IT wasn’t quite sunshine on Spieth during the first round of the 146th Open Championship here at Royal Birkdale.
That flaming ball up in the sky was just starting to break through as young Jordan was coming to the end of his opening 18 but the 23-year-old Texan had already done enough to illuminate affairs with a sprightly five-under 65 as an American assault force plonked a Star Spangled Banner at the summit of the leaderboard. You could just about hear President Trump bawling his approval.
For poor old Mark O’Meara, meanwhile, it was more a case of a Star Spangled Spanner being flung in the works.
The 1998 champion at Birkdale was given the honour of getting things underway with the first tee-shot at the bleary-eyed time of 6.35 am.
He enjoyed the privilege so much he had two goes at it. An opening swipe went sailing out of bounds and after re-loading, the 60-year-old marked what will be his final Open with a quadruple bogey eight en route to a torrid 81.
“My day was toast and most people still hadn’t had their breakfast,” O’Meara sighed as he nursed his wounds after a grisly savaging in the worst of the conditions.
Spieth served up some fine morning fare that was as tasty as a bacon buttie as he set a sprightly pace and finished in a three-way tie at the top with his compatriots, Matt Kuchar and Brooks Koepka.
That left the US triumvirate one ahead of Paul Casey and Charl Schwartzel with Ian Poulter, the runner-up at Birkdale in 2008, a stroke further back on 67.
The Scottish duo of Martin Laird and Richie Ramsay lurk on the fringes of the top-10 after spirited two-under 68s.
Spieth may have hit just five of 14 fairways on a testy, tricky day but this was a display of skill, patience and resolve.
While Koepka burnished his 65 by holing his bunker shot on the 16th for an eagle, it was a gouge out of the sand on the same hole that gave Spieth his most satisfying moment of a profitable, purposeful day.
His approach dribbled into the menacing clutches of the pot bunker and came to rest on a slight slope near the back edge.
It was a perilous position but Spieth managed to howk it up and out and leave it some 10-feet from the flag. From there, he saved his par. It was a telling moment. “I thought it was the best shot of the day, no doubt about it,” he declared.
Rested and confident – he arrived at Birkdale after a three-week break following his win in June’s Travelers Championship – Spieth cut a contended, composed figure.
All is well with the double major champion’s golf and the rigorous examination of Birkdale was one that he approached with eager gusto. It was a good day at the office but, in this game, there is always room for improvement.
“I give it a nine (out of ten) across the board for everything, tee balls, ball-striking, short game and putting, so things are in check,” he added as he prepared for today’s round in conditions that are set to get particularly lively.
“I thought today’s round was extremely important given the forecast coming in. You really needed to be in the red (under-par) today. I’d call it a top five major round that I’ve played. I couldn’t have done much better. I essentially missed two greens today in some 15mph winds.”
There was no rust for the rested. Koepka hadn’t played since he won the US Open last month but he picked up in Southport where he left off at Erin Hills as his bid to become the first player since Tiger Woods in 2000 to win both Opens on either side of the Atlantic in the same season got off to a fine start.
“You’re going to laugh when I tell you, but I played once with my manager and that was the first time I had touched a club before I got here,” reported Koepka. “And he beat me.”
Koepka got the better of Birkdale though and despite missing a short putt for par on 16 he responded in morale-boosting style on the next by making that eagle three from the sand.
“It was actually a terrible lie in the bunker,” he added. “My caddie told me to get it inside ten feet. That would’ve been a pretty good result. Luckily, it went in.”
Kuchar, meanwhile, went rampaging to the turn during a fearsome early offensive. Here at Birkdale in 1983, Manchester pro Denis Durnian set an Open record for the lowest outward half of just 28 blows and Kuchar just fell short of a equalling that number with a five-under 29. A stream of nine pars coming home was, in tired old footballing parlance, a game of two halves.
Casey was left cursing a three-putt on bogey on the 11th in his 66 but the Englishman, who turns 40 today, was happy enough as he strives for a first major. “Life begins at 40, so maybe it’s an omen,” he said.
Henrik Stenson, the reigning champion, opened with a 69 but local hero Tommy Fleetwood had to settle for a trying 76.
“The crowd did their part but I couldn’t do mine,” he lamented.
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