While the early groups faced some rain on Thursday morning, most of the field for the 146th Open Championships had conditions not usually associated with the season's third major. Sunny skies paired with low scores and by the end of the day the course that saw Padraig Harrington win at 3-over par in 2008 had 39 under-par scores on the leaderboard with Jordan Spieth, Brooks Koepka and Matt Kuchar at the top after shooting 65.
"I thought today's round was extremely important, as they all are, but given the forecast coming in, I thought you really needed to be in the red today," Spieth told reporters after the round. "You can certainly make up ground, in a round like tomorrow, and we'll see it happen, but being able to kind of play with shots or play a little more conservative, you make a bogey, because you don't try to do too much on a day like tomorrow, that's nice and very helpful."
That forecast, as Spieth mentioned looks much more similar to what most golf fans think of for The Open. There's a better than 50 percent chance of rain in the forecast for all three remaining rounds with penalizing winds coming Friday.
Forecast via Weather.com:
Friday
High 68 | Low 54
Wind: SSE 24 mph
After overnight rain, the forecast calls for rain and wind with a 80 percent chance of rain and wind gusts occasionally over 40 mph with more sustained rain showers later in the afternoon.
Saturday
High 67 | Low 55
Wind: SSE 12 mph
Partly cloudy skies in the morning with rain in the afternoon. Winds 10-15 mph and 70 percent chance of rain.
Sunday
High 65 | Low 58
Winds: WNW 16 mph
Steady rain in the morning, showers continuing into the afternoon. Chance of rain currently forecast at 70 percent.
