However the impressive Dustin Johnson held the lead on the course at -10 when the play was stopped just before 10pm due to poor light.
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He birdied 1 through 4 and then 6, 7 and 9 with pars at 5 and 8 to power three shots clear of the field in the lead and possibly heading towards the first 62 in major golf history.
Lingmerth is tied for 18th after the first round.
With rain and gusting winds forecast to sweep in from the North Sea from late today through tomorrow and much of Saturday, getting a good, low score in this morning could be a vital stepping stone towards glory on Sunday evening.
Knowing that the he would be playing on Friday morning, the Scot knew that he had to put in a solid performance in the first round because of the predicted weather.
Woods meanwhile was way down at the bottom of the leaderboard on five over par and already in danger of missing the cut after failing to make a birdie through 12 holes while making five bogeys. “It’ll be a new experience, I’m not 100 per cent sure how I’ll handle it. Hopefully I’ll just take it like second nature”, said Dunne, who intends to turn professional later this season after the Walker Cup. It’s a bit annoying as my game is good enough to do something this weekend.
Spieth made a couple of bogeys on the back side, stumbling at the 17th after finding the notorious Road Hole bunker.
The 22-year-old from Greystones also produced a superb pitch to birdie the fifth and holed from 45 feet for another across the ninth green, but dropped his only shot of the day on the 11th and parred the last seven holes.
Two other amateurs in with a chance of winning the Silver Medal over the final two days were Shrewsbury’s Ashley Chesters and American Oliver Schniederjans, one under and two under respectively.
“As I stand, I need to invite myself to my own tournament – which I will do, obviously”. I couldn’t control what the ball was doing on the greens there. It’s kind of like a zoo out there.
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“So straight away you could have gone one over and you’re one under, so just little things like that tends to sort of jump start you a wee bit”. It would be nice to get the Silver Medal in my a year ago as an amateur. I don’t have that in the bag, but I’ve played enough golf with him to where I believe in my skill set that I can still trump that insane ability that he has. I went out with a number in my head trying to shoot 68 so I came up just short, but I’m pretty pleased with a 69.
