British Open: Round 1 Offers Surprises

Rocco Mediate - there he is again. Rocco, who made such a mark at the U.S. Open with his battle against Tiger Woods, is one of three co-leaders after the first round of the British Open.

Leaderboard
Rocco Mediate, 69
Graeme McDowell, 69
Robert Allenby, 69
Greg Norman, 70
Adam Scott, 70
Bart Bryant, 70
Full scores

There were some surprises on the first day. One of the biggest surprises is that there are no real surprises among the top 10 or so players on the leaderboard. After Bryant come Mike Weir, Retief Goosen and Jim Furyk among the group at 71. The British Open is usually chock full of unlikely names on the first-day leaderboard.

I suppose many will consider 52-year-old Greg Norman a big surprise. And his round probably is a fluke - I don't expect him to contend through Sunday. But I've always believed that Norman would have remained competitive on the PGA Tour had he chosen to continue playing regularly. Even at 52, Norman is so talented that if he was still dedicated to his game, he would be contending occasionally at PGA Tour events.

Another surprise is just how poorly some of the superstars did. The weather was terrible for much of the day, and only three players managed to break par. Still, Phil Mickelson (79), Ernie Els (80) and Vijay Singh (80) are near the bottom of the first-round results.

More on the British Open

See also:

• Royal Birkdale photos