And they’re off. The 153rd Open is up and running even though proceedings seemed to move along with all the surging impetus of Grandpa Broon when his bunions were playing up.
“It felt like we were on the golf course for about 12 hours,” gasped Marc Leishman as the Australian reflected on a long, long first round of play at Royal Portrush. “We were three hours for eight holes.”
On trying days like this, patience is very much a virtue. Perhaps that’s why Thailand’s Sadom Kaewkanjana prospered?
Patience, after all, is one of the highest forms of spiritual effort – well, so I’m told – and Kaewkanjana demonstrated plenty of that as his bid to become the first ordained Buddhist monk to lift the Claret Jug got off to a sprightly start.
Now there’s a sentence you don’t read at every Open, eh?
While Jacob Skov Olesen, Haotong Li, Harris English, Christiaan Bezuidenhout and former US Open champion Matthew Fitzpatrick formed a five-way logjam at the top, Kaewkanjana was flying high with a three-under 68 that was illuminated by a putt of almost 25-feet for an eagle-two on the fifth.
The 27-year-old has played in just one Open before but made a decent fist of it at St Andrews in 2022 and shared 11th.
A few months after that, he took a sabbatical, swapped the fairways and polo shirts for the monastery and saffron robes and committed himself to a life of meditation, prayer, discipline and introspection.
This game, as we all know, can be a mind-mangling endeavour and the storm-tossed waters of a golfer’s psyche could just about lead to a series of warnings on the Shipping Forecast.
There are no such issues on that front for Kaewkanjana. “Being a monk gives me a lot of focus,” said the Asian Tour winner, whose patience was tested even further this week by the late arrival of his luggage. “Forget everything outside, just live in the present.”
Perhaps we should all try that approach at the Saturday medal? After the heatwave of last week’s Scottish Open, the conditions here on the Antrim coast for the final men’s major of the campaign were, well, changeable.
“I’d love to be a weather man here, you’d get it wrong all the time,” chuckled Jason Day of conditions that fluctuated between fresh and muggy and featured the odd furious downpour. The joys of the links.
When Rory McIlroy took to the first tee just after 3pm, the reigning Masters champion was given an ovation that shoogled the foundations of the grandstand. The vast crowds then held their collective breath.
Six years ago, the last time Portrush hosted The Open, McIlroy started with an eight. There was no such calamity this time, although when he missed a short putt for his par on the opening green, a mighty groan drifted over the Dunluce links.
It turned out to be a typically eventful ride. The media lads and lassies that were documenting McIlroy’s every crash, bang and wallop probably didn’t require an official inside the ropes armband.
He seemed to spend a lot of time beyond those bloomin’ ropes as he struggled to hit a fairway. As for Bryson DeChambeau?
Well, at times it felt like he’d struggle to keep his ball in Northern Ireland during a turbulent 78. A fresh air shot on the fourth was a particularly low moment.
McIlroy may have struggled to find the short stuff – he hit just two of 14 fairways – but he still emerged with a one-under 70.
“It was a tough enough day, especially as I was either chopping out of the rough or out of the fairway bunkers most of the time,” said McIlroy, who holed an important par putt on 15 to keep his round together.
“To shoot under-par was a good effort.”
Up at the head of the standings, Olesen, out in the fourth match early on, set the target of four-under and remained at the summit all day, apart from a brief spell when English hauled himself to five-under before dropping back again.
Olesen played in last year’s Open having won the Amateur Championship on Irish soil at Ballyliffin. The Dane gave up his invitation to this year’s Masters to pursue his professional ambitions after earning his DP World Tour card.
Any regrets? “I’m at ease with the decision,” he said. “I actually got tickets for the Monday practice at Augusta but we never got in as it got cancelled by the weather.”
If he keeps going like this, he may earn another invitation as a player. There’s a long way to go before he can start thinking about that, of course.
Fitzpatrick’s return to form continued with a 67 of his own while Scottie Scheffler, the world No 1, opened with a 68.
English veteran, Lee Westwood, rolled back a few years with a 69. Xander Schauffele, the reigning champion, was level-par.
Another long day awaits.
