As is so often the case, Phil Mickelson was walking a golf course with a huge smile on his face.
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The 29-year-old, who played alongside Keegan Bradley of the United States and Spain’s Sergio Garcia, carded three birdies and a bogey over his first seven holes on Thursday but failed to carry the momentum forward after the turn. Instead, the putt caught the lip of the cup and rode the edge without dropping before he signed off on a 63.
As Mickelson surged into the lead with birdies at 16 and 17, the Open champion of three years ago sensed a record of a different type. Late in the day, Germany’s Martin Kaymer matched Reed’s 66 to put a slightly European slant on the leaderboard. Defending champion Zach Johnson was among nine players at 4 under.
Even still the idea that Mickelson – winless since claiming the 2013 Open Championship at Muirfield – would be the man to set the pace was clearly not something any knowledgeable golf observer could have expected. Greg Norman had to only two-putt from 30 feet for a 62 at Turnberry in the 1986 British Open and took three putts. “As great a round as this was, I’m not going to have a chance to do something historical like that again”.
Steve Stricker was nervous when he teed off at Royal Troon, and it showed. He had to scramble for par on the first hole and took bogey on the next hole.
World No1 Jason Day, who admitted to having problems with his swing, posted a first round score of two over.
“It was obvious last week at Castle Stuart [at the Scottish Open, where he finished tied for 13th], my lag putting was awful, ” he said.
As highlighted in the In-Play section of the preview, only one of the last 12 Open winners has been outside the top-10 after the first round and five strokes adrift is as far off the lead that any winner’s been this century after round one – Padraig Harrington at Royal Birkdale in 2008 and Todd Hamilton here in 2004.
“The Open has always been good to me, so I’m hoping for a good run”, said Lahiri, who made a hole-in-one in his debut at Royal Lytham in 2012 and was tied 30th at St Andrews previous year.
His compatriot Colin Montgomerie had the honour of hitting the first shot of the championship at 6:35am local time (0535 GMT) in front of enthusiastic galleries.
American players have won the last six Open Championships staged at Troon and despite the emphasis placed on his length off the tee, Johnson has always embraced the challenge of links golf.
Reed kicked off his run with an eagle on No. 3 and finished with a 31 on the front nine.
Bubba Watson, Justin Thomas and Patrick Reed are tied for the lead at 4 under. There was some compensation though, today’s 63 is the lowest ever round at Royal Troon so he’s the new course record holder.
Texan Reed, 25, signalled his intent when he holed his approach shot for an eagle two at the par-four third. A fair-weather, high-ball hitter who had as much a chance to win a British Open as Tiger Woods now has to host a seminar on marital fidelity.
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McIlroy, who donated his prize money of £515,000 for winning the Irish Open in May to his own foundation, which hosts the event, added: “T he next generation can play golf if they want or they don’t”. Monty’s “Game 1” group included Marc Leishman and Luke Donald.
