TRON, Scotland — The opening round at the Royal Troon Championship has humbled many of the world’s best players, but England’s Daniel Brown — currently ranked No. 272 in the world — took the test with unexpected ease. The 29-year-old from Northallerton shot a flawless 65 to take a one-shot lead in the Open.
In his first major championship, let alone his first Open, Brown led the field in strokes gained from the tee and performed equally strongly from putting. He gained 4.5 strokes on the greens to rank second in strokes gained from putting in the field at Royal Troon. Brown is making his third appearance on the PGA Tour, having come within a cut of the Scottish Open, but had failed to make six consecutive cuts before that. According to The athlete Contributor Justin Ray says Brown is the only player in the past 30 years to start his major career with an error-free round of 65 or less.
Behind Brown is a player who is well aware of the tough conditions that continued at Royal Troon on Thursday. Shane Lowry is second at 5-under par. Lowry, who won the 2019 Open at Royal Portrush in his native Ireland, has become a standout player in recent years. He has only two PGA Tour wins but has won at Portrush and finished 25th or better in 15 of his last 22 majors.
Lowry put himself in good positions all day while many of his contemporaries found themselves buried in thick bushes and deep bunkers. Meanwhile, he made no mistakes on the greens, leading the team in putting, successfully putting all 14 inside 10 feet. He scored one on holes 7, 8 and 10 to lead the group and settled into first place with six straight before heading to the 18th hole to take a one-putt.
Lowry has had a rough start to 2024, even admitting in his win at the Zurich Classic that teammate Rory McIlroy sometimes carried him. Since that win, Lowry has finished sixth at the PGA Championship, 19th at the U.S. Open and ninth at the Travelers Championship.
Justin Thomas entered the locker room leading the morning group after shooting a 68 in more difficult conditions. Thomas has struggled badly on the golf courses in his career. Thomas’ best finish in the Open Championship was 11th in 2019 and his best finish since then was 40th. He has missed three of his seven Open rounds and last year he opened with an 82 at Royal Liverpool which was his lowest finish.
But on Thursday, Thomas attacked the greens with flying colors and finished well. He finished 10th in the group in strokes gained while making 16 of his 18 putts from 20 feet to take advantage.
But Thomas responded even more impressively when the field got the better of him. After starting at four under par on the 10th hole with a two-shot lead, he double-faulted on the 12th and then followed that up with another on the 13th. Royal Troon had been eating players up all day by that point, but Thomas finished the round with two shots on the 17th and 18th.
“I feel like everything is going in the right direction, that I’m working on the right things,” Thomas said. “As I said, I haven’t had a lot of success. That’s how it goes in this game sometimes. But I know I’m close to success, and I’m going to keep playing and I’m not going to play for the results, I’m just going to play for my performance, and I’m going to make it myself.”
With the exception of Thomas, the European players performed well in the most international major tournament. In addition to the great starts from Lowry and Brown, England’s Justin Rose shot a flawless 69, and 23-year-old Dane Nicolai Hojgaard and Swede Alex Noren also finished on two under par.
They were joined by 69-year-old Xander Schoeffel – who won the PGA Championship in May – and Russell Henley, who was looking for his first major victory.
But it seemed that several of the big stars on the field had been dismissed early in the day. The top two players at last month’s U.S. Open, McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau, were 7- and 5-shots behind, respectively. McIlroy had only one shot all day, while DeChambeau was 6-shot behind through eight holes and needed an eagle on the 16th to set his lowest score.
“It’s a completely different test,” DeChambeau said. “I haven’t trained for it, I haven’t played much in the rain. Yes, it’s a tough test here. Something I don’t know very well.”
Tiger Woods, who played all four majors in a single year for the first time since 2019, started the day one under par but quickly lost eight strokes over the next nine holes to finish 8 over par. That puts him 140th in the field. Woods, 48, has not finished better than 47th in the seven majors he has played since a 2021 car accident that left him with serious leg injuries.
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(Photo: Andy Buchanan/AFP via Getty Images)
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