TRON, Scotland (AP) — The wind caught almost everyone by surprise Thursday at the British Open golf championship. It came from the opposite direction off the Irish Sea, bringing intermittent rain, making the Royal Troon Championship a tougher test than anyone expected.
It turns out that wasn’t the biggest surprise.
Daniel Brown made his first major tournament appearance and it was unforgettable. He has scored one point on two of his last three holes. He shot 65 under par, giving him a one-stroke lead over Shane Lowry with enough spectators still in the Scottish Twilight to celebrate his amazing day.
It was too dark to take a photo of his name at the top of the leaderboard, which doesn’t interest the 29-year-old Englishman anyway.
“I’m going to try to keep my feet on the ground a little bit and do that job again tomorrow,” Brown said.
After winning once on the European Tour, he arrived at Royal Troon after failing to reach the final stage in seven consecutive tournaments since March until two good events. One was a final qualifying to earn a place in his first major, and the other was the Scottish Open when he managed to reach the final stage and finished 61st.
But this day was all about the wind – yes, it was fierce, but it was different. Instead of players trying to score points on the windward front nine and keep their composure on the way back, it was a grind from start to finish.
Rory McIlroy certainly found this to be the case. He shot 78. With a pair of doubles. The same goes for U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, who went 42 strokes down on his way to a 76. Every major is tough on the 48-year-old Tiger Woods, Who had 79 To make his best start at a major since 80 points at the 2015 US Open at Chambers Bay.
Lowry continued to perform well, as he has all year, Enjoy the standing ovation All the while reminding himself that it was just a good start and that there were three more rounds ahead of him. But he certainly knew what to expect.
“Luckily, I came here two weeks ago and played in this wind the second day I played here. I’ve seen the golf course in every possible wind,” Lowry said. “Yeah, I think that was a good thing to do, and it paid off today.”
Justin Thomas has had another great start for the second week in a row in Scotland, even if it doesn’t look like it. He shot a 68 – he had a 62 at the Scottish Open last week – and feels like he played better because foul shots are so punished at Troon.
The field of 69 players included PGA champion Xander Schauffele and Justin Rose, who also played flawlessly and was even more appreciative of the tournament because he only had to endure the 36-hole final to reach the championship.
Adding the occasional rain, Masters champion Scotty Scheffler found it very difficult after working his way to a 70.
“I don’t know if ‘disruptive’ is the right word, but it’s just a challenge, especially when it comes to rain,” Scheffler said. “When you hit a wet ball in the wind, it’s amazing how short it is. I think it was No. 2 today, where I had 165 on the pin after a slight slope, and I hit a 5-iron, which is usually 205 for me. It was probably 155 at most. And I pulled it.”
Lowry, the Open champion at Royal Portrush five years ago, had his best play on the turn. He birdied the seventh hole from 10 feet, then hit a wedge to 10 feet on the par-3 eighth hole, a famous shot that caused a lot of damage on the 123-yard hole.
He also hit two big putts, including a 25-foot putt on the 10th hole, before Short putt from 20 feet on the 11th hole To reach 4 under par, Lowry finished his round with a 5-foot wedge shot for a 66.
The applause kept getting louder, and Laurie kept reminding himself that it was only Thursday.
“For some reason, I felt like the crowd was really excited there,” he said. “It was late afternoon — they had a few pints of Tennents there … and it felt like a weekend. I kept telling myself there was still a lot to do and a few days left, so I stayed in my lane and hit some good shots, and I was really happy with the way I handled myself.”
Thomas played earlier in the day and shot 4 under par in 11 rounds. He just had to work hard to keep a good score on his card.
His first shot landed in a bush on the tricky 12th hole, requiring a penalty shot, and he missed a short putt from 4 feet, making a double. His next shot soared into the deep grass that his linesman shouted to the crowd, “Last call. Did anyone see that other ball on the right?” They eventually found it, but it made a double.
“We had some stumbles at the start of the second half, but we were patient and kept working,” Thomas said.
Indeed, Thomas managed to keep his composure. He avoided another mistake with a 12-foot par putt, and finished with a 6-iron to 8 feet to take the Perry on the 17th and a Perry on the 18th, showing how much the wind helped—a 4-iron from the tee, then a wedge to 25 feet on the 458-yard closing hole.
Justin Leonard, winner of Royal Troon in 1997, returned for the first time since 2016 and took the opening stroke with a jug of bright red wine next to him on the podium. He scored 80 points, one of 12 rounds of 80 points or higher.
McIlroy breaks 80, but not by much.
He had hoped for one last chance this year to end a decade-long drought from the majors. Now McIlroy just wants to make it to the weekend. It took him two putts to get past a hole at the Postage Stamp Course, then he sent his putt on the 11th over the railroad tracks and out of bounds. He couldn’t solve the wind problem.
“You go through your practice rounds, and you try to come up with a strategy that you think will help you play on the golf course. Then when the wind is strong, you have other options, and you start to doubt yourself a little bit,” McIlroy said.
“The conditions were tough on that back nine, and I didn’t do a good enough job.”
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