GULLANE, Scotland – A surprise leader midway through his round on Day 1 at Muirfield, India’s Shiv Kapur faded slightly on the back nine but still finds himself among the early contenders at the Open Championship.
Kapur, who birdied six of his first seven holes, turned at 6 under par but double bogeyed the 10th and gave back another shot at the 14th to finish with a 68 for a share of fourth place with the likes of Dustin Johnson, Miguel Angel Jimenez and Brandt Snedeker.
It makes sense that Kapur would find his way atop the Muirfield leaderboard. The only other time Kapur played the Open was in 2006 at Hoylake when the fairways and greens had a similar brownish bounce to them.
“Got off to a dream start,” said Kapur, the 210th-ranked player in the world. “After that I just said, just keep doing what you’re doing, do the basics right, hit fairways and greens. Probably the fastest greens I’ve ever played in my life. They weren’t green, they were white out there.’