A beautiful day to begin play at The Open,sunshine,sea like a mirror and a very light breeze.Perfect scoring conditions and many players have taken advantage of the magnificent golf course.

Miguel Angel Jimenez snatched the lead from Tom Watson at the 18th hole !!

Tom Watson,five times winner of the British Open in the 70s and 80s was alone at the top of the leaderboard at 5 under par all day long until Ben Curtis,2003 champion, tied late in the afternoon.It looked like it was going to stay that way when Jimenez joined them at -5 with a birdie at 17 and then against all odds sank a bomb on the 18 to take the lead at 6 under par.The spaniard had a flawless round 64 with 6 birdies and no bogey.

A bunch of guys stand 2 shots behind Jimenez at -4 including Steve Sticker,Stewart Cink and Colombia’s Camillo Villegas.

The fair weather helped the “old guys” to do well on this 1st day at THE OPEN,past champions Mark Calcaveccia and O’Meara both shot 3 under 67, as well as Tom Lehman who bogeyed 18 for 68.

Vijay Singh,Jim Furyk and Mike Weir are also at 3 under, 3 off the lead.

The leading english players are world #3 Paul Casey and Anthony Wall at -2.Casey had a great start,4 under after 7 holes but lost his touch on the back nine.

Tiger Woods struggled on his first round for a 1 over par 71.Japan’s 17 years old Ryo Ishikawa was unimpressed by his pairing with the world #1 and shot an excellent 68,the same score as Lee Westwood the third man in this group.

Anthony Kim had a 9 on the par 4 second hole,got it back to 2 over until his 2nd shot rolled back in the creek at the 16 to finish at 4 over.Playing partners Rory McIilroy shot -1 and veteran Retief Goosen took the young guns to school with a solid 3 under par 67.

I was surprised to see quite a few players end in the creek at the 16th hole,that’s a beginner’s mistake to try to get close to the pin stuck on the right.Tiger,Westwood , Kim were in and it cost 2 shots to co-leader at the time Soren Hansen.

Retief Goosen produced the shot of The Championship from the greenside bunker at the 17th hole which led to a birdie,I hope you will see it in the highlights if you missed it.If “The Goose”goes on to win he will remember that shot.

It has been a walk in the park in Scotland at Turnberry for the opening day of The Open Championship.The veteran players have dominated the field but the weather is expected to be a factor tomorrow so it is doubtful that 51 players will be in the red come Friday evening.

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