It’s (Thomas) Bjorn again at Royal St. George’s

From Sandwich, England

A compelling story blew in with the wind off the English Channel on Thursday.

Eight hours later, another one surfaced in the suddenly warm and calm overcast that hovered over the normally windy golfing torture chamber known as Royal St. George’s.

The early tale of the day came from a most unexpected place. Half the field hadn’t even teed it up in the first round of the British Open, and there was Thomas Bjorn, the emotional Dane, walking off the 18th green around noon with a five-under-par 65 and the lead. It was one that looked as if it would hold up.

It did, but not alone.

Bjorn was probably well into his dinner when 20-year-old British amateur Tom Lewis putted out on No. 18 for a lead-tying 65. The last time an amateur led a round of the British Open was 1968. More intriguing, this amateur was named after longtime British Open star Tom Watson, played in the same threesome Thursday with Watson and shot seven shots better than the legend himself.

Oh, and Lewis has a brother named Jack. Guess whom he is named after? You can’t make this stuff up.

Being blessed with the Bjorn story would have been more than enough. When he finished, sportswriters looked heavenward in thanks. The usual first-round leader of a major golf tournament is some guy with 11 vowels in his name.

The 40-year-old Bjorn hit his shots at the pins all day, through the usual bluster of Royal St. George’s. When he met the press, the room was electric with emotion, mostly from the tears of joy of the media.

It was eight years ago, the last time the British Open was here, that Bjorn had his signature moment. Leading by three strokes on the final Sunday, he left his tee shot in a greenside bunker on the par-three 16th.

As the golf world watched, Bjorn sand-wedged his first attempt out. It got to the crest of the hill at the green, then stopped and slowly headed back whence it came, ending up in the sand in one of Bjorn’s footprints. Bjorn hit it again. Same thing. Up the hill and back down into the trap.

It may have been the closest thing to Jean Van de Velde, walking around in the water with his pants rolled up four years earlier, in the modern history of the British Open.

Bjorn, of course, did not win. Ben (who is he and where did he come from?) Curtis did.

On the scale of legendary golf collapses, Bjorn’s has top-10 status, just as he once had 10 years ago in the world rankings.

Collapses witnessed by 30 or 40 million people tend to permanently jostle your psyche.

Thursday’s Bjorn story was so much better because, in his first competitive look at the hole in eight years, he stared it down.

The 16th is 163 yards. Bjorn said he was between “a little eight-iron and a big nine” and when he hit his “big nine,” the wind caught it and held it over one of the greenside bunkers — not the same one of 2003 lore. But the ball cleared, took several nice bounces and ended up eight feet away. He made the birdie putt, his third in a row, and the ghost of No. 16 had been exorcised.

Bjorn got into this British Open after being the sixth alternate. The final withdrawal that got him his spot came from Vijay Singh, who pulled out because of a bad back. Interestingly, it was Singh who shared second place here with Bjorn in 2003.

In Bjorn’s most recent five events on the European tour, he has: missed the cut, withdrawn, missed the cut, tied for 57th and missed the cut. His ranking has slipped to No. 80.

He arrived at Royal St. George’s on Sunday, his first return since the disaster of ‘03, and didn’t know for certain that he would get into the field until Monday. That allowed him only one practice round.

Certainly worse than a run of bad golf — probably contributing to it — was the death of his father in May, after a lengthy illness.

During his news conference, Bjorn said things such as: “I’ve been very uncomfortable on the golf course for a long time.”

The topic of his father’s death really stopped him. Tears formed during a long pause before he said, “He meant a lot to me. He would have been very proud of what I did today. That’s all I’ve really got to say.”

Odds are that the slipper will come off both Cinderella stories well before Sunday, especially in the case of Bjorn. His news conference seemed more therapy session than golf-round postmortem.

“I never really let my mind wander…” he said. “I’m quite proud of that.”

Out on the fairways, the Lewis story was starting to rival Bjorn’s.

Lewis said he was nervous about not embarrassing himself on the first tee. He got off well there and one-putted the first eight greens. Afterward, Watson said others had told him the young man was named after him and denied that happened often.

“Maybe their dogs, or cats,” he said, the Huck Finn twinkle in his eye still there at 61.

It was an extraordinary opening day. A weather-beaten 40-year-old got a taste of what he once had, and a fresh-faced 20-year-old got a taste of what he might someday get.

And Ben Curtis shot 77.

bill.dwyre@latimes.com