British Open: Thomas leads as Troon bares its fangs on opening day

Justin steadies himself in the wind and rain; Shubhankar shoots 5-over
ROYAL TROON (SCOTLAND): The 152nd Open began as only an Open can - with headwinds followed by a persistent drizzle and a stiff breeze from the Ayrshire coast. All pointed to yet another tricky and challenging week during which scoring is likely to be difficult.
The opening day saw Justin Thomas take the early lead at 3-under.Thomas cannot, by any stretch of imagination, call the Open as his favourite Major - he has missed the cut four times in seven starts with a best of T-11 in 2019. Yet he went up to 4-under by the tenth and then dropped to 1-under with a double on 12 and a bogey on 13. However, he bounced back with birdies on 17-18. Overall he had seven birdies, one of the highest in the day, against two bogeys and a double.
Thomas, a two-time Major champion has been trending well with five Top-10s in 15 starts this year, but his last win came more than two years ago at the 2022 PGA Championships. Shane Lowry, the 2019 Open winner, was 3-under with back-to-back birdies adding to the one he holed earlier on the fourth. He was bogey free through the front nine.
India's Shubhankar Sharma shot 5-over 76 but was still better than some big names like Rory McIlroy and Sahith Theegala.
Conventional wisdom at Troon is that the first six holes are relatively gentle, but at this Open it was just not that. The downwind had turned into a headwind and the rain added to the misery.
Rory McIlroy shot 7-over, Sahith Theegala went 6-over, Bryson DeChambeau went 5-over and Tiger Woods was 4-over through nine.
India's lone challenger Shubhankar Sharma riding high on the confidence of a T-8 finish at Royal Liverpool last year, lost the momentum early with bogeys on the second and third. He went into the rough on the second and gave away a shot on the second and on the third he three putted. Another bogey on the Par-3 fifth was followed by a birdie on Par5 sixth. Then on the seventh he went into the greenside bunker and came out with a bogey. Seven holes, four bogeys and one birdie. He already had his back to the wall.
On the back nine, Sharma bogeyed three times in the relentless drizzle and windy conditions against one final birdie on 18th for a 5-over 76, from where he will need to work hard to make the cut. Three players reached 4-under at some stage and then dropped to at least 1-under. They were Thomas, Matt Wallace and Younghan Song of Korea.
Then expectedly Troon dealt stiff punishment to some errant shots. Wallace and Song both recorded triple-bogeys and Thomas dropped three shots in two holes.
Thomas clawed his way back with birdie-birdie finish, but Wallace ended at 1-under and Song at even.
Justin Rose played one of the steadiest rounds of the day with birdies on the third and the seventh and 16 pars for a 2-under, the same as Alex Noren, Nicolas Hojgaard and Russell Henley. Three others Xander Schauffele, a new Major winner, Emilio Grillo and Canadian Mackenzie Hughes were also 2-under but with a lot of holes left to play.
DeChambeau bogeyed three of the first six holes and double-bogeyed another, as he finished the front nine in 42 strokes - six-over-par. Another bogey on 15th meant he was 7-over, but he landed an eagle on the Par-5 16th from 54 feet for a 5-over day.
Australia's Adam Scott playing his 24th consecutive Open shot 70 and was among those tied at 12th.