Dave T diary - Thursday

Dave Tindall's blog from the opening round of the 142nd Open Championship at Muirfield.

Dave Tindall's blog from the opening round of the 142nd Open Championship at Muirfield

0555: Welcome to Muirfield. Normally at this time I'm keen to send out a tweet about that subject of huge fascination - the weather. But this year I feel a bit cheated. We're in the middle of a heatwave and everyone knows it's going to be sunny. For the first time at an Open I've turned up jumperless. 0605: Damn, it's actually a bit nippy. Wish I'd bought a jumper. 0632: Getting to the first tee to see the opening shot is always a part of Open tradition and this time I watch it in the stand to the left of the tee. There's a definite breeze into the faces of the players and this is a really tough opening hole. Peter Senior takes driver and finds the middle of the fairway but poor old Lloyd Saltman hits his tee-shot over the green fencing down the right and out of bounds. And then he does it again. Much silence ensues. Finally he finds some in-play grass but having played five off the tee he racks up an eight. That's so bad it's one more than I took when I got to play Muirfield in early May. 0730: I watch the opening three-ball for the first four holes and the early headlines are being made by Oli Fisher. The young Englishman makes a solid par at the first and then birdies the second and third to move to two-under. He just misses another at the par three fourth but finds another at five and races to three-under. What a start, and his family (parents and three sisters) are all out there to see it. Scotland's Saltman also has support and they cheer as he makes a brave recovery with birdies at two and four to get back to +2. I'm right behind the fourth green as he nails a 20 footer up the hill for his two. 0815: I mentioned to several people yesterday afternoon that Miguel Angel Jimenez was a good bet for first round leader as he often starts well in Opens and was leading in warm, hard, fast conditions at Hoylake in 2006. Then, somehow, I completely forgot about it and didn't put a bet on. Typically he's started birdie-birdie and is the joint leader with Oli Fisher and Mikko Ilonen. 0915: I've interviewed Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano a couple of times this year. The first in January when he said he wanted to play better in the majors and, the second, a couple of weeks ago, after he'd done just that with a 20th at Augusta and a 10th in the US Open. We chat on Twitter a bit too so when I go outside to see him on the practice putting green we shake hands and I wish him all the best for the round ahead. I've backed him for first round leader so I may actually have added the word "please" when I said "play well". 1055: Gonzalo makes a safe par at the first - a relief given the two 8s we've seen there already (Saltman and young American Brooks Koepka). At the second hole I bump into Mrs Fernandez-Castano, who has retweeted the articles I've put up about GFC and also the one last night about me backing him for round one leader (hope she didn't tell him about this. He's enough to worry about without the added distraction of knowing he's carrying the cash of some clown like me). Anyway, when I say hello she says she recognizes me from Twitter and we stroll for a few holes. It's a very pleasant 45 minutes or so in the company of the Fernandez-Castanos. Mr FC birdies the third and holes a testy one for par at four to sit at one-under while the striking Mrs FC (lots of gawping from the galleries) is excellent company. She used to be a journalist and hopefully I've persuaded her to write her own blog despite the busy task of raising the three mini GFCs who are all under four. 1115: Saw Phil Mickelson chatting with Isao Aoki earlier. It appears that Phil knows a few words of Japanese. Mickelson's caddie 'Bones' then called me "Sir" which was nice. He was asking if I was with the cameraman filming next to me. Bones wanted him to stop filming them which was fair enough as the bloke had been pointing his lens at them for a good five minutes. 1120: The press badge really does allow me great access near the clubhouse. Although perhaps I'm getting a bit blaze about it as, earlier, when crunching across the pebbles Thongchai Jaidee gave me a dirty look and a "shush" gesture as Jason Day was about to tee off at 10. Whoops. 1125: Shocking start for the tips. Els +2, Bjorn +3, Wood +5. There's always Branden Grace and, er, Gregory Bourdy to save the day. 1140: Bumped into Thorbjorn Olesen's caddie, Ben, in North Berwick high street last night. He said all the caddies simply had no idea what the winning score would be this week. Can we make a decent guess from here? Well, the lead is currently -4 (Miguel Angel Jimenez, Rafa Cabrera-Bello and Dustin Johnson) while another 16 players are under par. Not sure that helps to be honest as plenty of big names are currently over par (Ernie Els and Rory at +1 and Justin Rose at +2). 1155: To expand on the Bourdy tip, it came about after I travelled up to play Muirfield a few months ago. We were shown around the course by 'the other colonel', a member here who lives by the course, and noticed that the inside of his locker had been signed by three players - Tom Watson in 1980, Paul Lawrie in 2002 and Bourdy. It was obvious who the odd one out was so we asked why. It turned out that Gregory has been coming to play practice rounds at Muirfield since 2011 and absolutely loves the course. At the time we saw his signature, Bourdy wasn't actually in the Open but he came through qualifying at Sunningdale last month and said that he'd been hugely motivated by trying to win a place in the field for his beloved Muirfield. Add in the fact that he plays well on hard, fast, bouncy courses and it seems the planets have aligned. He tees off at 3.40pm so I have a few more hours to dream before it inevitably all goes wrong. 1200: One other Bourdy snippet. In Wednesday's practice round, he hit his approach close at 18 and then had another pop and holed it for eagle! Is there something magical in the air? I do hope so as I've backed him to win, to finish in the top five, the top 10, the top 20 and to be first round leader. I've put my house on him being top Frenchman - mainly because he's the only French player in the field. 1215: Might wander over to the tented village (to the right of the first fairway later). Should be safe to go now that Lloyd Saltman's finished. He blazed his opening two tee-shots in there early this morning and those two out of bounds drives resulted in an eight. To be fair the opening hole is playing as the toughest on the course so far - the par four averaging 4.552. 1230: For the second time this week, a blind delve into the fridge containing cokes saw me come up with an 'Adam' bottle. Also pulled out a 'Phil'. Still trying to find a 'Gregory'. 1235: All going wrong for Rory. Misses a putt for birdie at nine, misses the tiddler back and the bogey means he's down to +3. 1245: North Berwick was rife with recent PGA Tour winners last night. Harris English (wandering near the beach in sandals), Jordan Spieth (eating a meal outside with his mates) and Ken Duke (milling about) were all there as were a few caddies and journos. 1300: Better for the tips now. Els back to level par and Bjorn on that mark too after birdies at 7, 9 and 11. 1320: Love it that Mark James, live on air, tipped Paul Casey to win this week. The slight problem there is that Casey isn't actually playing.

1340: Oh dear. Ernie takes a triple bogey at the 16th after requiring three blows to get out of sand. Down to +3. He doesn't like that hole. Back in 2002 he double bogeyed it in the final round when seemingly strolling to victory and that caused all the stress of having to come through a four-man play-off to win. 1345: Rory McIlroy has bunker trouble of a different kind. He putts into one at 14! That's the world number two down to +6 after a double bogey. Looking set to miss the cut at this rate. 1400: Much amusement in here with one journo, who's known to like a drink, currently slumped over his keyboard. Occasionally his head does that sudden jerky thing when you're nodding off but in the main it's jammed on the keyboard producing a string of zzzzzzzzzzzzs. 1412: So what of Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano. Clearly, he was upset when I left him at the fourth as he proceeded to bogey three of the next four holes. However, he's now level par after a birdie at 16 and can hopefully add another at the par five 17th. 1420: And it's another for Gonzalo as he birdies 17 to move into red figures at one-under. 1500: Rory signs for a 79. That's the same as Nick Faldo which, once upon a time would have been a good thing but not now Sir Nick is a part-time golfer in his 50s. 1505: Spotted Gregory Bourdy on the putting green 10 minutes ago and, wouldn't you know it, I watched him play one shot and he nailed a 20 foot putt! 1520: Grabbed a word with Billy Foster - a near neighbour of mine in West Yorkshire - on the practice putting green. I've backed his man Branden Grace this week so told him to make sure they shot a low one. "We'll see what we can do," said Billy with a wink and a nod. For the rhythm of this anecdote I should end it by saying that Grace went on to birdie the first. Except he didn't. He made double bogey. Drat. 1530: The time has come. I'm off out to watch Gregory Bourdy. 1720: Tres bien, Gregory Bourdy. I watched him for five holes and he made four safe pars and a birdie - all with relative ease. His long eagle putt at five just stayed out and his long game looked very tidy. As I walked in he was tied 12th on one-under so that's a fine start for the 250/1 shot and my big gamble this week. Ironically, his efforts were completely overshadowed by the extraordinary play of Shiv Kapur. The Indian birdied the first three holes, just missed another at four and has now birdied four, five and six to take the lead on six-under. Amazing stuff. He's red-hot - as are most of the spectators. This afternoon it's been absolutely scorching and the amount of ruddy faces has risen dramatically. Glad I packed the suncream even though I spent most of yesterday with a puffy eye after getting spray in it after a careless application first thing. 1735: Just hearing from the Dutch journalists about the agony for poor Joost Luiten. Their compatriot was the first reserve and has spent the last few days seeing if there were any withdrawals. There weren't so when his hopes were over he headed off to the airport for a 5.30pm flight. However, since then Peter Hanson withdrew after five holes and Louis Oosthuizen exited after nine. The real frustration is that Hanson virtually knew he couldn't complete more than a few holes; however he had to tee it up in order to maintain his playing rights in the US as he has to play a certain number of tournaments. Oosthuizen was a big doubt this morning after the recurrence of his neck injury so, again, it came as absolutely no surprise when he hit a duck hook off 9 and walked in. 1800: Words I hope I wasn't going to day... "Oh my god, Bourdy's had a 7 (triple bogey)." Our gallant Frenchman falls to +3. 1810: Better news elsewhere though, Branden Grace has recovered from his double bogey start and is now +1 after 12. 1815: Earlier today, Ian Poulter tweeted: "Unfortunately the guys this afternoon will struggle with a few pin positions. 8th hole is a joke, 18th needs a windmill & clown face." The 8th is where Bourdy just came unstuck so he may have a similar opinion. 1825: All three of the PGA Tour players I saw out in North Berwick last night are doing extremely well. Young Jordan Spieth has carded a two-under 69, Ken Duke a 70 while Harris English is level after 16. Keeping loose has clearly worked well for this trio. 1835: Not for the first time in his life, Ian Poulter gets embroiled in a bit of a Twitter row after his criticism of the course. However, ammo is put his way as Tiger putts the ball off the 14th green and makes bogey. Poults is on the case quickly and tweets: "Enough said the best putter that's ever played the game just putted it off the green. I rest my case." 1900: US golf journalist Stephanie Wei just told me that Ken Duke went into a North Berwick betting shop earlier this week and asked "what are the odds on Ken Duke?" They couldn't find him on their lists before someone came up with 300/1. Ken shot an excellent 70 today but he's still 200/1. 1915: Adieu Gregory. +5 after a double at 12. Will refrain from using the French swear words I learned at school. 1925: A birdie two for Bourdy at 14. A couple more of those and I'll be spraying French superlatives around. 1940: As Tiger Woods walks off the 18th green after an excellent two-under 69, Sky Bet have him as 7/2 favourite to win. Mickelson 7/1 next best. 1944: The bunker to the right of 18 reminds me of a Scalextric track. 1945: Oh dear. I think the long day and sunshine is getting to me if I'm writing about what bunkers look like. 2000: A tweet from Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano. "Very happy with today's round. Good comeback after a difficult front nine with the putter. Great ball striking, hit 17 greens in regulation!" 2015: Tiger has dismissed the theory that this Open is being played in similar conditions to Hoylake in 2006 - an idea based on it being similarly hot and dry. He said: "They're so different, so different. I mean, this is almost - it's about as fast as Hoylake was. But there's knee-high rough here. And plus this golf course changes directions a lot. A lot of different directions, a lot of different shaped shots you have to hit. Hoylake was pretty simple in that regard. It didn't blow as much there. Our scores reflected it. We were all pretty low; we were all in the teens, under par. This is a totally different set up." 2110: The last knockings of the day taking place now with the final group playing 18. The top 70 and ties make the cut tomorrow so if it was done after one round the guillotine would come down on Gregory Bourdy (+5) and anyone else at +4 or worse. Bourdy could still turn it around, especially as he has a morning start on Friday, but Rory is looking in huge trouble at +8 (currently tied 134th). Three of my tips are all inside the cut line but Thomas Bjorn (+2), Ernie Els (+3) and Branden Grace (+3) all have much work to do to get in contention. 2130: That's it from day one at Muirfield. Tiger is the man they all have to catch according to the bookies and I'm reminded of my visit here in May. On that occasion I asked my caddie (a wise, grizzled, veteran of the links) who would win this summer's Open. Without a moment's hesitation he replied "Tiger". Yes, it's early days but I'm beginning to wish I'd taken his advice! Good evening.