In an extraordinary record-breaking first round yesterday at The Open in St Andrews, Scotland, Rory McIlroy smashed the Old Course record with -9, while Camilo Villegas and Oliver Wilson (pictured, above) finished a solid five shots off the lead.
McIlroy, from Northern Ireland, carded a 63, only the 24th time in Major history that this low score has been equalled. Tiger Woods managed a record -19 at the last Open Championship at St Andrews five years ago – but over four rounds. McIlroy admitted afterwards that he’d been aiming for a Major world-record 62, crediting a missed putt on the 17th hole to nerves.
Woods teed off shortly after 9am BST in front of a predictably large crowd, and ended the day -5, tied for eighth on the leaderboard.
In the same group as Woods was Camilo Villegas, the Colombian also making an extremely consistent start, with two birdies at the turn and two on the way back in to finish with a 68, -4 and equal 16th position.
Another man to finish with the same score and T17 was England’s Oliver Wilson. Though he bogeyed the first hole, Wilson then birdied five of the next eight to record 32 at the turn, with one bogey and one birdie along with seven pars on the back nine.
'The important thing was that I shot a decent score in good conditions' – Oliver Wilson
Despite recovering well, Wilson described his first shot of the championship, which ended up in the Swilcan Burn water hazard, as “the dumbest thing I’ve ever done”.
“It was calm, and I thought, 'It's been raining for a day and a half and it's got to be a bit softer.' It's 290yds [265m] to the water on the left, so I hit three wood,” Wilson explained. “But I hooked it a little, got a hard flier, it bounced on and just tippled in [the burn]. I still had a six-footer [just under 2m] for par even then and missed it, so it was what I deserved.”
However, Wilson was pleased to have taken advantage of the unpredicted fine weather at St Andrews, particularly the still conditions, almost unheard of on a seaside links course, that aided McIlroy’s record tilt.
"You never know what weather you're going to get here,” Wilson added. “But the important thing was that I shot a decent score in good conditions, as it's not doing what was forecast.”
Wilson tees off for his second round at 1.20pm BST, while Villegas once again partners Woods an hour later, at 2.20pm.
Read our 10 to Watch Open golf feature, then check out the leaderboard at opengolf.com to see how they're faring on day two
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