The Open: First round round-up

The Muirfield sun shone on the Americans, the unfancied and the old-timers but not alas on the Brits.

Leading the way after a thrilling, sun-baked opening round is experienced American, former Masters champion Zach Johnson (-5) – one of the shortest but straightest hitters in the game – chased by a posse of his fellow countrymen.

They include the veteran trio of Mark O’Meara (-4), Tom Lehman (-3) and Todd Hamilton (-2), all former Open champions who managed to turn back the clock in a bid to return to their glory days.

The evergreen threesome may eventually fade away but probably the same can’t be said of another American Brandt Snedeker (-3) who featured for so long at Royal Lytham last year before eventually falling by the wayside.

Then there’s the Big Two – Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson – who both finished two-under and obviously mean business. Tiger of course romped to victory in similarly steaming conditions at Hoylake in 2006, his last major success.

It was a good day for Spain with  both Rafael Cabrera-Bello (-4) and Miguel Angel Jimenez (-3) opening their account in style but so far the home challenge has been mediocre – it’s currently led at -1 by young Englishman Ollie Fisher and US-based Scot Martin Laird.

US Open champion Justin Rose (+4) has it all to do while Rory McIlroy’s struggles sadly continue – his 79 (+8) means he virtually needs a miracle just to get himself back into contention.

But it was a day to remember for Indian Shiv Kapur who started with a barrage of birdies (he was -5 after six holes) but was desperately trying to hang on in the closing stages.