The British Open at St. Andrews is fast and firm and unpredictable

Ever seen a course this firm, Mr. Scheffler?

Well, said Scottie Scheffler, the reigning Masters Champion ranked first in the world. I kid you not, I think the fairways are faster than the greens in some spots.

They’re saying that’s true.

They are? I’m glad I’m not losing my mind.

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And to think he shot a 68, joining a throng of 26 with scores in the 60s. That deepened a trend at St. Andrews in this century of supersonic equipment; there were 23 first rounds in the 60s here in 2015, 45 in out-of-control 2010, 20 in 2005, 25 in 2000. The early scores Thursday, with Cameron Youngs 8-under-par 64 the uppermost, caused some frets that old St. Andrews might suffer bombardment, a worry with a solution: Ask Rory.

The golf course is playing so, so short, McIlroy said after his fairly windless morning 66 for second place. But its still tricky. Its not as if theres an 8 under, theres a 6 under, one 5 under. Its not as if everyone is shooting the lights out. So its not like its very, very easy out there. Its tricky. Some of the pin positions, I think that’s what they’re going to do over the next few days. Theyre just going to hide the Pins away and make it very hard to get close to some of them. And even today they did that.

Ample people thrived still. They included two of golfs impressive number of Camerons: Young out front and Smith in third place with a 5-under 67. They included a bushel of those who have quit competitive golf and joined LIV Golf: Talor Gooch (68), Dustin Johnson ( 68), Lee Westwood (68), Ian Poulter (69) and Bryson DeChambeau (69).

They included three names from the golf-mastery country of South Korea, all with 69s: Joo-Hyung Kim, KH Lee and Si Woo Kim, the last of whom gave anyone sitting at No. 17 a memory by holing out from the Godzilla bunker there. They included usual contenders such as Xander Schauffele (69), noted young stars such as Viktor Hovland (68) and Joaquin Niemann (69), coming young Californians such as Kurt Kitayama (68) and Sahith Theegala (69), and even another guy who isn’t from California but plays there, Amateur Barclay Brown (68) from near Sheffield, England, and from Stanford University.

Yet everyone from four-time major winner McIlroy is down found the old star to be in a weird mood.

Its the fiddliest Open that Ive played, said McIlroy, who has played 12 previously. Its the only way I can really describe it. Its just really fiddly out there. Carnoustie was firm in 2018, but it wasn’t like this. It wasnt, you know, okay, the 18th at Carnoustie was like a runway, that fairway, but around the greens here and just all the slopes and undulations and everything, I think as the tournament progresses, youre going to get some funny bounces and its going to test your patience at times. And fiddly hasn’t really been my Forte over the years, but Im hopefully going to make it my Forte this week.

Tiger Woods, who shot a sigh of a 78 amid the meaner scores of afternoon, said, When you consider actually the fairways are faster than the greens, its just a different dynamic that we are accustomed to. Pitch shots around the greens, you allow for more speed and then for them to slow up on the greens, which is the exact opposite of what we would normally play.

That’s wild, so that freshly crowned US Open Champion Matt Fitzpatrick said, This is a golf course that’s just a little bit funky when its playing this firm and fast.

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They shot level par, as did 21 other people including Defending Champion Collin Morikawa, PGA Champion Justin Thomas and the Champion of the last Open here (2015), Zach Johnson. Twenty-four guys at 1 over included John Daly himself, the 1995 Champion here, and 35-year-old Irishman Seamus Power, who had some thoughts.

This is particularly different, they said. I don’t think this is normal even for here. I just hit 2-iron past pin high on 18. Its bizarre. They said, Its difficult to judge stuff out there. You learn something, but its kind of tough to explain. I mean, like on 15, like 3-irons and 3-woods are ending up in the same spot. And is 18, 2-irons. Its really, really fiery.

Firmest Ive ever seen, no doubt, Gooch said. Anyone Ive asked over the last 48 hours has agreed. Its the firmest golf course anyone I think has ever seen. It was amazing.

There are always those Souls who find refreshment in 268-year-old novelty, so here went 2016 Masters Champion Danny Willett, after his 69: You can just cleverly golf your ball around this place, he said. You can hit certain shots that you wouldn’t ordinarily hit. Youre trying to use the wind to soften the flight. You are playing your round of golf a lot. Youre not just standing there hitting the same shot time and time again. You see a lot of different approaches down different holes. Guys hitting anything from 4-irons to drivers, depends on what they see, what shot shape they hit. Theres just lots of things you can do.

You just cant do them very quickly, because shared fairways plus shared greens plus firmness add up to soooo.

Its how firm it is, Fitzpatrick said after his six-hour round with Woods and Max Homa. The way the golf course is designed. Youre crossing over a lot, and to get better Angles and better lines, youve got to hit across all the fairways. There’s nothing you can do, unfortunately, about it. Its just sad more than anything. Its just ridiculous.

Got to 14, Homa said. Wait on the tee for a while. And then they said we were going to hit up on them, and they let us drive. So we hit our drive. Then when we got up there, we waited 20 minutes for them to hit, which meant we had to wait another 20 after that for us to hit. It was very bizarre.

Late in the day, a certain Padraig Harrington came in. That two-time Open Winner has reached age 50. He looked older than that, opposite of the norm, after his 69 and six-hour round. Im shattered, he said. Im really tired. I’ve got a headache. I’m hungry.

His manager had two pizzas waiting.

Good old manager, they said.