James Nicholas plays a shot from a bunker on hole 3 during a practice round for The Open Championship golf tournament.
Bill Streicher-Imagn Images
SOUTHPORT, England — With James Nicholas, a rising 29-year-old golfer from Westchester who’s playing in his first British Open this week, let’s start with this: Golf was not his best sport as a kid.
And, according to Nicholas, it still isn’t.
Hockey was … and still is, he insisted.
It’s the paths we take that end up defining us. Sometimes unwittingly. Nicholas is a living, breathing example of that.

1 hour ago
3
English (US)