Calm Troon still proves handful for Americans

England's Paul Casey and France's Thomas Levet lead after opening round.

By Doug Ferguson ~ The Associated Press

TROON, Scotland -- The fierce wind took the day off at Royal Troon. So did the mighty Americans, who have owned this course the last five times the British Open has been played here.

There was no shortage of spectacular shots Thursday -- but not from the leaders.

At the end of an intriguing first round that featured an ace, a double eagle and surprisingly limp flags, Paul Casey of England and Thomas Levet of France wound up atop the leaderboard at 5-under 66 with simple, solid golf on a links that might not get any easier.

"When we teed off, you couldn't feel any breeze at all," said Justin Leonard, who won the Open at Troon in '97. "And that's pretty strange for this place. This is probably as good a day as we can expect to have."

Casey and Levet had no complaints.

Casey birdied two of the last three holes while playing with Masters champion Phil Mickelson. Levet, who qualified for the British Open four days ago by winning up the road at Loch Lomond, did his damage on the front nine with four birdies in a five-hole stretch.

They had a one-shot lead over Michael Campbell of New Zealand.

"If you start thinking about what you've got to shoot, then it starts to get very, very difficult," Casey said.

It was plenty tough for Tiger Woods (70), Mickelson (73) and the rest of the Americans.

The list of leaders ran a dozen deep before anyone from the United States could be found. Scott Verplank, Rich Beem, Skip Kendall, Kenny Perry and Steve Lowery checked in at 69. It was the first time since the 1959 British Open that an American was not inside the top 10.

Woods was happy just to break par, making two key par saves on the back nine and following that with a birdie to break par in the opening round of a major for the first time since the '02 PGA Championship.

"As easy as you'll ever see it," Woods said about Royal Troon.

Casey had to work for his 66, especially on the back nine. He chipped in from just off the green at No. 10, holed a 30-foot birdie on 11 and made another 30-footer on the par-5 16th after driving into the rough.

He finished with a 15-foot birdie on the 18th that raised hopes of a British gallery that has gone five years without one of its own holding the claret jug.

"I still left quite a few shots on the golf course," Casey said. "It could have been very, very low."

Gary Evans and Ernie Els felt the same way.

Evans had 227 yards to the hole on the par-5 fourth when his 5-iron ambled up a ridge on the green and disappeared into the cup for a double eagle. It was the first albatross at the British Open since Greg Owen in 2001 at Royal Lytham & St. Annes.

"I gave myself three chances the first three holes, and I didn't make any of them," Evans said. "And when I brought one in, it was fantastic. Happy days."

Evans made no more progress the rest of the day, however, and finished at 3-under 68 along with a large group that included Vijay Singh and British Amateur champion Stuart Wilson.

Els also was plodding along when his fortunes changed with one swing, a pitching wedge from 123 yards on the par-3 eighth hole known as the Postage Stamp because of its tiny green.

"That was beautiful, I tell you," Els said.

He had other words to describe another par 3, the 222-yard 17th where the South African left a shot in the bunker for a double bogey.

"From such a highlight on 8 to such a lowlight on 17, it's amazing," Els said. "But I shot 69 and I've got to take that. Anything under 70 is good in a major championship. It's not a bad start."

Also at 69 were U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen, Darren Clarke and Colin Montgomerie, who overcame a double bogey-bogey stretch around the turn.

There was an eerie calm along the Firth of Clyde in the morning, and the only trouble from the breeze was that it couldn't make up its mind which way to blow.

And while the scores weren't outrageous, there were plenty of players bunched up around the lead. More than one-third of the field -- 56 players -- were at par or better, all of them only five shots behind.

And while the wind made it easy, Royal Troon still found a way to punish the bad shots.

Alastair Forsyth of Scotland was poised to join the leaders until he bogeyed his final two holes. Clarke, a runner-up at Troon seven years ago, also had a chance until he hit a 5-iron from 191 yards on the final hole and watched in disgust as it went over the green and landed next to the clubhouse -- out-of-bounds.

He followed that with a 6-iron to 15 feet short of the flag and made double bogey.

"I just got the wind wrong," Clarke said.

It could have been worse. Tom Weiskopf, the 61-year-old who won at Royal Troon in 1973, took four swipes out of a pot bunker on the first hole and made a quadruple bogey. Neil Evans took 11 shots on the par-5 sixth.

David Duval didn't even make it to the first tee. The '01 British Open champion withdrew Thursday morning because of a sprained back muscle.

Mickelson didn't do anything wrong, he just didn't make a birdie until the par-5 16th, and he followed that with his third bogey of the round.

"The shots that I needed to hit to get the ball close for birdie, I just didn't do that," he said.

Woods was at 2 under after hitting his wedge within 4 feet on the Postage Stamp. The last time he played here, he made a triple bogey on that hole in the final round.

He started missing a few fairways and greens, though, fell back to even par and was in danger of going over par until making par putts from about 6 feet on 14 and 15.

"You didn't want to go over par, especially as well as I was playing," Woods said.

The forecast called for a windy Friday afternoon, but the weather is fickle along the Ayrshire Coast.

Either way, one round in the books at golf's oldest championship didn't really determine anything, except that the guys who make the fewest mistakes are going to have a chance.

"We have a few strokes in our pocket in case things are turning wrong," Levet said. "But it's just one step, and there is still one big step tomorrow, two big steps Saturday. And an enormous marathon on Sunday."