137. Open - Round 1: Morning horrors, afternoon delights

7/17/2008

Heavy downpours made Royal Birkdale a monster early in Thursday's first round of the 137th Open Championship. However, when the rains lifted in the afternoon, things got markedly easier and new names hit the leaderboard.

Mother Nature stole the show Thursday, as she often does in this part of the world, during the first round of the 137th Open Championship at Royal Birkdale.

In the morning, she was exceptionally cranky, but as the day wore on, she eased her wrath.

Players with morning tee times awoke to rain and howling winds. Talk about getting the day off to a bad start. There's no truth to the rumor that this is what Charles Darwin was talking about when he developed his "survival of the fittest" theory.

But, we should note, Darwin was, in fact, British.

Nevertheless, birdies were as common as pokes of sunshine through the thick gray blanket of clouds -- which is to say, they were rare occurances on Thursday. At the end of the day, only three players produced rounds of the sub-par variety. Those three also happen to be the co-leaders -- Rocco Mediate, Graeme McDowell and Robert Allenby, who all fired 1-under-par 69s.

That trio was the exception to the rule and -- not surprisingly -- all three had afternoon tee times.

Check out pre-tournament favorites Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els. Both had morning tee times and both could be catching a plane back home following Friday's second round. Mickelson shot an ugly 9-over 79, which was his highest first-round score at an Open Championship in relation to par.

Leaderboard – Round 1:

1.  Rocco Mediate            USA  69 - 1
     Greame McDowell        NIR  69 - 1
     Robert Allenby            AUS  69 - 1
4.  Greg Norman               AUS  70  E
     Adam Scott                  AUS  70  E
     Bart Bryant                  USA  70  E
7.  Retief Goosen              SAF  71 +1
     Mike Weir                   CAN  71 +1
     Jim Furyk                    USA  71 +1
     Gregory Havret             FRA  71 +1
     Fredrik Jacobson          SWE  71 +1
     Peter Hanson               SWE  71 +1
     Simon Wakefield          ENG  71 +1
     Anthony Wall                ENG  71 +1

Source: British Open