In the calmest of the conditions, Kisner carded a 5-under-par 66 to be one shot clear of South Africans Erik van Rooyen and Zander Lombard and another American, Tony Finau. Another South African, Brandon Stone, was a shot back on 3-under alongside Americans Ryan Moore and Brendan Steele. Former champion Rory McIlroy was 2-under after a 69 while 14-times major winner Tiger Woods, in his first appearance in the Open since 2015, finished level par.
Last year, Kisner shared a plane ride home with the champion, Jordan Spieth. This year, he is sharing accommodation with Spieth, Justin Thomas, Jason Dufner, Zach Johnson, Jimmy Walker and Rickie Fowler, but on day one he outshone the lot, with an eagle, three birdies and just one bogey putting him on top.
“I spent a lot of time with Jordan and the Claret Jug,” Kisner told reporters. “I flew home with him after he won and I’m staying with him this week and he no longer has it. He gave it back on Monday. It would be cool to return the favour and let him look at it a little bit.”
With very little wind to put off the players, scoring conditions were good but no one got to better than 5-under as Carnoustie, staging the Open for the eighth time, held its own.
Van Rooyen was 5-under playing the last but a closing bogey dropped the European Tour rookie back to 4-under, one behind Kisner. Spieth was 3-under-par at one stage but fell away in the closing holes to finish on 1-over-par with a 72, double-bogeying the 15th, when he left his second shot in the bunker and his tee shot at the last in the burn.
“That’s what I would consider as significant advantage for me is recognising where the misses are,” Spieth said. “I just had a brain fart (at 15), and I missed it into the location where the only pot bunker where I could actually get in trouble, and it plugged deep into it. It was a really, really poor decision on the second shot, and that cost me.”
McIlroy pronounced himself satisfied with his 69, the same score as Spaniard Jon Rahm. “If anything, I might have been a touch more conservative than I thought I was going to be heading out there,” he said. “I was hitting driver as much as I could. I thought I hung in there well, just tried to stay as patient as possible. It was good.” Woods, who last won the Open in 2008, finished his round well after 8 pm, having coped well in the strengthening breeze late on.
“It’s playing tricky,” he said, of the course, after three birdies and three bogeys. “I thought I played it the right way, for me. I had eight iron into both par fives and made par on both. The round certainly could have been a lot better than it came out.” Not everyone prospered on the fast fairways, though. Justin Rose was 1-over after a 72 while former champion Phil Mickelson finished on 2-over and world No 1 and pre-tournament favourite Dustin Johnson struggled to a 76, as did former Masters winner Sergio Garcia.
The 1985 champion Sandy Lyle had the honour of getting the event under way and finished with a 4-over 75.
