Royal Birkdale

With dust on his shirt and sweat on his brow, it is fair to say Justin Thomas has had more comfortable mornings on a golf course.

But perhaps not as fun.

“It's not something you'd want to do every week,” said the two-time PGA Championship winner.

“But I would venture to guess the majority of us, if we could choose how an Open would be, we would probably choose it like this. It’s unique.”

On a day when Bryson DeChambeau thrilled, Rory McIlroy spilled and Tommy Fleetwood had the whole of Southport in tow, there was one central talking point.

Fifty years on from the Duel in The Sun, Britain has been baked golden by relentless summer heatwaves.

And Royal Birkdale has more than a few blonde summer highlights streaking through it as a result.

With fast fairways, singed rough and greens as hard as stone, it is a shock to the system for 156 of the world’s finest players but a challenge they took on with joy.

Woods or irons proved to be the question of the day, with different strategies deployed and a variety of results returned.

Controlling the ball off the tee proved tricky. By the time McIlroy finished late in the evening, only 72 players found the fairway more than they missed, as balls ran loose with little to stop them.

Sometimes, that was an advantage. McIlroy, struggling at two-over and perhaps frustrated by his start, reached for the driver on the par-4 9th and cracked a tee shot that finished on the green.

Scottie Scheffler hit a very creditable 13 of 14 fairways but finished one shot behind playing partner DeChambeau, who hit four of 15.

“If I continue to do what I did today with the ball-striking, I'll be in a good spot as the week goes on,” Scheffler said.

You bet he will.

In conditions such as these, experience is often key but Jackson Suber played his first round of links golf on Monday and holds the overnight lead, doing away with the notion that know-how counts most.

Stewart Cink, who made his Open debut at Royal Birkdale in 1998, said: “This is my fourth time playing at Birkdale, and the first three times it was very similar each time. It was kind of lush and green and extremely windy.

“This is not the Royal Birkdale I've ever seen before. Lush would be the opposite of the way to describe this place right now, and obviously very calm.

“The wind was not there and then when it picked up it shifted about 90 degrees or more today. It's a different Royal Birkdale. It's way different.

“But that's kind of what you expect over here. The golf courses, they go how the weather goes.

“They're either fast and firm and dry and fiery and dusty. They're never really soft, but they can be lush and green and a little slower, and this week we've got it very dry, and it's a lot of fun.”

The morning starters appeared to have the better of it, with overnight dew making the fairways and greens more receptive.

But it was still far from easy.

“I think links golf is the ultimate test of golf,” said Robert MacIntyre after a highly-encouraging 67 that leaves him tied fourth.

“You can use every club in the bag pretty much for every shot other than the ball in the bunker and the thick rough.

“If you're on the short stuff, you can use any club. I could have used my lob wedge, or I could have used my driver. I opted for the rescue on 15 because I've been practising hard with that.

“I knew from the practice days this was going to be a real test of my patience, real test of my mind, and I thought I did a great job.”

With the dry weather here to stay, Royal Birkdale will continue to test all week.