England’s Dan Brown and South Korea’s Sungjae Im are the early clubhouse leaders at The Open Championship with 4-under-par 66s on Thursday at Southport, England.
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, Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre, Italy’s Francesco Molinari and Belgium’s Thomas Detry also posted 67s as early finishers.
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, leaving him at 67. 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.
More than half the field had yet to complete their rounds, with some still waiting to tee off. Notables in the afternoon wave included the first three major winners of the year — Northern Ireland star Rory McIlroy, Englishman Aaron Rai and Wyndham Clark — along with Irishman Shane Lowry, Australian Adam Scott, Collin Morikawa, Xander Schauffele and Brooks Koepka.
