Daniel Brown, Shane Lowry top British Open leaderboard after Round 1

TROON, Scotland — Shane Lowry has been here before.

Daniel Brown has not.

Brown, shooting a bogey-free 6-under 65, took a one-shot lead over Lowry after the first round of the 152nd British Open at Royal Troon .

Lowry won the 2019 British Open at Royal Portrush and is exempt into the world’s oldest major championship until he’s 60 years old.

Brown is playing in his first career major championship this week because he drained a 20-foot putt on the final hole of the 36-hole Final Qualifying event at West Lancashire on July 2.

The 37-year-old Lowry is ranked 33rd in the world.

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The 29-year-old Brown is ranked 272nd, but that number was as high as 2,903rd before he won his first DP World Tour tournament, the 2023 ISPS HANDA World Invitational.

Lowry, an Irishman, is out to show he’s no one-hit wonder in the British Open.

Brown, who’s English, is out to show he belongs on this world stage.

“Amazing, isn’t it?’’ Brown said, acknowledging his unlikely story. “I was nervous on the first tee, obviously it being my first major. I was struggling to feel my legs a bit, but after that I got quite settled. I hit a few nice shots early, so I kind of got settled into the round pretty quick.

“I was playing well leading up to the tournament, so scores haven’t really reflected it recently,’’ Brown, whose brother Ben is caddying for him, continued. “But I felt comfortable and probably a bit more calm than you normally would be with it being your first major.

“I know there’s still 54 holes left. There’s a long way to go.’’

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Justin Thomas took the lead out of the early wave of tee times, shooting a 3-under 68.

He’s followed by Alex Noren, Justin Rose, Russell Henley, Xander Schauffele, Mackenzie Hughes, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Joe Dean and Nicolai Hojgaard at 2-under.

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, Adam Scott, Brooks Koepka, Matt Wallace, Chris Kirk and Sepp Straka are all 1-under.

Aside from the handful of great scores, the day was mostly characterized by the world’s best players being completely befuddled by the opposite winds at Troon, where the prevailing winds they practiced in all week reversed.

The result left a lot of bloated scores out there, like Rory McIlroy’s 7-over 78, Bryson DeChambeau’s 5-over 76 , same for Tommy Fleetwood and Max Homa (76s).

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Wyndham Clark and Rickie Fowler each shot 78. Cam Smith, the 2022 Open champion, shot 80.

“It’s very difficult out there,’’ Jon Rahm said after shooting 73. “Eight out of those first nine holes, all of them are [wind] in off the right, playing long, difficult holes. Just when you think it might get a little easier downwind, it really isn’t. The back nine has a lot of teeth, and those par-3s are very, very difficult.

“There’s not an easy golf course out there. We were all suffering equally.’’

Not Brown and Lowry, who received a massive reception on his way up the 18th. It sounded more like weekend cheers for the leader than a Thursday.

After the round, he tried to tell himself and anyone else who would listen that, as well as he played, it’s only Thursday.

“I’m pretty happy, but it’s only one day,’’ Lowry said. “We’ve got three more days. I just kept on telling myself there’s a lot more to do and there’s a few days left, so I just kind of stayed in my lane and hit some good shots, and I was pretty happy with how I handled myself.

“The walk down 18 was actually pretty cool. It’s the greatest walk in golf. I got to do it on a Sunday afternoon with a full house [at Portrush], and that’s the plan … to try to get to do that again. I’m fully aware that I have a job to do over the next three days. I’d give anything to win this tournament again. I’d give anything to give myself a chance to win this tournament again, and that’s why I’m here this week.

“This is obviously a great start to do that.’’

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