SOUTHPORT, England (AP) — Jackson Suber got his first taste of links golf — on his first trip to Europe — when he arrived at Royal Birkdale. Three days later, he proved to be a quick study with a superb par save and a 6-foot eagle late in his round for a 5-under 65 to lead the British Open.
Bryson DeChambeau might be getting the hang of this, too, no matter what three-time British Open champion Nick Faldo thinks about his strategy.
An opening round
lasting some 15 hours included just about everything during a warm and breezy start. Five of the leading 12 players were playing the British Open for the first time. Rory McIlroy missed three 4-foot putts in a four-hole span and had six bogeys in his round of 72. Scottie Scheffler opened with four birdies in six holes and didn't make another the rest of the way for a 68.
Most startling was Suber, a 26-year-old American who has yet to win anywhere since leaving Ole Miss and is playing in only his third major. He made a tough par save on the new par-3 15th with slopes off severely on both sides. He followed with a 6-foot birdie on the 16th and then choked up on a 4-iron from 233 yards and hit it to 6 feet for eagle.
Not bad for his seventh round in any major, and first on a links course as tough as Birkdale.
“Just kind of kept the ball in good spots and didn’t put much pressure on my game to make pars,” Suber said.
He led by one shot over Sungjae Im and Dan Brown of England. The nine players at 67 include four Open debutants — Alex Smalley, Ryan Gerard, M.J. Daffue, Pierceson Coody.
And then there was DeChambeau, who has missed the cut in all three majors this year and has chosen not to speak to the media since Friday at the Masters, except for on LIV Golf.
Turns out he had enough strategy to get in the mix, often ripping driver to take the fearsome bunkers out of play and doing enough right for a 67 that left him two shots behind.
Strategy became a talking point when Faldo told the Sky Sports Golf Podcast this week, “DeChambeau has zero clue of strategy. He said last year, ‘I’m going to go out and attack the links’. Well, I’ve never attacked a links. You thread it, don’t you? You feed it down the fairway. ... You don’t think, ‘Oh, I’ll just blast it down there.’”
DeChambeau hit only four fairways but missed only three greens, though he was rarely in big trouble when he wasn't in the short grass.
He twice blasted tee shots over the trouble and close to the green at the par-4 second and the par-4 10th, the latter a blind shot. He made birdie on both. And while Jon Rahm was among those who said going long can lead to trouble at some point, the only two shots DeChambeau dropped came from his putting (the par-5 14th) and chipping (the par-4 18th).
He was tied for the early lead until going from wispy rough over the back of the 18th, chipped weakly to 8 feet and missed the putt. He missed three birdie chances from around 10 feet or under, one of them on redesigned, 321-yard fifth hole, when he drove it just over the green.
DeChambeau agreed to take a few questions from the R&A and said, “I feel like I did a really good job today of being incredibly strategic and focused super hard on placing it in the right places. Besides 18, I placed the ball in some good areas. I just need to hit more fairways. Other than that, I feel like my strategy was nice today.”
Cameron Young, one of the hottest players in the spring but quiet the past two months, also was at 67 along with Robert MacIntyre, Thomas Detry and Francesco Molinari, the 2018 Open champion at Carnoustie, which also featured a baked links course.
Scheffler had few complaints after a 68, even not making a birdie over his last 12 holes, playing the two par 5s in 1 over and making a pair of soft bogeys. He also missed a 5-foot birdie putt. Whether he could have gotten more out of his round was of little concern.
“If I continue to strike the ball the way I did today and just keep giving myself looks, that’s part of it,” Scheffler said. “Golf is played over 72 holes, and I definitely liked what I saw today.”
Smalley, who took a two-shot lead into the final round at the PGA Championship, was leading until his drive on the 18th was fading with the wind and then the luck of links golf took over. One wild bounce sent it further right and out of bounds. He finished with a double bogey for a 67.
“Got up to where the ball was supposed to be and was told it hit a spectator fence and kicked another 15 yards right out of bounds. All three of us in our group actually hit it over there, and mine just got an unlucky break,” Smalley said. "Poor tee shot, poor break. Sometimes that's how it goes."
Scheffler played in the group with DeChambeau and they traded birdies early. For six holes, the world's No. 1 player had total control of his shots and looked as though he couldn't miss. He got to 4 under when he gave a leg kick as his 40-foot birdie putt dropped on No. 6.
But then he missed the seventh green — 139 yards, downhill — to the left between a pair of bunkers, and his pitch was so strong it flirted with going in a bunker on the other side. He missed a 5-foot birdie chance on the 11th, and then made a mess of the par-5 17th when his ball was buried so deep in the grass he thought someone might have stepped on it during the search.
“Sometimes you hit it over there and you get a clean lie and you’re able to give yourself a look, and then other times like today, you pay a pretty severe price,” he said. “But I guess don’t hit it offline.”
___
AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
