{"id":139427,"date":"2026-07-16T10:56:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T16:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/british-open-returns-to-a-new-royal-birkdale-and-an-old-chase-for-the-claret-jug\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T10:58:24","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T16:58:24","slug":"british-open-returns-to-a-new-royal-birkdale-and-an-old-chase-for-the-claret-jug","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/british-open-returns-to-a-new-royal-birkdale-and-an-old-chase-for-the-claret-jug\/","title":{"rendered":"DeChambeau finds a strategy to get in the mix at the British Open and trail by a shot"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Bryson
Bryson DeChambeau of the United States plays tom the 18th green from the rough during the first day of the British Open Golf championships at Royal Birkdale golf club, in Southport, England, Thursday, July 16, 2026. (AP Photo\/Jon Super)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Jon Super)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SOUTHPORT, England (AP) \u2014 Turns out Bryson DeChambeau had enough strategy to get in the mix Thursday at Royal Birkdale, often ripping driver to take the fearsome bunkers out of play and doing enough right for a 3-under 67 that left him one shot out of the early lead in the British Open<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sungjae Im and Dan Brown<\/a> led the way at 4-under 66, the lowest score Royal Birkdale offered even in a mild wind, which strengthened and switched late in the afternoon as Rory McIlroy and others were just getting started.<\/p>\n

Defending champion Scottie Scheffler<\/a> had few complaints after a 68, even after four birdies in his opening six holes and no birdies the rest of the way. He had a pair of soft bogeys and played the two par 5s on the back nine in 1 over.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I continue to strike the ball the way I did today and just keep giving myself looks, that\u2019s part of it,\u201d Scheffler said. \u201cGolf is played over 72 holes, and I definitely liked what I saw today.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for DeChambeau’s strategy? Part of it might have been declining to speak to the media, which he did again Thursday and has at the majors this year during competition rounds. The two-time U.S. Open champion has missed the cut in all three majors.<\/p>\n

Strategy became a talking point<\/a> when three-time British Open champion Nick Faldo told the Sky Sports Golf Podcast this week, \u201cDeChambeau has zero clue of strategy. He said last year, \u2018I\u2019m going to go out and attack the links\u2019. Well, I\u2019ve never attacked a links. You thread it, don\u2019t you? You feed it down the fairway. … You don’t think, \u2018Oh, I\u2019ll just blast it down there.'”<\/p>\n

DeChambeau twice blasted it over the trouble and close to the green at the par-4 second and the par-4 10th, the latter a blind shot. He made birdie on both. And while Jon Rahm was among those who said going long can lead to trouble at some point, the only two shots DeChambeau dropped came from his putting (the par-5 14th) and chipping (the par-4 18th).<\/p>\n

He was tied for the lead until going from wispy, yellow rough over the back of the 18th, chipped weakly to 8 feet and missed the putt. He missed three birdie chances from around 10 feet or under, one of them on redesigned, 321-yard fifth hole, when his drive settled on a hump behind the green.<\/p>\n

DeChambeau agreed to take a few questions from the R&A and said, \u201cI feel like I did a really good job today of being incredibly strategic and focused super hard on placing it in the right places. Besides 18, I placed the ball in some good areas. I just need to hit more fairways. Other than that, I feel like my strategy was nice today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown ran off three straight birdies around the turn and found himself atop the leaderboard, just as he did at Royal Troon two years ago after the first round. That year, he was in the penultimate group with hardly anyone watching. This time he was out early with Im, who had four birdies on the back nine as they matched 66s.<\/p>\n

Robert MacIntyre and Francesco Molinari, the Open champion from Carnoustie in 2018, were part of the large group of players at 67. That included Ryan Gerard in his Open debut, M.J. Daffue of South Africa and Alex Smalley, the only player to reach 5 under at any point.<\/p>\n

Smalley, who took a two-shot lead into the final round at the PGA Championship<\/a>, was leading until his drive on the 18th was fading with the wind and then the luck of links golf took over. One wild bounce sent it further right and out-of-bounds. He finished with a double bogey for a 67.<\/p>\n

\u201cGot up to where the ball was supposed to be and was told it hit a spectator fence and kicked another 15 yards right out-of-bounds. All three of us in our group actually hit it over there, and mine just got an unlucky break,\u201d Smalley said. “Poor tee shot, poor break. Sometimes that’s how it goes.”<\/p>\n

Scheffler played in the group with DeChambeau and they traded birdies early. For six holes, the world’s No. 1 player had total control of his shots and looked as though he couldn’t miss. He got to 4 under when he gave a leg kick as his 40-foot birdie putt dropped on No. 6.<\/p>\n

But then he missed the seventh green \u2014 139 yards, downhill \u2014 to the left between a pair of bunkers, and his pitch was so strong it flirted with going in a bunker on the other side. He missed a 5-foot birdie chance on the 11th, and then made a mess of the par-5 17th.<\/p>\n

Scheffler missed his approach well to the right and was so surprised to see it buried in deep grass he felt it might have been embedded from someone stepping on it. But no one stepped forward, and he was denied a free drop. He yanked that across the fairway to more deep grass, then hit a splendid chip to 4 feet, only to miss the par putt.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was underneath the wire and it was just … I\u2019m hoping somebody stepped on it, but nobody would fess up. Apparently nobody did,\u201d Scheffler said. “I was just shocked at how deep the ball was in that grass. I considered actually taking an unplayable.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometime you hit it over there and you get a clean lie and you\u2019re able to give yourself a look, and then other times like today, you pay a pretty severe price,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I guess don\u2019t hit it offline.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP golf: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/golf<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Bryson
Bryson DeChambeau of the United States gestures as he walks the 7th hole during the first day of the British Open Golf championships at Royal Birkdale golf club, in Southport, England, Thursday, July 16, 2026. (AP Photo\/Peter Morrison)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Peter Morrison)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Scottie
Scottie Scheffler of the United States plays out of the thick rough on the 17th hole during the first day of the British Open Golf championships at Royal Birkdale golf club, in Southport, England, Thursday, July 16, 2026. (AP Photo\/Jon Super)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Jon Super)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Daniel
Daniel Brown of England watches where his shot has landed after playing off the 1st tee during the first day of the British Open Golf championships at Royal Birkdale golf club, in Southport, England, Thursday, July 16, 2026. (AP Photo\/Jon Super)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Jon Super)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Sungjae
Sungjae Im of South Korea plays his shot from the 1st tee during the first day of the British Open Golf championships at Royal Birkdale golf club, in Southport, England, Thursday, July 16, 2026. (AP Photo\/Jon Super)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Jon Super)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bryson DeChambeau of the United States plays tom the 18th green from the rough during the first day of the British Open Golf championships at Royal Birkdale golf club, in Southport, England, Thursday, July 16, 2026. (AP Photo\/Jon Super)(AP Photo\/Jon Super) SOUTHPORT, England (AP) \u2014 Turns out Bryson DeChambeau had enough strategy to get in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":139428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5734],"tags":[],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-139427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-associated-press"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139427"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":139435,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139427\/revisions\/139435"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139427"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=139427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}