22 July, 2017
Jordan Spieth, Matt Kuchar and Brooks Koepka share the first round lead at five-under-par.
The four-time major victor stumbled badly to begin his opening round Thursday, bogeying five of his first six holes at Royal Birkdale on a day when there were good scores to be had.
Playing with Kuchar, Scotland's Richie Ramsay shot a level-par round of 70 to remain at two-under for the championship.
As Spieth and Koepka went out, the wind had died down but torrential rain moving in from the Irish Sea created its own problems and waterlogged greens forced a brief halt to play around 5:30pm (1630 GMT). Two years ago, Spieth was on the verge of a third straight major win at St. Andrews, but he fell a single stroke short of a playoff.
'I give myself a B grade today, ' Spieth said. Kuch' is tough because he's not out of many holes. "But being able to kind of play with shots, or play a little more conservative because you don't try to do too much on a day like tomorrow, that's nice and very helpful".
Rory McIlroy was hanging his head on Thursday.
Johnson, who recently became a father for the second time, will be making his debut at Royal Birkdale as he looks to go one better than his best result at a British Open - a tied for second at Royal St George's in 2011. McIlroy was at 2-under par and only three shots out of the lead.
England's Lee Westwood is in danger of missing the cut after his four-over-par 74 pushed him to five over.
Phil Mickelson failed to make a birdie, the first time that has happened in a major in five years, and shot 73.
Spieth and Koepka are among the late starters with heavy rain forecast.
"I love links golf", he said. 'I got pretty frustrated through the turn, hitting it into pot bunker after pot bunker and squeaking out pars somehow, but I thought we did a good job after the horn blew. I don't know where to start.
Charley Hoffman had the best start of all, holing out from the rough on the daunting opening hole for an eagle. There were dropped shots at 13 and 15 but a birdie at the long 17th helped complete a largely satisfactory day for the world number four.
The sleeper pick is Padraig Harrington.
World number two Hideki Matsuyama and Alex Noren were among those three off the pace, while Henrik Stenson began his title defence with a solid 69 and Jon Rahm was also one under after a ruling saw him avoid a penalty on the 17th.
