You could say the silence spoke volumes. Bryson DeChambeau finished among the frontrunners on day one of The Open here at Royal Birkdale and then refused to speak to the media.
At least his cold shoulder cooled down some of the hot and bothered golf writers.
While Open debutant Jackson Suber set a sprightly pace with a five-under 65, DeChambeau’s three-under 67 left him handily placed but unavailable for comment. Let the clubs do the talking and all that, eh?
The 32-year-old, who was sitting alongside the like of Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre and past Open champion Francesco Molinari in a big posse, hasn’t actually performed any post round media duties at the previous three majors this season. He missed the cut in all of them.
In the build up to this week’s showpiece, the triple Open champion Nick Faldo stated on a Sky Sports Golf podcast that DeChambeau had “zero clue of strategy” when it came to links golf.
Given the tinderbox conditions at Birkdale, the R&A urged all and sundry to “maintain vigilance for fire hazards.”
Faldo’s inflammatory comments just about had to be hosed down by the Merseyside Fire & Rescue service. They must have fired up DeChambeau, though.
Eventually, some musings from the American did appear through an R&A media official. Read this and have a guess who it could be directed at?
“You've got to be a lot more strategic out on the golf course,” said the two-time US Open champion.
“I feel like I did a really good job of being incredibly strategic. I feel like my strategy was nice today.”
Zero clue of strategy? One presumes Sir Nick read all this too amid fistfuls of humble pie.
In last year’s Open at Portrush, DeChambeau began with a crippling 78 but produced the kind of salvage operation usually reserved for maritime wrecks and eventually finished in a share of 10th.
His catch-up job this week is not so daunting. Ahead of him, the largely unheralded Suber upped the ante on his back-nine and bounded home in 31.
The undoubted highlight was a cracking approach from over 230-yards on the par-five 17th which rolled to six feet and spawned an eagle.
This is Suber’s first experience of links golf and his first trip to this side of the pond.
So, what’s the 26-year-old made of it? “It's awesome,” he said. “The golf is really cool, and the towns and how the train system works.”
We didn’t have the heart to tell him that industrial action at the weekend could scupper Merseyrail services. He could always tootle about in a hire car?
“No,” added Suber of the perilous prospect of driving on the other side of the road. “I'm trying to make it here for four days.”
Dan Brown, who was something of a surprise package at Troon in 2024 and led after day one, was up there again at Birkdale as he matched his playing partner, Sungjae Im of Korea, with a 66.
Brown, who packed four birdies into his card around the turn, still enjoys a sook on a cigarette while playing golf.
In the parched conditions, he must’ve given the aforementioned fire service the heebie-jeebies.
“I’m probably on seven or eight cigarettes a round,” he said through billowing plumes of reek.
Scottie Scheffler, the reigning Open champion, made an ominous start to his title defence and swiftly moved to the top of the order after covering his first six holes in four-under.
Having missed his first cut in nearly four years at last week’s Scottish Open, this was more like it. But hang on.
The world No 1’s early thrust petered out. He played his last 12 holes in a humdrum two-over and couldn’t hole a putt as he signed for a 68.
His bogey on 17 was something of a headscratcher as he found his ball partially buried in the rough.
“I was just shocked at how deep the ball was in that grass,” said Scheffler, who is aiming to become the first player to win back-to-back Opens since Padraig Harrington at Birkdale in 2008.
“I was hoping somebody stepped on it, but nobody would fess up.”
Rory McIlroy, finishing in the lengthening shadows of a lovely evening, had a frustrating, topsy turvy day.
There were short putts missed and an awkward bunker shot to contend with on 17 when he had to get down on one knee to gouge his ball out. The contortions still didn’t help him save his par.
Ever the showman, McIlroy hit a corker into the 18th and rolled in the birdie putt for a two-over 72. Supper would’ve tasted a little bit better.
Justin Rose, fourth here as an amateur back in 1998, had a tough day and struggled to a 75 while Jordan Spieth, a thrilling Birkdale champion in 2017, had to settle for a 73.
Tommy Fleetwood, the local lad from Southport, was happy enough to emerge unscathed with a scrambling one-under 69. “It was a battle,” he said.
The battle of Birkdale goes on.
