remain, despite the department's release last January of what it said were more than 3 million pages of records from its sex-trafficking investigation of the late financier.
Blanche will unquestionably be grilled about the case, especially after Bondi told lawmakers behind closed-doors after her ouster as attorney general that Blanche was the department’s point person on the release of the Epstein documents.
Trouble began in February 2025 when Bondi presented far-right influencers at the White House with white binders that she said contained the Epstein files but in reality actually consisted of largely public materials.
Things worsened last July when the department said in an unsigned statement that it would not release any additional records from the investigation, only to be forced into a reversal by an onslaught of criticism across the political spectrum and legislation from Congress that mandated the records’ disclosure.
But the staggered release was beset by problems, including redaction errors that left exposed nude photos showing the faces of potential victims. Some names, email addresses and other identifying information was either unredacted or not fully obscured.
Blanche has faced additional scrutiny over his unusual trip to a Florida prison to interview Epstein’s former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, as she serves a 20-year sentence for luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein. After the interview, Maxwell was moved from the low-security federal prison in Florida to a minimum-security prison camp in Texas.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche speaks during a news conference at the Department of Justice, Wednesday, July 1, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
