The Open: J.B. Holmes leads by one shot after first round 66

J.B Holmes carded a five-under 66 to lead Shane Lowry by a shot after the opening round at Royal Portrush.

Shane Lowry held the clubhouse lead for most of the afternoon at four-under-par, but a final-hole birdie put J.B. Holmes one shot ahead of the Irishman after 18 holes of the 148th Open Championship.

“I hit it great,” Holmes said after an opening round 66 that included six birdies and one bogey.

“I didn’t miss too many shots. When I did I missed them in the right spot. I putted well. Stuck to our game plan and just executed about as perfectly as I could do it.”

Heading in to this year’s Open, the Gensis Open champion had recorded a T21 at the Rocket Mortgage Classic that followed five missed cuts in a row, so you might have been forgiven for being surprised at seeing his name at the top of the leaderboard. But one person that wasn’t surprised was J.B. himself, who said that while his season has been terrible, he was full of confidence heading in to this week.

“It’s been pretty rocky,” Holmes said of his season. “I played great that one tournament, had a win. You take that away, it’s probably actually been one of my worst years I’ve played. I’ve really struggled with my swing kind of after I won. At Detroit I had been working on it and it clicked in there and I started hitting it better.

“I’ve been practicing the last couple of weeks. I’ve been playing great. So actually felt great coming in. Like I said, my results didn’t show that. But I felt very confident coming in. I was hitting it great. Putted well. I wasn’t really surprised — I mean, I played well.

“I felt like we had a good plan, good line on the golf course. So like I said, you don’t expect to shoot that, but I’m not surprised.”

Holmes started his day with a dropped shot at the first but recovered immediately with three birdies in his next four holes to get to two-under par as he chased a pack of players that included Jon Rahm and four-time major champion Brooks Koepka. 

He moved to three-under with a birdie on the par-five 12th, got to within one shot of Jon Rahm with a gain on the 14th, before solidifying his position as clubhouse leader with a mid-range birdie at the last to finish on -5. 

Like Koepka and plenty of other players before him, Rahm fell foul of the final few holes, following up a dropped shot on 15 with a final hole bogey to move back in to a 15-way tie for third place at 3-under with the likes of Tommy Fleetwood, Tony Finau and Sergio Garcia. 

Behind them, Justin Rose is one of four players on -2, while Eddie Pepperell, Rickie Fowler Matt Kuchar, Jason Day and Jordan Spieth are some of 20 players that sit on -1.