Jimenez takes early initiative
For now, at any rate, the senior citizens are showing the way in the 138th Open Championship after an opening day when there was hardly a ripple on the nearby Irish Sea or a flutter among the nations’ flags flying high above the Turnberry clubhouse.
In other words, the 7, 204 yards links was there for the taking and 49 of the 156 strong field broke the par of 70.
The good news from an Irish viewpoint is our biggest hopes remain very much in the hunt with Graeme McDowell on two under leading our seven strong contingent by a shot from hat-trick seeking Pádraig Harrington and young starlet Rory McIlroy while Darren Clarke and Paul McGinley, both one over, haven’t played themselves out of the equation by any means.
And where, you might well, ask is the red-hot favourite Tiger Woods?
Well, he saw parts of the Turnberry links that he cannot have known existed as he produced a style of “army golf” and was fortunate to close on one over par.
Woods’ moods always swing with the kind of day he has had and the grumpy, monosyllabic response was never far from his thoughts.
“Realistically I probably should have shot about one or two under today but I made a few mistakes and didn’t take advantage of 17 (a reachable par five) so there you have it,” he said. “You saw a lot of scores well under par and that’s what you could do out there today. The wind was down. Most of the pins were accessible”
It wouldn’t have helped Woods’ peace of mind that he was also outscored by three shots by both of his partners, England’s Lee Westwood and the 17-year-old Japanese starlet Ryo Iskikawa.
Jimenez had played in 16 Opens prior to this and never enjoyed much success.
The 45-year-old did tie for 3rd at Lytham in 2001 but was never a factor where actual victory was concerned and his best finish otherwise was 12th at Carnoustie two years ago.
Things really clicked this time, however, as he reached the turn in 31 and came back in 33 with a birdie, birdie finish. And when putts from all of 54 feet dropped for a four on the long 17th and from 60 feet for a three on the 18th, the popular Spaniard had usurped Watson and the 2003 champion Ben Curtis as the long-time leaders.
Curtis and Watson were later joined in second place by the 37-year-old Japanese Kenichi Kuboya, who played the last six holes in five under par.
“I woke up this morning and looked out the window and the sea was like a pond, so nice, so calm and you can’t ask for a better day to play golf, no wind, no nothing and it took care of me,” Jimenez said.
“I missed only two fairways, by one metre on the 14th and two metres on the 18th. And also it was a nice day with the putter – that’s what you need to make a score, no?”
How right he was and nobody would have agreed more than Harrington. He agreed that he would have taken 69 before going out but in truth it should have been appreciably lower.
For the first time in weeks, his tee shots were finding the fairways and he struck his irons beautifully. But the lack of confidence that has overtaken him this year meant that he wasn’t fully committed to attacking the flags with his irons or the holes with the blade.
He two putted every green from the 9th home and rarely did he hit it past the hole.
In all, he had 31 putts and hit 13 greens in regulation while his only bogey came at the 16th as a result of a poor approach.
He pointed out that he got up and down for pars at the 3rd and 4th when bogeys would undoubtedly have dented his fragile self belief but when it came to chasing birdies, he was more than a little conservative – and he even admitted as much.
“I hit a lot of nice shots where I was aiming for the middle of the greens as I didn’t really have the confidence to chase the pins,” he agreed.
“But I got up and down when I needed to and that gives me hope for the next three days. I am trying to get it better each day in terms of my confidence and belief and I certainly struck the ball really solidly today. If I trust it a little more, as I did in a number of shots, it looks pretty good.
“I had a few 20 footers over the last couple of holes and I would have been very pleased if I could have knocked one of them in. But one shot ain’t going to make a difference when it comes to Sunday. There’s a lot of golf to be played and hopefully I’ll be there with nine holes to go. We all know anything can happen in those situations.”
Harrington is out at 9. 09 this morning when the weather is again expected to be favourable, a point not lost McIlroy who also shot 69.
He said: “Hopefully, I’ll be in with a good score before the wind gets up in the afternoon.”
There were many outstanding golf shots in the course of a great day’s golf and the one standing out for most people was the astonishing recovery from an almost impossible position in a greenside bunker at the 18th by Retief Goosen.
It somehow came out to a foot and enabled the South African to salvage a par that puts him in a very nice position going into the second round.
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