TROON, Scotland — The wind caught just about everyone off guard during the opening round of the 152nd British Open. It came from the opposite direction off the Irish Sea, accompanied by occasional rain, and made Royal Troon a tougher test than anyone was expecting.
Turns out that wasn’t even the biggest surprise Thursday.
Daniel Brown made his major championship tournament debut a memorable one. The 29-year-old from England birdied two of the last three holes for a 6-under-par 65, giving him a one-shot lead over 2019 British Open champion Shane Lowry of Ireland with just enough spectators left in the Scottish twilight to celebrate Brown’s amazing day.
It was getting too dark to take a photo of his name atop the leaderboard, and that didn’t interest him anyway. There are at least 54 holes to go in the year’s final major, though he was only focused on the next 18.
“I’m going to try and keep my feet on the ground a bit,” he said, “and take on the job again tomorrow.”
Brown, whose lone win on the Europe-based DP World Tour came last September in Northern Ireland, arrived at Royal Troon having failed to make the cut in seven straight tournaments dating to March until a couple of good events. One was the final qualifying opportunity for this tournament; the other was the Scottish Open, where he made the cut before finishing 61st on Sunday.
Weather is almost always a factor in links golf, but the wind at Royal Troon managed to stand out even for a British Open. Yes, it was fierce, but it was different. Instead of players trying to make a score on the downwind front nine and keep it together on the way back, it was tough from start to finish.
Four-time major champion Rory McIlroy certainly found that to be the case. He shot a 78 with a pair of double bogeys. Ditto for reigning U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, who went out in 42 on his way to a 76. Tiger Woods won 14 major titles from 1997 to 2008 and a 15th at the 2019 Masters, but these days, every trip to one of golf’s biggest four events is tough on the 48-year-old. He had a 79, his highest opening round in a major since an 80 in the 2015 U.S. Open.
Lowry motored along, putting as well as he has all year, soaking up the warm applause all while reminding himself it was only a good start. He at least knew what to expect.
“Fortunately enough, I came here two weeks ago and I played this wind on the second day that I played here. I saw the golf course in every wind possible I could see it. Yeah, I guess that was a good thing to do, and it’s out there paying off a little bit today” said Lowry, five years removed from his lone major title at Northern Ireland’s Royal Portrush.
Two-time PGA Championship winner Justin Thomas is off to another great start for the second straight week in Scotland, even if the 31-year-old American’s score didn’t look that way. He had a 68 — he started the Scottish Open with a 62 at the Renaissance Club in North Berwick on the other side of the country — and feels as though he played better because the misses are more severely punished at Royal Troon. He was alone in third.
The group at 69 included Xander Schauffele, who won the PGA Championship in May for his first major title, and 2013 U.S. Open champ Justin Rose, who also played bogey-free — and with greater appreciation of this British Open because he had to endure 36-hole final qualifying just to get in.
Throw in the occasional rain, and Masters champion Scottie Scheffler found it plenty difficult after battling his way to a 70 that had him tied for 11th.
“I don’t know if confusing is the right word, just challenging, especially when you get the rain involved,” said the American star who has been atop the Official World Golf Ranking for more than a year. “When you get a wet ball into the wind, it’s amazing how short it goes. I think it was No. 2 today, I had 165 (yards) to the pin off a slight upslope, and I hit a hold 5-iron, which for me usually goes about 205. It went probably 155 at the most. And I striped it.”
Chattanooga resident Stephan Jaeger, who won the Houston Open in March for his first PGA Tour victory, made his British Open debut. The 35-year-old former Baylor School and University of Tennessee at Chattanooga standout from Germany was 5 over at the turn after a trio of bogeys and a double, and while he would make two more on the 12th and 14th, they sandwiched an eagle on the 13th. Birdies on the 16th and 18th allowed him to finish off a 74, tied for 69th in the field of 156 players.
Harris English, one of Jaeger’s former teammates at Baylor, is playing the British Open for the fourth consecutive year and ninth time overall. He missed the cut in the past two and started this one with a 76 that left him tied for 96th.
AP photo by Scott Heppell / Shane Lowry catches a golf ball as he prepares to putt on the 18th green at Royal Troon during the opening round of the British Open on Thursday in Troon, Scotland. Lowry shot a 66 and was alone in second place behind Daniel Brown.Lowry hit his stride around the turn. He birdied the seventh hole from about 10 feet and hit a wedge to 10 feet at the par-3 eighth, the famed “Postage Stamp” that caused so much damage for a 123-yard hole.
He also made two big pars, including a 25-foot putt on the 10th, before holing a 20-foot birdie putt on the 11th to reach 4 under. Lowry ended his round with a wedge to five feet for his 66.
The applause kept getting louder, and Lowry kept reminding himself it was only Thursday.
“For some reason I felt like he crowd were getting very excited out there,” he said. “It was late in the afternoon — a few pints of Tennent’s were had out there … and it felt more like the weekend. I just kept on telling myself there’s a lot more to do and there’s a few days left, so I just kind of stayed in my lane and hit some good shots, and I was pretty happy with how I handled myself.”
Thomas played earlier in the day and was at 4 under through 11. He just had to work hard to keep a good score on his card.
His tee shot landed in a bush on the tough 12th hole that required a penalty drop, and he missed a four-foot putt and made a double bogey. His next drive took a wild hop into grass so deep his caddie called out to the gallery: “Last call. Anyone see the other ball to the right?” They eventually found it, but it led to a bogey.
“A little bit of a hiccup in the beginning of the back nine,” Thomas said, “but stayed patient and kept plugging.”
He avoided another bogey with a 12-foot par putt, then finished with a 6-iron to eight feet for a birdie on the 17th and a birdie on the 18th that showed how much the wind was helping — 4-iron off the tee, wedge into 25 feet on the 458-yard closing hole.
Justin Leonard, a winner at Royal Troon in 1997, returned for the first time since 2016 and was given the honor of the opening tee shot with the shiny claret jug positioned nearby on a podium. He had an 80, one of 12 rounds of at least that many stokes.
McIlroy broke 80, but not by much.
The 35-year-old from Northern Ireland was hopeful of one last chance in 2024 to end his drought in the majors that has reached a decade. Now he only wants to make it to the weekend.
He took two shots to get out of a bunker on the Postage Stamp, and he sent his drive on the 11th over the railroad tracks and out of bounds. He couldn’t solve the wind.
“You play your practice rounds, and you try to come up with a strategy that you think is going to get you around the golf course. Then when the wind is like that, other options present themselves, and you start to second-guess yourself a little bit,” McIlroy said. “The conditions were tough on that back nine, and I just didn’t do a good enough job.”