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.