Americans gradually surging in the Open Championship after first round – Part 2
Stricker is the highest ranked American player in the event and is coming out of a glorious three-peat victory at his favourite John Deere Classic in Philadelphia.
Mickelson had another disappointing start to his Open bid when he failed to break par in the opening round, finishing for a joint 36th alongside his country mate Davis Love lll. Mickelson fell for a bogey on the first hole of the front nine and
his performance in the next eight holes remained defensive and overshadowed by his loss at the first hole. He managed to pick up a birdie at par-five, 7th before making the turn. He fell in for another bogey at par-three, 11th and finished
of his round with even par.
Another group of three American players finished alongside Mickelson, including Dustin Johnson, Stewart Cink and Rickie Fowler, all carding rounds of 70.
Todd Hamilton, Chris Tidland and David Duval were the worst scoring Americans at the end of the first round. Hamilton and Tidland carded rounds of seven-over while Duval slumped to an eight-over and the trio is likely to miss the cut at the third major of
the season. Ben Curtis also failed to rejuvenate the repertoire he has for tackling the crazy Links courses and fell for a seven-over to finish at the bottom of the leaderboard.
First round leaders came out to be all Europeans, with 20-year-old Englishman Tom Lewis pulling in a glorious round of five-under to stay in contention for the summit alongside grizzled veteran Thomas Bjorn of Denmark. Lewis started off sinking the ball
for even-pars in his front nine, and once gathering enough knowledge of the course, sank four straight birdies in his last holes on the back nine to break into the lead.
Bjorn, who missed the final hole in 2003 at the same venue to let go of his major victory, is known to have a strong grasp of Links courses and maneuvers his way nicely through sweeping winds. He was the sixth reserve for the event after failing to qualify
for the 156-man field of the Open Championship and managed to squeeze into the event after Vijay Singh’s withdrawal at the eleventh hour.
Mark Calcavecchia, who rocked the field with his solid front nine of two-under, fell in for bogeys on the back nine to drop down on the leaderboard. The 51-year-old is another one of the veteran contenders from the American brigade who won the Open Championship
back in 1989. He won the title on the fourth Playoff hole, overtaking the likes of Wayne Grady and Greg Norman.
Calcavecchia has not won a tournament for a quite some time and is participating in the Open through his life time qualification. He settled for a score of one-under after closing his back nine with another bogey on the 18th.
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