Spieth sets early pace

Americans Jordan Spieth, Matt Kuchar and Brooks Koepka tamed a fiendish links course to fire impressive 65s and lead the field by two shots, midway through the British Open first round on Thursday.

Spieth, world number three and twice major champion, putted smoothly to pick up five birdies and did not drop a shot after fierce crosswinds buffeted the early starters.

“That was one of my top five rounds at a major,” the 23-year-old told reporters. “I’d give myself a nine (out of 10).”

Koepka, who won the U.S. Open last month, hit three successive birdies from the 11th hole before making his only bogey at the 16th. He chipped in from a pot bunker to eagle the par-five 17th and return to the top of the leaderboard.

Kuchar had three straight birdies from fourth to sixth after his first birdie on the second. His fifth birdie came on the ninth as he finished his bogey free first round to join the two other Americans at the top. American Justin Thomas, sporting a black tie, matched Poulter’s 67 to finish a shot ahead of world number two Hideki Matsuyama of Japan, Sweden’s Alex Noren and world number 520 Stuart Manley of Wales.

Defending champion Henrik Stenson of Sweden finished on 69, along with England’s Matthew Fitzpatrick and Belgian Thomas Pieters.

Many players struggled in the conditions, however, and American Mark O’Meara endured a day to forget on his return to the course where he won the 1998 Open.

Handed the honour of hitting the first shot of the tournament, O’Meara sent his drive out of bounds before running up a quadruplebogey eight and he ended up signing for an ugly round of 81.

World number one Dustin Johnson, fourtimes major champion Rory McIlroy and American Phil Mickelson, runner-up to Stenson last year, were among the late starters with conditions expected to ease.

Two-time major winner Spieth said his opening round at Royal Birkdale was one of the finest he had ever produced in a major after he took a share of the clubhouse lead with a five-under par score of 65.

“Given the forecast coming in, I thought you really needed to be in the red today,” he said.

Spieth missed the green just twice in his round, his putting was solid and when he did get into tricky rough, he retained his composure.

“I couldn’t have done much better today. I missed two greens... in some 15-mile-an-hour winds. This course has a lot of crosswinds, so it’s tough to judge how far the ball is going to fly depending on what shot you play. So that speaks a lot to the ball-striking of the day.

“Everything was strong. I thought I give it a nine across the board for everything - tee balls, ball-striking, short game and putting. So things are in check. It’s just about keeping it consistent.”

His bunker shot at the par-four 16th to help avoid a bogey was something he was particularly proud of.

“That was a really, really nice bunker shot,” he said.

“I’ve been practicing out of uneven lies this entire week in preparation for a shot like that. And that certainly won’t be the last one I’ll have either, but that up-and-down was harder than hitting a 7-iron to 15 feet and making it. And I was only 35 feet from the hole.”

Spieth, the current world number three, has built up a close friendship with 23-times Olympic gold medallist Michael Phelps and said the swimmer was proving a helpful psychological support.

“He’s become a good friend and somebody who I could call at any time, and he’s offered that,” said Spieth. “Certainly I’d be doing myself a disservice if I don’t keep taking him up on it.” —