O’Connor Has a 64 and Record

Henry Cotton, a spry 78, too old and too wise to be surprised by whatever might occur on a golf course, had only one question to ask the British Open’s first-round leader.

“Did you play all 18?” he wondered.

Christy O’Connor laughed, the Irishman’s gray eyes sparkling--no, not smiling--perhaps wondering himself.

The question, a bit of English drollery, was hardly audacious. O’Connor had just completed his opening round at Royal St. George’s Thursday in 64 strokes, six-under par, and one fewer than Cotton’s course record, set 51 years before.

The record now belongs to a pot-bellied, silver-haired, ruddy-faced 36-year-old who has not won on the European tour in 10 years. But there he was Thursday in the gentle morning breezes blowing off the English Channel, blowing off seven birdies at a stretch in a stunning 10-birdie round.

And there he was, four strokes ahead of a knot of five mostly undistinguished golfers tied for second with two-under-par 68s.

After one round of the oldest and most venerated of golf’s major tournaments, Christy O’Connor Jr., himself, was eight strokes ahead of Tom Watson, 11 strokes ahead of defending champion Severiano Ballesteros, 13 strokes ahead of Jack Nicklaus, and only one stroke shy of the best round ever produced in 114 years of Open play.

All 18, indeed.

“At No. 9, I thought to myself that this was getting funny,” O’Connor said. “I just hoped it would never stop.”

At No. 9, O’Connor was making the sixth of seven consecutive birdies, and something funny was happening at Royal St. George’s: O’Connor was destroying the course.

He was hitting the ball straight, keeping it out of the rough, and putting as if he had found truth on the greens of St. George’s.

Once upon a time, all this might have surprised no one. Christy O’Connor Jr. is, after all, the nephew of Christy O’Connor Sr., perhaps the most famous of all Irish golfers.

Old Christy is legendary, as a drinker and a golfer, and young Christy, named for his uncle, joined the European tour 15 years ago with a name far greater than his game.

“At the beginning, yes it was difficult,” O’Connor said. “Everyone thought I was an offspring. I felt better when people realized I wasn’t as good.”

His best year was 1975, when O’Connor won two tournaments, including the Irish Open. But an unsteady putter and what O’Connor describes as negative thinking have left him a middling player, certainly no challenge to his uncle or to many others.

“I suppose I could have done better, without a doubt,” O’Connor said of his career.

This week could be a start, if a late one. Old Christy never won the British Open. No one from the Republic of Ireland has ever won the British Open, although Fred Daly, of Belfast in Northern Ireland, did win the title in 1947.

There are three rounds remaining, and there are no parades yet scheduled in Galway, home to the golfing O’Connors.

“I haven’t done nothing yet,” O’Connor said.

Maybe he knows what might happen, what usually happens to unknowns who lead the British Open in the first round. He talked of how he has had problems concentrating. He talked about how his uncle was “a brave player . . . with nerves of steel.”

Young Christie showed some steel Thursday, bogeying two of his first three holes, then beginning his birdie spree.

On No. 4, he sank a 12-footer. On 5, another 12 footer. On 6, he made a birdie from 20 feet. He two-putted for a birdie on the par-five No. 7, then followed that with a 20-foot putt on No. 8.

He needed only 2 feet on 9 and then 10 feet on 10, and he had put together the most remarkable string of seven holes ever at the British Open.

After a par on 11, his first par of the day, O’Connor finished with two birdies, three pars and two bogeys, and left the rest of the field wondering how he’d done it.

No one was very close to his score. Tied at 68 were veteran Australian David Graham, young Tony Johnstone of Zimbabwe, Scot Sandy Lyle and British youngsters Robert Lee and Phillip Parkin.

Five other players broke par at 69, including Fuzzy Zoeller and D.A. Weibring, the leading Americans in the year many Americans stayed away.

Nicklaus, still searching after five years for his 18th major title, probably wishes he had stayed away. He double-bogeyed Nos. 8 and 14, the two disaster holes on the course Thursday, and didn’t make a single birdie while shooting a 77.

Beginning late in the day, Nicklaus played most of his round in the rain. Afterward, he was wet and weary.

“I’m not a very good rain player,” said Nicklaus, who shot an 83 here in his opening round in the rain four years ago. “I hate playing golf in the rain and I do not play well in the rain.

“It seems about five years, it’s been late tee times and worse weather.”

Watson, who has won five Opens, played a steady round, but couldn’t make any putts. Ballesteros, the heavy favorite here, had the same problem as Watson.

Ballesteros, in a possible lapse of taste, said of his putting: “It looked like I was imitating Jose Feliciano.”

Bernhard Langer, another player expected to do well, shot a 72 despite a triple bogey on 15.

The course had its way with most of the field, but not with not-so-young, Young Christy.

He finished 42nd of the money list on the European tour last year, and three times in the last six years he has failed to make the top 50. But he has had his moments in the Open. In 1976, he shot 30 on the front side at Royal Birkdale on the way to an opening-round 69. He finished in a tie for fifth that year and tied for eighth in 1983.

“My uncle told me I could win the Open if I was brave enough to play the course and not play too negative a game,” O’Connor said.

He played positively Thursday, but sipping on a pint of ale after the round, he didn’t sound quite so certain as he had played. “I hope I won’t let it slip away,” he said.