Thursday At The 152nd Open
Daniel Brown posts a late 65 to lead Shane Lowry by one. Several stars seem surprised by the wind direction that was forecast for days. Plus, the Postage Stamp delivers again.
Round One By The Numbers
66: Low round by Daniel Brown
74.451: Round one scoring average
17: Rounds under par
10: Rounds in the 60s.
12: Rounds in the 80s.
4.397: Scoring avg for 12th, the toughest hole in round one
10 ft 7 inches: green speed after mowing.
7,341 yards: Round one yardage (7385 yards from the tips)
118: Postage Stamp yardage in round one.
5th: Rank in difficulty during round one.
156: Number of players who completed round one. Roman Langasque retired after 8 holes.
Day one of the 152nd Open will never make a top 100 list of toughest days in championship history. Yet you’d never know it listening to players describe surprise—even regret—at the non-prevailing wind direction forecasted for days and even on full display during Wednesday’s final practice round.
“It did change a lot because we played the front nine down and the back nine into the wind in all our practice rounds,” Shane Lowry said after a bogey-free 66. “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. I guess that was a good thing to do, and it's out there paying off a little bit today.”
With five birdies including a three at the daunting par 4 11th hole, 2019’s Champion Golfer of the Year at Royal Portrush sits in prime position just a stroke back of late finisher Daniel Brown.
Lowry credited his adjustment to the greens.
“I wasn't struggling to get the ball to the hole because sometimes I can be like that,” he said. “My speed control was very good, and I seen my lines great. I feel like links greens when you start to see your lines, the hole feels quite big, so it felt like that today, and long may it continue.”
Players who adequately prepared for all scenarios or watched early Sky Sports coverage expressed surprise that some were unable to deal with changing conditions on a links.
“We played the practice round on Monday and Wednesday with this wind,” Tyrrell Hatton said after an opening 73. “We've had a few days.”
The difficulty all day was not caused by the wind’s strength but in it’s tricky direction given Troon’s design for a more westerly direction. When the non-prevailing southerly breezes shifted ever so slightly midday to a southwestern orientation, the variance proved annoying for righthanders with the wind over their left shoulders coming home.
“I don't know if confusing is the right word, just challenging, especially when you get the rain involved,” Scottie Scheffler said after a 70. “When you get a wet ball into the wind, it's amazing how short it goes. [On] No. 2 today, I had 165 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. Probably carried 150, and ended up 155, and I striped it.”
All shifts and swings in wind velocity aside, the entire field played the outgoing holes into the wind.
“I was hitting driver on 1 in the practise round wasn't really great prep for today, but that's just kind of how links golf is, and that's the beauty of it,” PGA Champion Xander Schauffele said after opening with 69. “It's cliche, but really just kind of plotted around the property.”
Schauffele formulated his game plan in part by watching some morning golf before his 2:37 tee time with Tiger Woods (79) and Patrick Cantlay (73).
The surprise—or lack of weather research and adaptibility—might make Justin Thomas’s early 68 seem comparable to Lowry and Brown given how Thomas’s stirling start came in the meat of the showery, windiest conditions.
Thomas took pride in blending artistry and science to manage Troon’s uneven lies.
“There's some very, very subtle—which I don't remember in '16—uneven lies in the fairways that make the approach shots just a little bit more difficult,” he said after a seven birdie round. “I would say [there’s] creativity and skill involved to be able to hold against the wind and control your trajectory.”
Pegged by the bookmakers at 60-1 to lead outright after day one, the two-time PGA Champion opened last week’s Genesis Scottish Open with a 62 before posting 72-71-71.
“I felt like I had great control off the tee,” Thomas said. “I hit some great drives, and I felt like I was creative on some of them of just trying to hold it against the winds, off the tees to make the fairways a little bigger and hold it in the fairways.”
Royal Troon also firmed up in eerily reminiscent ways to the increased solidity found Thursday morning in media dining’s scrambled eggs. The R&A course setup team led by Grant Moir and Troon’s longtime greenkeeper Billy MacLachlan located the coveted “thud” sound for the first time all week.
“We got the text this morning that [the greens] had gone up probably like 5 percent or so in the firmness,” said defending champion Brian Harman. “It was very apparent, especially coming downwind. It's almost impossible to stop the ball.”
The showers also added a skidding effect that made chipping just different enough to throw players off. For those counting at home, the green firmness average of 122 gravities was up six gravities since Wednesday’s measurements were taken.
More than an hour after Lowry’s evening finish, DP World Tour player Daniel Brown drove down the 18th, saw his drive bounce over a small bunker 267 yards from the tee, finishing short of the second pot. Brown stuck his approach to six feet for his sixth birdie of the round.
The 29-year-old World No. 272 reached Troon via Final Qualifying at West Lancashire two weeks ago. He made his major championship debut Thursday and dealt with a different hurdle playing into the late evening darkness.
“I've seen a few clips on the TV, and it's way darker than what it shows on the telly,” Brown said. “My brother's on the bag, so he knows AimPoint. I was struggling on them last few holes to sort of like see the slopes and stuff on the green. So it was hard to read putts, but thankfully he knows AimPoint, so I was kind of putting my trust in him.”
Brown’s DP World Tour win came at last fall’s succinctly-titled ISPS HANDA World Invitational presented by AVIV Clinics.
Brown recently missed nine weeks of play after having a cyst removed from his left knee and came into Thursday’s round a 500-1 shot.
He finished 61st at last week’s Genesis Scottish Open after not making the weekend in his previous seven DP World Tour starts.
Overall, Troon could not have felt more like a classic Open test on Thursday between the improved turf firmness, huge crowds and peak Scottish summertime conditions. Even better, no one will be surprised when the wind continues to blow from the south.
The Postage Stamp
