Open Championship day 1: Shane Lowry toils as Louis Oosthuizen finds early rhythm

South Africa's Louis Oosthuizen and Republic of Ireland's Shane Lowry (right) during day one of The Open. Picture: Christopher Lee

A tale of flair and frustration on day one at the Open, much of it coming in Shane Lowry’s group.

Roared onto the first tee just before 10am — Nick Faldo suggested that Lowry would have “felt that from tip to toe” as the cheers rose up on a north-easterly wind that stiffened throughout the day — the defending champion pushed his opening drive right and into a hellish lie. And so began the frustration.

Five bogeys and only four birdies leaves the Offaly man requiring something special this afternoon to haul himself into weekend contention.

“I’d say I played pretty average,” shrugged Lowry. Just like tournament favourite Jon Rahm who matched Lowry’s 71 to leave him with, if not a mountain, then a decent sized dune to climb too.

The third member of the group, Louis Oosthuizen, fashioned what he termed a “perfect” 64 and at six-under is the man to catch.

The putter used to be Oosthuizen’s nemesis, now it’s his saviour. If only he could remember the name of it. “Man, I hope I don’t get this wrong,” said Ping-sponsored Oosthuizen when asked to identify the model. “Obviously Ping. And it’s the Voss...yeah.”

It didn’t sound too convincing though Oosthuizen, second at the US Open and the USPGA, could probably knock it around with a broom and orange these days such is his sorcery on the greens. “I didn’t make many mistakes,” said the South African. “When I had good opportunities for birdie, I made the putts. I was just very patient.”

Just behind him, Jordan Spieth sits on five-under, the 2017 winner at Royal Birkdale looking entirely capable of capping his second coming after a couple of torturous years with a second Claret Jug.

Is it a good omen that Spieth will play again today with the South African Branden Grace, who played the opening rounds in 2018 and 2019 with the eventual winners?

“I think that’s coincidence,” smiled Spieth, who said he simply enjoyed the challenge along the Kent coastline and rose to it. “There’s been times recently where I’ve said: ‘Man, I just really don’t like this place’. But I came in here and I’ve been in a really good mood about it all week.”

Timing being everything at the Open, the morning starters got the best of the conditions. It’ll turn around today when the tee-sheet is flipped. Lowry will return at 2.59pm and hope the wind lies down for him to make a charge.

“I need to hit the ball in play better, especially with my driver,” said the Clara man, who’d fine tuned his preparations at Lahinch and Portmarnock.

“I didn’t hit many fairways with my driver. I did hit quite a few three-irons off the tees and I hit fairways but you need to drive the ball in play. Playing this course out of the rough is not the place to be.”

Despite his difficulties, Lowry enjoyed the reception that came his way, even if it unnerved him at first and perhaps led to his back to back bogeys.

“It was great. It was a very special day for me. The announcement on the first tee, I’ve been waiting over a year for that, so it was quite nice.

“It was quite unsettling at the start. I got off to a pretty nervy start. I battled hard for the rest of it.

“But it’s so good to have the crowds here and it’s so good to be playing in the Open Championship like we know it. Like the big grandstands and the big crowds and getting clapped by the grandstands and onto the tees, that’s pretty cool.”

Darren Clarke won the last time the Open was in the south east of England, a decade ago, and despite only reacquainting himself with links golf recently having been away from the UK since late 2019, the Bahamas-based Dungannon man matched Lowry’s 71.

“I actually hit the ball pretty nicely but I missed a couple of fairways by two inches and all of a sudden when you’re in that (rough) you’re trying to run the ball up or you’re aiming away from flags to not make any stupid mistakes,” said Clarke.”

Spieth gave the best description of the test presented this week by a course that is playing less fiery than normal following a few days of heavy rain.

“I would say if anything there’s just a little bit of softness there,” said the Texan. “It’s a course where you have so much undulation in the fairways that if it gets firmer, it gets very bounce dependent.

“That’s what I heard coming in and then after playing it you can see that. But certainly the greens just being a little bit softer (helps).”

Brooks Koepka, who guaranteed earlier in the week that he’d be in the mix come Sunday, sits on one-under, two better than his arch rival Bryson DeChambeau.

At just over 7,000 yards, even big hitting Bryson couldn’t shoot level par. He blamed the face of his driver.

“It’s not a good face for me and we’re still trying to figure out how to make it good on the mis-hits,” explained the self-styled golf scientist.

“I’ve realised this (problem) for years now. This has happened since 2016, 2017, when players stopped drawing it. It’s literally the physics and the way that they build heads now. It’s not the right design, unfortunately and we’ve been trying to fix it but without the results yet.”

A quartet of Englishmen on three-under —— Andy Sullivan, Danny Willett, Jack Senior and Justin Rose — lead the home challenge. And Phil Mickelson? He shot an 80.