BEST OF BIRKDALE

STROP OF THE DAY

JORDAN SPIETH on the eighth: ‘That’s such bulls***’. No Jordan, it’s called a bunker and part of the idea of golf is to avoid them. He wasn’t happy as he walked off the ninth, either. ‘I keep getting these bad breaks,’ he moaned to his caddie after bogeying the hole. He was four under and in the lead at the time.

MELTDOWN OF THE DAY

MATT FITZPATRICK landed his tee shot 25 feet from the hole on the par-three seventh. Somehow, though, it took him four putts to get down.

SHOT OF THE DAY

CHRIS WOOD (left) holed from 200 yards to record the first ever eagle two on the 18th at a Royal Birkdale Open. Lee Westwood also eagled the par-four fifth but Wood’s shot made history.

PAR SAVE OF THE DAY

BROOKS KOEPKA’S recovery on three was ridiculously good. He hit a road with his approach to the green and his ball bounced into rough which was so thick it was a miracle he found it. So for the American (right) to hack out and land it on the green, where his ball rolled to two feet from the hole, was mightily impressive.

COMEBACK OF THE DAY

IT WAS hard not to feel for Mark O’Meara after his first-round 81 on Thursday.

But the 60-year-old followed it up with a par 70 yesterday in what he has said will be his final round ever in the tournament he won in 1998. A decent farewell, that.