Jordan Spieth found himself in the rare position, for him, of not leading at the end of a round in a major golf tournament on Thursday, but he happily settled for an opening 67 in the British Open.
The 21-year-old Texan, who has taken the golfing world by storm this year, led or co-led at the end of seven of the eight rounds he played en route to winning the Masters and US Open.
His mission now at St Andrews is to match Ben Hogan in 1953 and make it three majors in a row, thus opening up the mouthwatering prospect of becoming the first player to pull off the calender-year Grand Slam at next month’s PGA Championship.
Spieth, who was criticised for not coming to Scotland before Monday, having had little previous experience of links golf, certainly showed no unfamiliarity as he birdied his first three holes.
He reached the turn in five under 31, matching playing partner Dustin Johnson, before his usually reliable putter went cold down the back nine with bogeys at 13 and 17, the notorious Road Hole.
However, he finished in style by sinking a snaking 20-footer for birdie at the last and a round of 67.
It had been a good way to end his round, he agreed in front of the iconic Royal and Ancient clubhouse where he hopes to hold aloft the Claret Jug on Sunday.
“It was certainly nice to finish that way. I hit a drive that would have been in big, big trouble on any other hole,” he said.
“Luckily it was the 18th at St Andrews. Got a good number. I walked the entire thing off. It was like 92 yards I walked to the green because we weren’t sure from that angle how far we had.
“To see that putt go in was nice. To steal the one back from 17 and to shoot even par on the back nine, which once you turn into that breeze, is a good score.”
Spieth was full of praise for the way Johnson played as the man from South Carolina came in with a pace-setting 65.
There had been no talk, he said, about what had happened a month ago at Chambers Bay when Johnson three-putted at the last to hand the US Open title to him.
“It was an unfortunate ending to the Open in general, and today we just got off to a normal round of golf like always, and we were able to actually feed off each other and enjoy the day,” Spieth said.
It remained to be seen if Johnson can continue to keep booming out the 380-yard long drives that Spieth knows he cannot match.
“I’ve played enough golf with him to where I believe in my skill set that I can still trump that crazy ability that he has,” he said.