Open Championship: 5 blatant overreactions after first round at St. Andrews

The British Open is well underway at St. Andrews and after a grueling first round, there’s no better time to overreact to 18 holes at The Open Championship.

Getting up for coffee golf at the British Open seemed like a good idea in theory but, after 15 hours of golf coverage due to arduously slow rounds from start-to-finish on Thursday, that seems less so the case. But The Open Championship is now through 18 holes and we have quite an interesting tournament taking shape.

The wind wasn’t too much of a factor on Thursday for Round 1 but we could see that pick up slightly as the week goes on. More importantly, though, we saw exceptionally baked-out fairways and greens be demanding of players for every shot they hit, which made for quite a fun test. There is some light rain in the forecast that could lessen that but, then again, a light rain can only do but so much given the conditions of the course.

But the real story is that we are only 18 holes in, meaning there are still 54 holes of major championship golf left to play. That’s a lot of shots to still get in the air, but that doesn’t mean we can’t go off the handle and overreaction to the first round of The Open Championship.

British Open: 5 overreactions to the first round of The Open Championship

5. Cameron Young is definitely going to fade (probably immediately)

The round of the day at the Old Course went to Cameron Young, who fired off a 64, the lowest round from a player making their debut at The Open Championship since the tournament expanded to 18 holes in the 19th century.

He now enters Friday with a two-stroke lead over some guy named Rory McIlroy and with only three players within three strokes of him. Sounds like the youngster who’s flirted with a lead all year is in a great spot, right?

In the spirit of overreacting, I’m going with the reverse course on Young and saying that his lead is going to evaporate and do so quickly. Not only could conditions in terms of wind be tougher for him tomorrow, but hitting all 18 greens and gaining on approach as he did are just unsustainable, especially for a player who is so green in terms of major championship experience. I don’t think Young falls off the face of the Earth in this tournament but I do believe 18 holes is the length of time that he’s truly going to contend.

4. Viktor Hovland is the dark horse no one expected at the British Open

Coming into this championship, there was seemingly a discourse and discussion about every Top 10 player in the world and how they would fare at St. Andrews except for Viktor Hovland. And now after 18 holes, the young Norwegian is tied for fifth and looks heavily in the mix to make some noise this week.

Now, it should be noted that Hovland did get the early wave, which played about two strokes easier than the late. With that said, the big reasons many people overlooked him were his recent form (not up to his standards) and his around-the-green play. Well, he gained 0.84 strokes around the green and nearly 3.0 strokes from tee-to-green overall while putting well also.

Hovland has been far too talented throughout his career to not truly pop in a major yet. And now back on European soil, it seems like he’s got his game back in the right place and is ready to make some noise this week.

3. Tiger Woods is just playing bad golf, not showing poor health

After shooting a 6-over round that started with a double bogey as the result of an approach shot from a divot into the drink on the first hole, Tiger Woods is almost surely going to miss the cut. You can already hear the voices saying that he’s just never going to be the same again because of his health.

There is some truth to that; however, anyone who watched him on Thursday knows that his leg was not the issue. This was a guy who just played bad golf for the majority of the day. His putting, particularly from short range, was abysmal and the rest of his game just looked out of sorts. He rarely showed signs of the leg bothering him (if at all) and didn’t seem overly fatigued — Tiger just flat-out looked like a bad golfer.

This shouldn’t be a rush to judgment for Woods and his future because we’ve seen him play remarkably well given the hardships he’s had to overcome in the few rounds he’s played this year. With that said, it’s been highly disappointing to see what is likely his last trip to the Old Course look like this.

2. Brooks Koepka will never contend in a major (or maybe LIV too) again

For years, the narrative has been pushed that Brooks Koepka is a big-game hunter that has a switch that he can turn on whenever a major championship rolls around. But now that the first round of the British Open is over, he played in the easy wave and still shot just 1-over for the day and could be in danger of missing the cut come Friday afternoon.

With the move the LIV Golf, I think we’ve witnessed the end of Koepka being relevant. Playing in these money-grab tournaments that last just 54 holes isn’t going to prepare the players for major championships but, in Koepka’s case especially, it’s also going to take away that competitive edge. That switch that we’ve expected him to flip on isn’t going to be functioning and I think we’re seeing that materialize at St. Andrews.

1. The Open Championship is Rory McIlroy’s to lose

Back in 2010, a much-younger Rory McIlroy fired off a first-round 63 to take the lead at the Old Course for the British Open. Unfortunately, he followed that up by shooting 80 on Friday. And despite that, he still finished tied for third.

Now after his opening-round 66 this year, I don’t think we see him fade. This course is going to be demanding but McIlroy is showing every part of his game that he needs to play well. He gained strokes across the board and is putting extremely well, a trend that is too sticky over his past few tournaments to ignore at this point. Moreover, he’s holding himself like someone who isn’t going to run into that “disaster round” that we’ve seen from him too many times.

It’s been eight years since Rory McIlroy won a major championship. And I indeed touted him all week as my pick to win. So maybe I’m biased, but this is the historic setting, the 150th Open Championship at St. Andrews, where he gets that monkey off his back. He’s put himself in position, he’s the biggest dog in the fight, now he just has to show his teeth for 54 more holes. If he does, the Claret Jug will be his once again.

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