Daniel Brown had a major championship debut he won't soon forget . He birdied two of the last three holes Thursday in the British Open, giving him a 6-under 65 with just enough spectators still left in the twilight of Royal Troon to celebrate with him.
It gave him a one-shot lead over Shane Lowry , who played bogey-free for a 66 and his best start in 46 majors.
Lowry at least knew what to expect with an opposite wind that seemed to catch just about everyone off guard. He came to Troon two weeks ago and knew what to expect, and it paid off handsomely for the Irishman.
The surprise was Brown.
A one-time winner on the European tour, he arrived at Royal Troon having failed to make the cut in seven straight tournaments dating to March until a couple of good events. One was the final qualifying to earn a spot in his first major, the other at the Scottish Open when he made the cut and finished 61st.
But this day was all about the wind — yes, it was fierce, but it was different. Instead of players trying to make a score on the downwind front nine and keeping it together on the way back, it was tough from start-to-finish.
Rory McIlroy certainly found that to be the case. He shot 78 with a pair of double bogeys. Ditto for U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, who went out in 42 on his way to a 76. Every major is tough on 48-year-old Tiger Woods , who had a 78 for his highest start in a major since an 80 in the 2015 U.S. Open at Chambers Bay.
Lowry motored along, putting as well as he has all year, soaking up the warm applause all while reminding himself it was only one day. But he sure knew what to expect.
"Fortunately enough, I came here two weeks ago and I played this wind on the second day that I played here. I saw the golf course in every wind possible I could see it," Lowry said. "Yeah, I guess that was a good thing to do, and it's out there paying off a little bit today." Here are the tee times for round two at the Ayrshire course:
Round Two (Friday 19 July)
06:35 Ewen Ferguson (Sco), Marcel Siem (Ger)
06:46 Yuto Katsuragawa (Jpn), Romain Langasque (Fra), Chengtsung Pan (Tai)
06:57 Angel Hidalgo (Spa), Rikuya Hoshino (Jpn), Richard Mansell (Eng)
07:08 Jorge Campillo (Spa), Corey Conners (Can), Ryan Fox (NZ)
07:19 Ernie Els (SA), (a) Altin van der Merwe (SA), Gary Woodland (US)
07:30 Rasmus Hoejgaard (Den), (a) Jacob Olesen (Den), Henrik Stenson (Swe)
07:41 Billy Horschel (US), Louis Oosthuizen (SA), Victor Perez (Fra)
07:52 Jordan Smith (Eng), Sepp Straka (Aut), Brendon Todd (US)
08:03 Denny McCarthy (US), Adrian Meronk (Pol), Taylor Moore (US)
08:14 Byeong-Hun An (Kor), Jason Day (Aus), Rickie Fowler (US)
08:25 Alex Cejka (Ger), Eric Cole (US), Kurt Kitayama (US)
08:36 Dean Burmester (SA), Darren Clarke (NI), JT Poston (US)
08:47 Dustin Johnson (US), Joost Luiten (Ned), Phil Mickelson (US)
09:03 Padraig Harrington (Ire), Matthew Jordan (Eng), Davis Thompson (US)
09:14 Wyndham Clark (US), Brooks Koepka (US), Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn)
09:25 Patrick Cantlay (US), Xander Schauffele (US), Tiger Woods (US)
09:36 Sam Burns (US), Si-Woo Kim (Kor), Collin Morikawa (US)
09:47 Matthew Fitzpatrick (Eng), Shane Lowry (Ire), Cameron Smith (Aus)
09:58 Scottie Scheffler (US), Jordan Spieth (US), Cameron Young (US)
10:09 Akshay Bhatia (US), Tom Hoge (US), Sami Valimaki (Fin)
10:20 Ben Griffin (US), Emiliano Grillo (Arg), Mackenzie Hughes (Can)
10:31 Joseph Dean (Eng), Andy Ogletree (US), Yannik Paul (Ger)
10:42 Charlie Lindh (Swe), (a) Luis Masaveu (Spa), Ryan van Velzen (SA)
10:53 Kazuma Kobori (NZ), (a) Jaime Montojo (Spa), (a) Liam Nolan (Ire)
11:04 Denwit Boriboonsub (Tha), Daniel Brown (Eng), (a) Matthew Dodd-Berry (Eng)
11:15 Sam Horsfield (Eng), Aguri Iwasaki (Jpn), Jeung-Hun Wang (Kor)
11:26 Todd Hamilton (US), Justin Leonard (US), Jack McDonald (Sco)
11:47 Tom McKibbin (NI), (a) Calum Scott (Sco), Alexander Noren (Swe)
11:58 Michael Hendry (NZ), Vincent Norrman (Swe), Jesper Svensson (Swe)
12:09 Daniel Hillier (NZ), Ryosuke Kinoshita (Jpn), Young-Han Song (Kor)
12:20 Abraham Ancer (Mex), Ryo Hisatsune (Jpn), Min-Woo Lee (Aus)
12:31 Nicolai Hoejgaard (Den), Keita Nakajima (Jpn), Adam Scott (Aus)
12:42 Francesco Molinari (Ita), Justin Rose (Eng), (a) Jasper Stubbs (Aus)
12:53 Sung-Jae Im (Kor), Matthew Southgate (Eng), Justin Thomas (US)
13:04 Laurie Canter (Eng), Nick Taylor (Can), Matt Wallace (Eng)
13:15 Matteo Manassero (Ita), Shubhankar Sharma (Ind), Sebastian Soderberg (Swe)
13:26 Austin Eckroat (US), Zach Johnson (US), Thorbjorn Olesen (Den)
13:37 John Daly (US), (a) Santiago De La Fuente (Mex), Aaron Rai (Eng)
13:48 Stewart Cink (US), (a) Dominic Clemons (Eng), Chris Kirk (US)
14:04 Stephan Jaeger (Ger), Joaquin Niemann (Chi), Adam Schenk (US)
14:15 Christiaan Bezuidenhout (SA), Lucas Glover (US), Adam Hadwin (Can)
14:26 Tony Finau (US), Russell Henley (US), Matthieu Pavon (Fra)
14:37 Tommy Fleetwood (Eng), Robert MacIntyre (Sco), Jon Rahm (Spa)
14:48 Ludvig Aberg (Swe), Bryson DeChambeau (US), Joo-Hyung Kim (Kor)
14:59 Brian Harman (US), Viktor Hovland (Nor), Sahith Theegala (US)
15:10 Tyrrell Hatton (Eng), Max Homa (US), Rory McIlroy (NI)
15:21 Keegan Bradley (US), (a) Gordon Sargent (US), Will Zalatoris (US)
15:32 Alexander Bjork (Swe), Harris English (US), Maverick McNealy (US)
15:43 Sean Crocker (US), Guido Migliozzi (Ita), (a) Tommy Morrison (US)
15:54 John Catlin (US), Gun-Taek Koh (Kor), David Puig (Spa)
16:05 Daniel Bradbury (Eng), Thriston Lawrence (SA), Elvis Smylie (Aus)
16:16 Ignacio Elvira (Spa), Darren Fichardt (SA), Min-Kyu Kim (Kor)
16:27 Mason Andersen (US), Sam Hutsby (Eng), Masahiro Kawamura (Jpn)
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