HOLMES LEADS, DUVAL STRUGGLES IN N. IRELAND

PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — A lot of golfers struggled at Royal Portrush on Thursday, but no one had a day as lousy as David Duval.

Duval, a past champion who won the 2001 British Open, shot a 20-over-par 91 that included a 14 on the par-5 seventh hole, on which he hit the wrong ball and had to start the hole over.

“Very unique, awful situation,” concluded Duval, who had the poise to stick around and talk to reporters after the worst round of his career.

“I’ve posted 85 twice, but never a 90,” he said. “It was a long day, rough day.”

Oddly, he got off to a terrific start, with birdies on the first two holes. He parred the third and fourth, but then took an eight on the par-4 fifth when he lost a couple of golf balls.

Two holes later, disaster. He lost his first tee shot on No. 7, and his provisional landed in the rough. A marshal said he found the ball, but neither he nor Duval checked it closely enough. It wasn’t Duval’s ball.

“I asked if it was a 2, a Titleist 2,” Duval said. “And then I looked at it and saw 2 and then played almost the entirety of the hole, and it turns out with the wrong ball. So then I had to go back to the tee, basically start the hole over.”

Duval blamed himself for the error, failing to check whether the 2 on the ball was black or red.

“I’m at fault,” he said. “I didn’t take a close enough — it happened to me once before where a marshal is standing right next to the ball, kind of glanced down. I usually use a yellow mark, it’s hard to see. And I don’t see red very well. And so standing looking down at it it’s a 2. So just my mistake.”

Duval’s score originally was listed as a 15, but then was reduced by two strokes because of a calculation error. Officials later determined it was a 14.

That represents the highest score on a hole at the British Open since at least 1983, when the PGA Tour began keeping hole-by-hole records. The previous high score of 11 was made by four different players, most recently Henrik Stenson in 2011.

J.B. Holmes takes lead with Brooks Koepka lurking

It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.

Thumbs down for local hero Rory McIlroy either way.

McIlroy, who grew up on Royal Portrush, flopped in the first round of the British Open on Thursday with a quadruple-bogey eight on the first hole, and a triple-bogey seven on the 18th. It was a Limburger sandwich for the affable four-time major winner, who was widely expected to shine at a place where 14 years ago he shot a courserecord 61 in competition at age 16.

That’s 18 shots better than his latest, an eight-over-par 79.

He’s already 13 shots behind the leader, American J.B. Holmes, who offset his bogey on No. 1 with six birdies the rest of his round. He finished with a 66.

Lurking in a large cluster of players who shot 68s is Brooks Koepka, who has won four majors in the past two years — two U.S. Opens and two PGA Championships — and finished second at the Masters and U.S. Open this year.

Koepka’s caddie, Ricky Elliott, is an accomplished golfer who belongs to Royal Portrush, so he might know the course better than anyone in the tournament. That’s a big advantage.

“It’s easy when he’s just standing on the tee, telling you to hit it in this spot, and I just listen to him,” Koepka said. “I don’t have to think much. I don’t have to do anything. I figure out where the miss is, and where I’m trying to put it, and then go from there.”

Also in the big group at 68 were Sergio Garcia, Jon Rahm, Tommy Fleetwood and Lee Westwood.

Tiger Woods shot a cover-your-eyes 78 with a front-nine 41, during one stretch going bogey, double bogey, bogey, par, bogey, bogey.

Compared to most courses in the Open rotation, Portrush has far more undulations. And that was the feel on this rain-soaked day, with up-and-down rounds all over the place. The weather went from cloudy to sun breaks to showers to biblical rains, Portrush living up to its reputation of a place that can serve up all four seasons in a single day.

While Irish pro Shane Lowry looked completely at home, shooting a four-under 67 to float near the top of the leaderboard, former Open winner David Duval was lost in space, taking an astronomical 14 on a hole — two strokes shy of tying an ignominious record — and playing the wrong ball in the process.