Shaky start at windy Birkdale

Southport (England), July 21
Anirban Lahiri and Shiv Kapur shot identical three-over 73s in the opening round of the British Open here today.
Lahiri struggled with the putter, while Kapur was disappointed to drop two shots in his closing three holes at Royal Birkdale. The duo was tied 96th, with a few players yet to complete their rounds.
Lahiri birdied the fifth hole but dropped six shots in eight holes in the middle of his round. He recovered with a birdie on the 14th and holed a 25-footer for eagle on the 17th hole before dropping another shot on the last.
“I wasn’t hitting fairways and greens, and when you don’t do that, you will struggle to put up a good score. I should have only dropped two shots instead of six but I didn’t have the touch I needed on and off the greens,” said Lahiri, who is making his fifth appearance at the British Open.
“My putting really let me down. I left myself in good positions to get up-and-down but I wasn’t sharp. I think I had six misses from inside six feet. Happy I fought back a little bit but disappointed to bogey the last from a good position. I have to eliminate those bogeys.”
“When you have a bad stretch like that, you have to put your head down and focus on the next hole. It is easier said than done but that is something I knew coming in today. I’ll come back tomorrow and fight,” he added.
Kapur, who won his second Asian Tour title earlier this year, got off to a steady start before hitting a disappointing triple bogey on the par-three seventh hole.
“It was going well but I triple-bogeyed the seventh and that derailed my round. Out here, you obviously need to avoid the big numbers. Holding the round together is a challenge here and I didn’t do that,” said Kapur.
“The margins are really small when you play in Major championships, especially the British Open. I felt like I played pretty well but I would have liked to be a couple of shots better. I played a lot of good golf. That’s the positive I will take and hopefully avoid the big numbers,” he added.
Spieth, Koepka set the pace
Americans Jordan Spieth and Brooks Koepka tamed a fiendish links course to fire impressive 65s and lead the field by two shots.
Spieth, world No. 3 and twice Major champion, putted smoothly to pick up five birdies and did not drop a shot after fierce crosswinds buffeted the early starters.
“That was one of my top five rounds at a Major,” the 23-year-old said. “I’d give myself a nine (out of 10).”
Koepka, who won the US Open last month, hit three successive birdies from the 11th hole before making his only bogey at the 16th. He chipped in from a pot bunker to eagle the par-five 17th and return to the top of the leaderboard.
England’s Ian Poulter, runner-up in the 2008 Open on this course, managed four birdies and one bogey in a solid round of 67.
The Ryder Cup specialist, who has never won a Major, endured a frustrating 2016 due to injury problems and had to come through qualifying to earn his place in the tournament.
“I’ve definitely had some low spots in the last 18 months and I was getting very down,” the 41-year-old said. “I’m proud of the way I’ve been able to get things back on the straight and get back to really focusing hard on what I need to do to get the level of golf back that I think I can play.”
American Justin Thomas, sporting a black tie, matched Poulter’s 67 to finish a shot ahead of world No. 2 Hideki Matsuyama of Japan, Sweden’s Alex Noren and world No. 520 Stuart Manley of Wales.
Defending champion Henrik Stenson of Sweden finished on 69, along with England’s Matthew Fitzpatrick and Belgian Thomas Pieters.
Many players struggled in the conditions, however, and American Mark O’Meara endured a day to forget on his return to the course where he won the 1998 Open.
Handed the honour of hitting the first shot of the tournament, O’Meara sent his drive out of bounds before running up a quadruple-bogey eight and he ended up signing for an ugly round of 81. World No. 1 Dustin Johnson, four-time Major champion Rory McIlroy and American Phil Mickelson, runner-up to Stenson last year, were among the late starters with conditions expected to ease.