NUMBERS GAME

More than half of the previous nine Open Championships at Royal Birkdale have been won by Americans. It could be ominous, then, that the first round of the event’s 146th staging was dominated by three of Uncle Sam’s boys. After matching five-under-par 65s, Jordan Spieth, Brooks Koepka and Matt Kuchar lead the way on the Lancashire coast, where morning rain gave way to favourable scoring conditions.

Home hope Paul Casey and South African Charl Schwartzel took route 66 to be best of the rest, with newly-crowned Scottish Open champion Rafa Cabrera Bello taking up where he left off at Dundonald Links to sit a shot further back alongside English duo Ian Poulter and Richard Bland, as well as Americansjustinthomasand Charley Hoffman and Canadian Austin Connelly.

Spieth’s effort was his lowest score in 17 rounds in this event, though a 66 on day three at St Andrews two years ago was better in relation to par. Flawless and featuring birdies at the second, eighth, ninth, 14th and 17th, he reckoned this one was close to perfection. “I’d give it a nine across the board for everything – tee balls, ball-striking, short game and putting,” he said.

What would it have required for a 10? “I think that’s extremely rare,” added Spieth. “I could name a few rounds in my life that I would say everything was on. I still missed tee shots, a couple more than I really wanted to. And I had a couple of putts that were within 10-12 feet that missed. But I’m pretty much saying it was really, really solid all around.”

What made his performance all the more impressive was that it vindicated the confidence he’d expressed coming into this week in his preevent press conference. “Well, our last start was a win (in the Travelers Championship in Connecticut),” replied the 23-year-old Texan when asked why he had felt such positivity.

“At the US Open (where he tied for 35th place) I was in a good enough position to really do something special there after the first couple of rounds but just didn’t get anything to go in the hole. I’ve been putting in a lot of work with the putting and trying to get it back to the confidence that I have had the last couple of years.

“It’s just been the one thing that’s been off this year. My ball-striking has been better than in any years that I’ve ever played golf.”

Spieth really is an impressive individual, and not just in the way that he plays the game. He conducts himself really well, handles press conferences impeccably and also has one of the most active minds in his game. As this impressive start was being chiselled out, he was already thinking ahead to Friday, when the majority of the

“I’d give it a nine across the board for everything - tee balls, ball-striking, short game and putting”

JORDAN SPIETH