CARNOUSTIE, Scotland — Jordan Spieth was practicing Tuesday for the 147th British Open when something caught his eye.

Spieth, the defending champion who on Monday had just returned the Claret Jug to tournament officials, was looking at his cell phone and saw a text chain that amused him. He showed it to his caddie, Michael Greller, and the two had a laugh.

The first note came from his buddy, Justin Thomas, which read: “Thanks for dropping the Claret Jug off yesterday, Jord, she’s coming home with me this year.’’

The next one came from Rickie Fowler: “Haha, nice try. I’m the links master and the jug is mine.’’

There were no social media or cell phones back in the respective playing primes of Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Gary Player, Nick Faldo, Greg Norman, et al. But even if there were, can you imagine those guys — the fiercest competitors and most prolific winners of their respective generations — having a go at each other like that on the eve of the most important tournament of the year?

Can you imagine Faldo ribbing Norman about his failure to capture a Masters, or Tiger Woods tweaking Phil Mickelson by comparing their major championship records?

Can you imagine Watson, Faldo and Norman sharing a plane ride home after one of them won the Open Championship and sharing an exquisite Cabernet or Shiraz out of the Claret Jug?

Picture the Los Angeles Kings players sharing a few bottles of celebratory bubbly out of the Stanley Cup with the Rangers players hours after they’d just vanquished the Blueshirts in Game 5 of the 2014 Stanley Cup final.

Didn’t happen back in the day and wouldn’t happen today.

But this is a far different era, one in which many of the elite players in golf who are fighting each other for the most sacred trophies in the sport and their own personal legacies are pals pulling for each other.

Can you imagine Watson waiting at the 18th green long after he’d finished his final round to congratulate Nicklaus after winning one of his 18 major championships?

Fowler, Thomas and 2015 Open winner Zach Johnson were waiting at the top of the hill at the 18th green at Royal Birkdale last year to congratulate Spieth when he won.

“It is a very unique group of us,’’ Thomas said. “Obviously, we want to beat each other’s brains in. I never want to lose to any of my friends — especially my best friends. As weird as it is, sometimes it’s harder losing to your closest friends than it is someone you don’t even know, whether it’s bragging rights or whatever it is, but it is a weird feeling.’’

Woods, who’s gotten to know the twentysomethings while serving as a vice captain at the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup, said nothing like that camaraderie existed when he burst onto the PGA Tour in 1996 at age 20.

“When I first came out on tour, I was an anomaly in the sense that no one turned pro at 20,’’ Woods said. “So most of the guys that I grew up playing with were still in college when I first came out on tour. Now you have guys that are turning pro at 18, 19, 20, that’s the normal age to turn pro, and they’re all making it at the same time.

“So, yeah, you see these guys are really close, but they’ve been close since junior golf and made it out here on tour very quickly and almost the same time frame. So I think that’s one of the reasons why you see them hanging around with each other all the time.’’

There’s a thought process that players shouldn’t get too close to each other for fear of that dulling some edge off of their competitiveness — particularly when they’re battling one another.

That was old-school thinking. This new generation is all new-school, and most of them are making it work.

Spieth has three major championship wins, Thomas just won his first at the 2017 PGA Championship, Johnson has two majors, including the 2015 British Open, after which they all flew home together on a private jet and drank from the Claret Jug.

The guys have a deal: If one of them wins the Claret Jug, he foots the bill for the private jet ride home. So Johnson paid in ’15 and Spieth paid last year. Fowler, in search of his first career major, would love dearly to have to pay that bill after Sunday.

Spieth, Thomas, Fowler and Johnson are sharing a house near Carnoustie this week, as they’ve done at recent Opens. In it, they have a personal chef cooking them meals and a massage therapist so they never have to leave the house. They can hang out together, drink wine together and needle each other.

Just as the older generation never did.