As first impressions go, it’s safe to assume Jackson Suber is loving his initial experience of Europe.
The American had never set foot on the continent until just five days ago, when he arrived to prepare for his maiden appearance at The Open.
However, following a brilliant five-under first round of 65, he headed back to the clubhouse the surprise leader at Royal Birkdale, ahead of superstars of the game including defending champion Scottie Scheffler, Bryson DeChambeau and Rory McIlroy.
After his first 18 holes, Suber revealed that, as well as being new to Europe, he was also a stranger to links golf before this week.
He said: “This is my fifth day here. Monday was my first round of links golf, so I've played 27 holes before I played the first round today. I've never been to Europe.”
Suber, who left the amateur game behind in 2022 but is yet to win professionally, headed to England in a good run of form.
One standout performance was responsible for him being in the field in the first place, a T4 at last month’s RBC Canadian Open, which was enough to book his spot via the Open Qualifying Series.
He acknowledged that, while he’s not sure how he has adapted to his new surroundings so quickly, his form heading into the Major will have had something to do with it.
He said: “I'm not really sure, but I feel like I've just been playing good the last few months and just knowing that good golf is going to take care of everything, and really trusting my caddie to figure out where we're going to hit it.”
Suber also finished in the top 10 of the CJ Cup Byron Nelson and the John Deere Classic in recent weeks, but what is responsible for his current run of impressive form?
“A lot of factors,” he explained. “I've switched to the new Pro V1. I was playing an old Titleist ball for a while and switched to that.
“The new Titleist driver, I switched to that, and I started driving it really well, which was never my strength. Then working with one of my old college coaches on my mental game and that's really helped, too.”
Suber also revealed he had prepared himself for the unique challenge of links golf by watching a YouTube video of Royal Birkdale.
He said: “I think I watched a YouTube video on every hole at Birkdale on Friday last week or Thursday, but besides that, yeah, just - I have a stats guy that's helped me, of course, so just knowing that the pot bunkers are no good and stay out of those.”
It’s not just on the Royal Birkdale layout where Suber seems perfectly at home – he’s also taken advantage of his downtime with a spot of tourism.
He said: “Yeah, it's awesome. The golf is really cool, and just the towns, how the train system works. We went into Liverpool the other day with my fiancée and Pierceson Coody and his wife, so that was really cool to see a European city and enjoy that.”
Considering Suber’s strong form and the way he has embraced his first trip to Europe, it wouldn’t be a surprise if the 26-year-old remains near the top of the leaderboard as the tournament continues.
