Thursday At The 154th Open
American Jackson Suber leads in his first trip to the UK and links golf. Plus, tricky pins keep scores in check as afternoon play slows to a crawl, various notes, Quotable and Weather.
Round One By The Numbers
65: Low score by Jackson Suber
80: High score by Padraig Harrington
67: Low score by a former Open Champion (Francesco Molinari)
38: Rounds under par
2: Bogey-free rounds (Hisatsune/68 and Reitan/69).
71.436: Round one scoring average (Par 70)
7,104: Yardage in round one (7,223 max)
+.353: Scoring average of the toughest hole (Par 4 6th)
-.686: Scoring average of the easiest hole (Par 5 17th)
206: Yardage of the new par-3 15th (241 max)
3.263: Scoring average on No. 15 (4th)
54%: Hit No. 15 green in regulation
0.379”: Green firmness measurement (Firm)
10’11”: Stimpmeter speed
6:35 a.m.: First start time (Baldwin, Detry, Nicholas)
4:21 p.m.: Last start time (Higa, Yang, Ruiter)
9:55 p.m.: Finishing time of the final group
9:35 p.m.: Sunset
The 154th is off to a workmanlike, if predictably slow start. Early threesomes took advantage of non-existent winds to zoom around—by modern athlete standards—in under five hours. The afternoon gave way to more wind and fescue drying up like England’s second half defense, with especially pitifully long waits at Royal Birkdale’s closing par-5s that arrive late in the round.
Jackson Suber, a little-known first-time UK visitor from the United States, took the solo lead with a 65. Suber qualified for The 154th via his Canadian Open finish last month. He’s played two U.S. Opens prior to his Open debut. Monday’s practice round was his first-ever on a links.
“So I’ve played 27 holes before I played the first round today,” the 26-year-old former Ole Miss star said. “I’ve never been to Europe.”
His 31 coming home included a bogey that cost Suber a place in history as the co-lowest starter in 11 Birkdale Opens. Craig Stadler opened the 1983 championship with a 64. According stats guru Justin Ray, Suber’s one-stroke advantage over Sungjae Im and Dan Brown means The Open has seen a first-timer lead or co-lead after round one in four of the last five championships. Ignorance is a beautiful gift. But bringing an open mind through customs never hurts.
“The golf is really cool, and just the towns, how the train system works,” said the world’s No. 115th-ranked player. “We went into Liverpool the other day with my fiancé and Pierceson Coody and his wife, so that was really cool to see a European city and enjoy that.”
And about the challenge of driving on the “other” side of the road? Nope.
“Because I’m trying to make it here for four days.”
Driving stats at Birkdale will be overrated given how fast the fairways are running. Suber hit just seven en route to his lead, while Bryson DeChambeau finished in only four while posting 67. Scottie Scheffler hit 13 of 14 in his 68.
Round one’s warm temperatures singed what’s left of the living fescue, leaving the only green grass to be found on the smooth putting surfaces. And as forecasted, the wind kicked up at midday, but came a bit more from the north instead of the closer-to-prevailing direction out of the west. The unusual direction was apparently enough to take morning wave rounds moving a decent clip to the sluggish 5:30+ in the afternoon and to nearly 10 p.m. when the final group came up the 18th.
“If you look at the discrepancy between the scoring this morning and the scoring this afternoon, it looks like that's going to be flipped tomorrow with the conditions again,” Rory McIlroy said after shooting 72 despite bogeying both of Birkdale’s par-5s. “Hopefully I can take advantage of the more benign conditions in the morning and shoot one under par and get back in it.”
Also…
Defending Champion Golfer of the Year Scottie Scheffler (68) birdied four of his first six but bogeyed the wee 7th and found the rough at the par-5 17th. He thought about taking an unplayable lie and wondered if anyone stepped on his ball, but anyone who has walked through the roughs knows there are plenty of small dents, holes and other annoyances that can lead to awful lies. “If I continue to strike the ball the way I did today and just keep giving myself looks, that’s part of it,” Scheffler said of the bad lie. “Golf is played over 72 holes, and I definitely liked what I saw today.”
