PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland – David Duval had relatively high expectations for this week’s Open Championship, at least for a TV-analyst-turned-part-time-professional, and through four holes those expectations were well founded.

The 2001 Open champion birdied his first two holes at Royal Portrush and was 2 under through four when disaster struck with a quadruple-bogey 8 at the fifth.

Things got much worse two holes later.

Duval lost his first two shots off the tee at the seventh. When he found, or at least thought he found, his third attempt in the deep rough he played it just short of the green. That's when a caddie in the group noticed that Duval was playing the wrong golf ball. Duval was instructed to go back to where the wrong ball was played, but he could not find the correct one.

“A couple of bad tee shots and then we thought the marshal had my ball, asked if it was a Titleist 2. I glanced and saw a 2 and went and played almost the entirety of the hole – and turns out – with the wrong ball,” Duval said.

Duval had to go back to the tee at the par-5 seventh lying eight strokes (first tee shot lost; penalty; second tee shot lost; penalty; third tee shot lost; penalty; two-stroke penalty for playing  wrong ball). He teed off again – for a fourth time – and took six strokes to finish the hole from there, adding up to a nonuple-bogey 14.

Duval called the episode a “god-awful nightmare” and things didn’t get any better with five more bogeys and a triple-bogey 7 at the last that added up to a 20-over 91.

“I have an obligation, and I don’t know if it’s more or less here. Maybe it is more because I have won. But you have an obligation that if you play, you post your score,” he said. “Am I happy about that? Is there some hint of embarrassment to it? I don’t know. I teed off in The Open and shot [91] so put it on the board.”

Duval said he’s been slowed this week by tendinitis in his left arm but plans to play the second round regardless of his score on Thursday or his injury.

“Obviously I'll be in last place,” he said, “but maybe if I am feeling good I can try not to be in last place after the end of the week.”

PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland – The first round of The Open included a little more work than Kevin Kisner had expected.

Kisner’s caddie, Duane Bock, injured his right calf, which is slightly ironic given the generous size of Bock’s calves, on Wednesday and the three-time PGA Tour winner had to enlist the services of swing coach John Tillery for the opening round.

“[Tillery] was good. We had a good time,” Kisner said. “It was a little different but I think in the end it could probably help me. So [Tillery] can see it live in the flesh right beside me and see what happens in certain situations.”

The bigger challenge for Kisner on Thursday was catching up on all the homework Bock had done at Royal Portrush to prepare for this week.

“It's just so different. The routine is different, me doing my own yardages for the first time in a long time, not really paying any attention to it early in the week because Dewey always caddied early in the week,” said Kisner, who added that Bock planned to have an MRI on his calf on Thursday.

Kisner’s replacement caddie didn’t seem to impact Kisner’s play. He shot a 1-under 70 and was tied for 18^th when he completed his round with an eagle at the second and birdies at Nos. 4, 8, 16 and 17.

PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland – Bethpage, Bellerive, Shinnecock Hills, Erin Hills – Brooks Koepka continues to prove that his brilliance travels.

The four-time major champion continued his impressive run in the game’s most important events with an opening 68 at The Open where he was tied for fourth place. He’s now been tied for fourth or better after 13 of his last 16 rounds in a major.

“I played pretty solid. I missed it in the right spots all day. Didn't really make any putts. Didn't take advantage of anything to really go low,” said Koepka, whose record in his last four major starts is first, second, first and second. “But definitely didn't shoot myself out of it, so I'm OK with that.”

Koepka’s only miscue was at the 17th hole when his drive sailed well wide of the fairway and he was forced to chip out. He’s two shots off the lead held by J.B. Holmes.

Koepka’s best finish in an Open is a tie for sixth place in 2017 but he was encouraged after Day 1 and said he’s embraced the challenge of Royal Portrush.

“I like the creativity you have to have,” he said of links golf. “You'll be standing over a shot and I see about 20 different flights and shapes, any way you can get it close to the hole. It's just about picking the right one. That's what makes links golf so fun.”

PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland – It rained. It shined. It poured. It poured some more.

Thursday’s opening round of the 148th Open at Royal Portrush was a schizophrenic display of Mother Nature.

When J.B. Holmes walked off the course with the first-round lead, having shot 5-under 66, he was asked if he had ever before experienced conditions quite like this.

In fact, he had. At this course.

Around 15 years ago, in 2004 or ’05, Holmes guesstimates, he came to Northern Ireland with his University of Kentucky teammates as part of a boosters’ trip. Holmes said they were in the area for a week and played “five or six rounds,” one of which came at famed Royal County Down and another at Royal Portrush.

The latter stood out as much for the weather as the venue.

“I played here, and the first hole we had short sleeves on, looks like the clouds came up, and next hole it was raining so hard we couldn't see. People were losing umbrellas, that were blowing away. Then three holes later we were taking all our rain gear off and we were hot again,” Holmes said.

“That was actually the most drastic, but it was at this golf course.”

Thursday’s elemental changes didn’t surprise Holmes and neither did his play, despite a slew of missed cuts since winning the Genesis Open.

Holmes captured his fifth PGA Tour win at Riviera Country Club in February and then had eight of his next 12 stroke-play tournament weekends off. He had missed seven consecutive cuts before tying for 21st in the Rocket Mortgage Classic, his final start ahead of The Open.

“It's been pretty rocky. I played great that one tournament, had a win. You take that away, it's probably actually been one of my worst years I've played. I've really struggled with my swing kind of after I won. At Detroit I had been working on it and it clicked in there and I started hitting it better,” Holmes said.

“I've been practicing the last couple of weeks. I've been playing great. So actually, felt great coming in.”

If his turnaround didn’t come as a surprise, perhaps the fact that it happened in a major did. Holmes has only two top-10 finishes in 34 major championship starts. The good news is, one of those came in the 2016 Open at Royal Troon.

Holmes finished 11 shots behind runner-up Phil Mickelson and 14 in arrears of the champion, Henrik Stenson. But he beat everyone else in the field, claiming a career-best third-place showing.

“That was a great week for me. And it teaches me I can come out and play. There were two guys that got really hot that week. Besides that I pretty much had beat the field,” Holmes said. “So that's definitely a boost. I learned a lot playing in that event. And you try to take that to the next one.”

PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland – Given Jon Rahm’s history on links courses in Northern Ireland, it was no surprise to see the Spaniard in the hunt after Day 1 of The Open.

Rahm, who won the 2017 Irish Open down the road at Portstewart Golf Club and grabbed another Irish Open title two weeks ago at Lahinch, got off to a fast start Thursday with birdies at Nos. 2 and 4 before closing his nine with three consecutive birdies to turn at 5 under.

Rahm slowed on the closing loop with bogeys at Nos. 11, 15 and 18 to finish with a 68 and a share of third place, two strokes off the lead.

“I feel like I played two rounds out there today. Still a great score, my best score in an Open Championship,” Rahm said. “Obviously a really good first 12 holes. The only mistake was 11, it was still a decent shot. It just got tough at the end, honestly.”

It was another impressive links performance for Rahm on a day that included an equal mix of sunshine and driving rain.

“It's Open golf. It happens so much out here,” he said. “Luckily it just rained for a couple of minutes at a time and then it goes away. Because if it was more like a two- or three- or four-hole stretch, it's the kind of weather that can maybe make you lose your momentum and just not get the round going.”

Despite Rahm’s success in the Irish Open, it hasn’t translated to results at The Open. In three starts, he’s missed the cut (2018), tied for 44th (2017) and shared 59th (2016).