St Andrews, Scotland: American Robert Streb made a dream British Open debut on Thursday when he carded a six-under-par 66 to set the early pace at St Andrews and said he had Tom Watson to thank for helping him tame the Old Course.
Streb, 28, has almost no experience of links golf and had never been to St Andrews before this week but looked completely at home, albeit with ideal conditions for the early starters.
Five birdies on the front nine had him flying and though he dropped a shot on 10, he picked up two more on the way back and finished with three solid pars as the wind became a bit tricky.
“I had that wind helping off the right on the way out, so that’s nice for a right-handed golfer and I tried to take advantage of the holes on the way out and made some good putts,” he told reporters.
“There was one little hiccup on 10, but other than that, I played pretty solid. Luckily you can miss a lot of shots to the left out here. It’s been really cool. Really enjoyed everything about it.” Streb said that he played a practice round on Tuesday with Watson, the five-times winner who is playing his last Open this week.
“I tried to get as much information as I could -- he was pretty helpful,” Streb said.
“He’s obviously had a great track record over here. I tried to arrange it last week and luckily he was nice enough to play. I live in Kansas City and he lives there as well, but I knew this week would be very busy for him. He has a lot going on.
“Probably the best thing I got was try not to hit it too far into the green on 17. Just try to get it up there on top and take your two putts and leave.” Streb, who had never played in any of the majors before appearing at the Masters and US Open this year, said he expected things to become a lot more difficult if, as is forecast, the weather turns bad over the next few days.
“I’m sure it won’t be very easy,” he said. “I haven’t had the pleasure of playing this place in real heavy wind yet, but I’m sure it will be a treat, and it’ll be entirely different for me tomorrow.”
