TROON, Scotland — The wind shifted, the rain fell, the temperatures dropped and the best golfers in the world—or at least a good number of them—were left to navigate their way around a tricky course rather than blast their way through it.
Perhaps that is a bit simplistic take on the first round of the British Open at Royal Troon, where mostly benign weather was replaced by a far more blustery chill Thursday and a tricky wind that came from a different direction than all had practiced in the days leading up to the tournament.
Such is the beauty of links golf that it often perplexes those who can make it generally look so easy.
Bryson DeChambeau and Rory McIlroy offer the best examples through a first day that had players uncomfortable. DeChambeau, the reigning U.S. Open champion, shot 42 for his first nine holes and finished with a 76. McIlroy had two double bogeys—including a tee shot onto the nearby railway line—and shot 78.
The two top combatants at last month’s U.S. Open were all but out of the tournament by lunchtime.
Meanwhile, for much of the day, Justin Thomas’s early score of 3-under-par 69 stood atop the leaderboard, with 2019 Open champion Shane Lowry surpassing him late with an excellent five-birdie, no-bogey 66 followed by a 65 from unheralded Daniel Brown, an Englishman who made it through final qualifying two weeks ago.
For Lowry, it looked easy. It always does when you hit it in the fairway and make up for mistakes with a sharp short game.
But Troon changed from what the players got used to in practice and that caused a bit of consternation.
“It did change a lot because we played the front nine down and the back nine into the wind in all our practice rounds,” Lowry said. “But fortunately enough I came here two weeks ago and I played this wind on the second day that I played here. I saw the golf course in every wind possible I could see it.
“I guess that was a good thing to do, and it's out there paying off a little bit today.”
Perhaps. Then again, this is the Open, and major championship that depends on weather more than any other.
“That’s what you kind of get,” said Jason Day, who shot 73. “The first part of the week was eCommerce for Scotland. It was unbelievable. It was perfect weather, sunny. I was starting to get a tan. That’s not what you really expect when you come over to Scotland.
“I think it was fun today. Obviously that’s kind of what you expect when you come to an Open Championship.”
All of which makes some of the befuddlement somewhat surprising. Yes, it was a different ballpark during the first round, the dimensions considerably more confusing.
But this is part of preparing for links golf.
“Even when it’s downwind in the practice rounds, you’re thinking about where you will play from and what shots you will hit if the wind is from a different direction,” said Phil Mickelson, who won the 2013 Open at Muirfield and finished second to Henrik Stenson here in 2016—when the winning score was 20 under par. “That was the problem for me. I just hit some bad shots.”
Mickelson, 54, birdied the last hole to shoot 73, which was better than the likes of Ludvig Aberg, Hideki Matsuyama, Max Homa, DeChambeau and McIlroy, who was one better than Tiger Woods, who had a 79.
McIlroy noted the problems despite a forecast that suggested it could be just what the players faced.
“I’ve come in here playing really well. I played really well at the Renaissance last week,” McIlroy said, noting his tie for fourth at the Genesis Scottish Open. “I think if anything, the conditions got the better of me, those cross-winds. Then once we turned on that back nine, it was a left-to-right wind. I was sort of struggling to hole the ball in that wind a little bit, and that got me.”
DeChambeau expressed similar sentiments.
“It's a completely different test,” he said. “I didn't get any practice in it, and I didn't really play much in the rain. It's a difficult test out here. Something I'm not familiar with.”
For all the angst, there are 17 players under par and within five shots of Brown’s lead, including No. 1-ranked Scottie Scheffler, who shot 70 along with five-time major champion Brooks Koepka.
Another windy day awaits Friday, with the strongest gusts forecast for the afternoon. But that forecast can change, too.
When playing links golf along the Scottish coast, it’s best to expect the unexpected.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Classic British Open Weather Broke Out Thursday and Few Had It Easy at Royal Troon .
