Jackson Suber rolled in a late eagle putt and that was enough to leave him in the lead through the first round of The Open Championship with a 5-under-par 65 on Thursday at Southport, England.
Suber’s eagle on No. 17 allowed him to move ahead of England’s Dan Brown and South Korea’s Sungjae Im, who were the early clubhouse leaders with 66s.
Bryson DeChambeau rolled in a couple of late birdies to pull into a share of the lead before he bogeyed the last hole at Royal Birkdale Golf Club to finish with 67. Alex Smalley, Ryan Gerard, Pierceson Coody, Cameron Young, Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre, Italy’s Francesco Molinari, Belgium’s Thomas Detry and South Africa’s MJ Daffue also posted 67s.
Suber played the frontside in even par before four birdies and a bogey preceded the eagle across an eight-hole stretch. The 26-year-old has never won the PGA Tour, but he has collected three top-10 finishes this year – all since mid-May.
Defending champion and World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler ended up with 68 without a birdie on the final 12 holes.
DeChambeau and Scheffler were in the same grouping, with a shift coming on the par-5 17th. Scheffler took a bogey and DeChambeau secured his second birdie in a row to move into a tie atop the leaderboard.
DeChambeau missed the cut at the first three majors of the year — never shooting a round better than 70 — and brought a full set of 3D-printed irons with him to Royal Birkdale.
Scheffler, whose streak of 78 made cuts ended last week at the Genesis Scottish Open, had a 4-under mark through six holes before a bogey on No. 7 followed by a string of pars.
Brown’s up-and-down round included three bogeys, but the two that came on the back nine were followed by birdies on the next holes.
Smalley fell out of the lead when he suffered a double-bogey 6 on the last hole. Smalley had birdies on four of the first five holes and then went to the top of the leaderboard with birdies on Nos. 14 and 15.
Smalley, 29, is without a victory on the PGA Tour, though he has produced four top-10 finishes this year, including sharing a runner-up finish at the PGA Championship.
Most of the first round’s best scores came from golfers with tee times during the first half of the day. Notables in the afternoon wave included the first three major winners of the year — Northern Ireland star Rory McIlroy (72), Englishman Aaron Rai (71) and Wyndham Clark (73) — along with Collin Morikawa (68), Irishman Shane Lowry (69), Brooks Koepka (70), Xander Schauffele (71) and Australian Adam Scott (72).
