Weather reigns as three share lead at Open

Greg Norman can't stand the sight of his shot on 17, but he was on target with a 70. (JON SUPER/Associated Press)

SOUTHPORT, England - At some point early in the walk around Royal Birkdale yesterday - perhaps after an Andres Romero bullet of a shot barely got a foot off the ground for its 55-yard flight, or after J.B. Holmes barely navigated 300 yards on three shots at the opening hole, or after Ernie Els unleashed a tee shot of more than 330 yards at the eighth - the thought came driving home on the strength of sideways rain and 30-mile-per-hour wind:

This first round of the 137th British Open was bloody brilliant stuff.

Cold and wet, for sure. Uncomfortable and unforgiving, no doubt. But if there was one unmistakable testament to the greatness of this championship and all it has stood for since 1860, it was spotted beneath the umbrellas and rain hats, up in the sand dunes, and amid knee-high wavering grass. The people had come with unrelenting passion to line fairways, circle greens, and marvel at the test of golf they were witnessing.

"Absolutely amazing. But it is the Open Championship and people come from all over the world," said Craig Parry, who graciously accepted the honor of hitting the opening tee shot. He proceeded to deliver 76 more swings through periods of downpours and gales, then retired to the warmth of the locker room with a 7-over-par 77, and to those who may have wondered, he added, "and that was good."

Certainly, on a day when the temperature failed to break 15 - and while they said it was Celsius, it may just as well have been Fahrenheit, it was that cold - and the wind came whipping off the Irish Sea with unyielding fury, it was impossible to judge the numbers in a manner to which we are accustomed. That is because what it read on the scorecard didn't matter. On this day, if you asked what par was, it was Parry who supplied the most accurate shot: "Irrelevant," said the Aussie, a veteran of 16 previous British Opens. "Unbelievable is the only way to describe it."

Notice he did not say unplayable or unfair, terms that did not apply, but were implied by players who supplied a bit of whine after so much water.

"I don't see it as golf," said Californian Pat Perez. "They do here, but I don't."

Out in the second group of a playing day that would stretch 10 hours 15 minutes, Perez was not part of a leaderboard that took shape mostly in the afternoon, when the rain subsided and the wind settled. Rocco Mediate, Graeme McDowell, and Robert Allenby all went off after lunch and shot 1-under 69 to share the lead, while those who shot 70 - Greg Norman, Adam Scott, and Bart Bryant - also had afternoon tee times. But certainly, Perez contributed to the voices that grumbled early, his 82 giving him reason to vent.

But so, too, had Parry's playing partner in the first group, Simon Dyson, moaned that "you can't play; it's nearly unplayable," after he had required 82 swings. And Jerry Kelly in the fourth group? His 83 gave him cause to gripe that the tees were too far back at the 436-yard 11th and 439-yard 16th, holes on which he didn't reach the fairway and went bogey, triple bogey.

A combined 37 over, these players set a bad tone for what was a truly remarkable day, though barely should their words register. We are not talking the reincarnation here of Taylor, Braid, and Vardon - the Great Triumvirate - because Perez, Kelly, and Dyson have combined for 20 missed cuts in 51 major championships with but four top 10s. But moan they did.

"Now I know why Kenny [Perry] stayed home," said Perez, and Dyson reacted to Sandy Lyle's stunning walk off the course after 10 holes by wholeheartedly endorsing it. "Don't blame him one bit," said Dyson. "I felt like it after 10. It's a slog."

Adding to the recipe of discontent was Kelly's assertion that the tees at 11 and 16 were unfair, but all of this had to be qualified with a cup of that age-old sweetener, perspective. Kelly's argument was tempered by the fact that No. 158 in PGA Tour driving distance, Heath Slocum, hit his tee ball onto both the 11th and 16th fairways and went par, bogey. As for Dyson and Perez, let the record show that the 334th-ranked player in the world, the unheralded Jean-Baptiste Gonnet, produced a commendable 75 in the second group of the day, while 58-year-old Tom Watson turned in a 74, as did defending champion Padraig Harrington with a bum wrist, Justin Rose without a birdie, and Brendan Jones with a bogey-bogey start - all of them out in the same sort of bone-chilling cold and bone-soaking rain.

"I'm not saying it has to be perfect . . . " said Perez.

To offset his moans and those of the others, so many polished veterans with impeccable major championship résumés paid tribute to the heart of this competition, for which "perfection" has never been a prerequisite.

From Harrington: "I enjoyed the battle today. I enjoyed going out there, and it really was a battle. You're looking at close to 40 percent of the field that really aren't prepared to play in weather like that. So, yes, it does give you an advantage, big advantage."

From Retief Goosen, who sits with Jim Furyk, Mike Weir, and five others at 71: "I don't mind tough conditions. In a way, you sort of feel that maybe half the field is not trying anymore because they're tough conditions."

From Norman, at 53 some 15 years removed from his last British Open glory: "I think the golf course has been set up by the [Royal & Ancient] about the fairest and toughest I've ever seen."

Nowhere in the crowd of 156 players did anyone talk of consistent conditions, for they surely improved during the day. Whereas the morning players had a field average of 77.81, those in the afternoon scored 74.49, a fact that late tee-time beneficiary Sergio Garcia conceded. "It was not as tough as this morning," said the betting favorite, whose 72 featured just one birdie out of his 2:31 tee time. "[Still], lots of wind and long holes."

Amen to that, and most definitely those factors contributed to the woes of some notable names: Geoff Ogilvy, Justin Leonard, and Angel Cabrera had 77s; Paul Casey and Lucas Glover went for 78s; Phil Mickelson shot 79; and both Els and Vijay Singh for the first time in their British Open histories shot 80.

Stunning stuff on a brilliant day of competitive spirit, though it was overshadowed in some small part by those who failed to see it as such. Lyle, for instance. The abrupt departure of the 50-year-old former champion, along with that of Rich Beem, made Peter Dawson shake his head.

"I have to say," said the R&A chief executive, "professional golfers should complete the round."

As did tens of thousands of hardy fans, it should be noted.

"We have to be grateful for that. It only happens here," Dawson said.

He meant the fans, though he could have been speaking about the weather, too.

Jim McCabe can be reached at jmccabe@globe.com.