Reed capped the round with a birdie at 18. Had Mickelson birdied 18, he would finish the round with a 9-under 62, the first time in golf history that anyone shot a 62 at a major.
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Spieth navigated Troon’s 7,190 yards with little difficulty, other than errant drives that led to bogeys on holes 11 and 18.
Rory McIlroy has left himself in contention after day one of The Open Championship at Royal Troon after a credible opening round 69.
Martin Kaymer and Patrick Reed were at 66.
That included at the par-five 16th, when he produced a superb shot out of a greenside bunker before holing for birdie, and then a two at the short 17th, where he said his four-iron from the tee was his “best shot of the day”.
But the left-hander took advantage of the wind dropping in the afternoon to card four birdies on the front nine and four more on the back as he looks to follow in the footsteps of compatriots Arnold Palmer, Tom Weiskopf, Tom Watson, Mark Calcavecchia, Justin Leonard and Todd Hamilton in winning the Open at the Ayrshire venue.
Elsewhere, England’s Chris Wood was forced to withdraw from competition. The 27-year-old suffered a recurrence of a neck injury and was forced to bow out on the 12th hole at three over bar.
It was a glorious start – for one shot, anyway. But the scores figure to rise during the day as the wind picks up.
Sullivan’s waterproofs wish could well be granted tomorrow but in today’s circumstances, Dustin Johnson and Jordan Spieth were surprising absentees from a leaderboard with a predictably heavy USA slant at America’s pet Open course. “David versus Goliath”, Reed called it. Poetry, prairie-style. “I don’t know if you know this”. And former Open champion John Daly scared more than few young children with a pair of pineapple-decorated trousers that looked like they’d been stolen from the Tiki Lounge. Having missed the 2004 Open, the last time the tournament came to Troon, because he wasn’t playing well, the 49-year-old returned to these links for the first time since he placed T-62 at the 1997 Open. Two, he beats down on it all day long: trap draw, trap draw, trap draw. But the scowl soon turned into a smile when Montgomerie ran off five birdies in seven holes to make the turn at 3-under par.
A round this low did not seem to be on anyone’s radar, even Mickelson’s, though an early birdie at No. 2 on the nine he struggles with helped him relax.
Zach Johnson was also at 5 under after 15 holes. “It’s just a very, very hard two-hole stretch”.
Meanwhile, last year’s amateur sensation Paul Dunne admitted he was not enjoying his golf after a dismal start to his latest Open challenge at Royal Troon. Known for his more-than-aggressive nature over the course of his career, Phil reigned back the driver to set up approaches to Royal Troon’s minuscule greens – hitting 79 percent of his fairways and 89 percent of greens en route to a mistake-free 8-under-par 63. The R&A chose him to be the first player to hit a shot on a gorgeous morning along the Irish Sea.
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Marc Leishman, runner-up a year ago, posted a 74, as did Nick Cullen, while Steven Bowditch’s woes continued with a 79 including an ugly quintuple bogey nine on the brutal 11th, which the field played in a staggering 108 par for the day.
