Spieth, Koepka and Kuchar set Royal Birkdale pace with 65s

● Casey and Schwartzel lead chasing pack at Southport venue ● New Scottish Open champion Cabrera Bello off to good start

field is expected to have both wind and rain to cope with.

“I thought today’s round was extremely important given the forecast coming in,” he said. “I thought you really needed to be in the red today. You can certainly make up ground in a round like tomorrow, and we’ll see it happen, but being able to kind of play with shots or play a little more conservative is nice and very helpful.”

In his first competitive outing since becoming US Open champion at Erin Hills last month, Koepka made his score with a burst of three straight birdies from the 11th, having earlier made his first gain of the event at the eighth, before bouncing back from a solitary dropped shot by holing from a bunker for an eagle-3 at the 17th. “I played pretty solid today,” said the 27-year-old after a round that contained just 21 putts. “I felt like I was in control of the golf ball pretty much all day. And it was just fun to get back playing again after taking four weeks off.”

If that weather is indeed bad for the second round, Koepka knows how to handle it. He played in wet conditions, after all at Spey Valley in Aviemore on the final day when winning the Scottish Challenge in 2013. “I don’t mind bad weather. It doesn’t faze me,” he insisted. “I don’t really care that much. You just go play golf and shoot the lowest you can.”

Kuchar raced to the turn in 29 – one outside the record, set by Englishman Denis Durnian in the second round here in 1983. Kuchar made five birdies in his early burst, describing the one at the 499-yard sixth as “incredible” on “one of the hardest holes here”. While the 39-year-old then had to settle for nine consecutive pars coming home, the effort was 14 shots better than he managed in the opening round when missing the cut at the same venue in 2008.

It is no secret, of course, that

0 American Jordan Spieth lines up a putt on his way to a flawless five-under-par 65 in the opening