AN AMERICAN TRILOGY
Yankee trio storm to top of leaderboard at happy hunting ground 65
AMERICAN golfers love it at Royal Birkdale and yesterday Uncle Sam’s exciting young stars and demon putters prospered again.
Five of the last seven Opens to be staged on this magnificent links have been won by players from across the pond and who’s to say that winning run won’t continue come close of play on Sunday?
The last time Brooks Koepka and Jordan Spieth played tournament golf they won the US Open and Travelers Championship respectively and demonstrated once more that nothing breeds confidence like a victory.
Their rounds of 65 were matched by Olympic bronze medallist Matt Kuchar, who might feel he should have shot even lower after blazing to the turn in a brilliant 29 blows.
Spieth delivered his lowest Open score to date and what he described as one of the five best rounds he’s played in majors.
‘I’d give it a nine across the board,’ he said. ‘Driving, ball striking, short game and putting. Everything is in check. Now it’s just about keeping it consistent.’
There’s nothing like going straight to the top for advice and that’s what Spieth did before coming to the UK.
During a recent vacation in Cabo, Mexico, he took up an invitation to spend time with the greatest Olympian in history and keen golfer Michael Phelps.
‘Michael has been a tremendous new friend that I’ve had this last year,’ revealed the 23-year-old Texan. ‘We talked long into the evening and I enjoyed listening to him. He told me I can call him any time for advice and I think I would be doing myself a disservice if I don’t take him up on it.
‘I thought today’s round was extremely important, as they all are, but given the forecast coming in, I thought you really needed to be in the red (under par) today.
‘I’d call it a top five major round that I’ve played. There are scores that I’ve shot that were closer to par that were better.
‘But I couldn’t have done much better today. I essentially missed two greens today in 15mph winds.’
Koepka had been inactive since claiming his first major title in the US Open at Erin Hills, where his 16-under-par total equalled the tournament record set by Rory McIlroy in 2011.
‘We had planned to take it off so it’s not a big deal,’ he said. ‘It felt like I’d been playing well and links golf takes a creative mind.
‘Sometimes golf can get boring but I see so many shots out here that are fun that it gets me going.’
The sight of England’s Paul Casey leading the resistance to the Americans might strike some as ironic given his decision not to play in the last Ryder Cup but no-one ever questioned his ability to mix it with the best.
Waving goodbye to your thirties can be a traumatic experience but Casey, who turns 40 today, bade farewell in style with a 66 to stand just one shot off the lead held by the American trio.
‘They say life begins at 40 and I’d love to show that’s the case by winning the Claret Jug,’ he said.
Casey, whose score was matched by former Masters champion Charl Schwartzel, was not the only home player to prosper on a day when the weather, which went from horrid to blissful, gave the late starters an advantage.
Veteran Richard Bland was playing in his second Open 19 years after his first, which was also at Royal Birkdale.
Never a winner in 413 events on the European Tour, the 44-year-old from Hampshire finished with three straight birdies for a 67 that was matched by Ian Poulter, who wrote another chapter in his feel-good comeback from the depths of almost losing his PGA Tour card in April.
Rory McIlroy was out in the best of conditions, which would have been hard to detect during a horror front nine of 39. Credit the Northern Irishman for digging deep on the back nine, therefore, as he crafted a wonderful inward half of 32 for an eventful 71.
At times it was horrible to watch as one of the world’s finest golfers threatened to do a passing impersonation of a Sunday morning municipal hacker.
With every technical glitch told a story of inner turmoil. This being Rory, he shrugged his shoulders, he grimaced, he sighed, he leaned on his clubs, he signalled with his hands where he had wanted his shot to go but hadn’t.
By the time he exited the sixth green he was a horrible five-over.
He finally started to strike the ball better off the tee at the seventh, he revealed when it was over, but still he was not yet quite out of the woods. In fact, his ball nestled like an egg under brambles at the eighth.
Steadying himself against the incline, he punched out into the rough and from there to the green. And then he sank a long, long putt for par. That seemed a turning point. McIlroy was back in 32 for one-over and six shots off the lead.
A birdie at the 11th was balm and he finished strongly with three birdies on the 15th, 17th and 18th. ‘Given how the day went, I feel really good about it now,’ said McIlroy.
‘With a bad forecast for tomorrow, if I can shoot something in the 60s I will be right in it.’
That is an astonishing claim given that redundancy by the weekend looked a certainty only an hour or two before. Don’t rule out Rory, now he’s got momentum.
A grand day, therefore, but it should be noted the second round is expected to be played today in some frightful weather.
After prospering in the sunshine, it will be interesting to see who’s still on the leaderboard following the tempest.