Dan Brown leads The Open after dream debut at Troon

Dan Brown carded a brilliant bogey-free 65 in his first round at a Major Championship to lead by one after day one of The Open.

The Englishman had not played a weekend on the DP World Tour since March before making the cut at last week's Genesis Scottish Open but found his form in spectacular style at Royal Troon.

His six under par effort saw him lead the way from 2019 Open champion Shane Lowry, with two-time Major winner Justin Thomas at three under.

English duo Joe Dean and Justin Rose, American pair Russell Henley and Xander Schauffele, Dane Nicolai Højgaard, Swede Alex Noren and Canadian Mackenzie Hughes were then four shots off the lead.

Brown earned his Major debut with a 20-footer on the last at Final Qualifying, with the 36-hole contest at West Lancashire coming in the middle of a torrid run of results on Tour as he recovered from a knee injury.

The 2023 ISPS HANDA World Invitational presented by AVIV Clinics champion had two top tens on the 2024 Race to Dubai before he sat out nearly two months with injury.

Upon his return in May, he recorded six missed cuts and a retirement before last week's 61st-placed finish at The Renaissance Club and has continued his Scottish surge in remarkable fashion with brother Ben as his caddie.

"I was playing well leading up to the tournament," he said. "Scores haven't really reflected it recently but I felt comfortable and probably a bit more calm than you normally would be with it being your first Major.

"I was nervous on the first tee, obviously it being my first Major, but I hit a few nice shots early so I kind of got settled into the round pretty quick.

"I'm going to try and sort of keep my feet on the ground a bit and take on the job again tomorrow."

He added: "He (brother Ben) has been caddying for me the last few weeks. He didn't caddie at West Lancs. He was playing himself in the Final Qualifying.

"He did well in the morning but then he started pulling in the afternoon, so he retired. I think he saw that I was up towards the top, so he came over and watched the last few holes at West Lancs.

"He's been struggling with a little injury, so he hasn't been playing much. I said to him, I like having him on the bag. He's good at reading greens and he's obviously a good golfer himself. So he can give good advice. To share my first Major with him on the bag is nice."

He put a beautiful second to three feet at the fourth and then a tee-shot to tap-in range at the par-three fifth after going out in the penultimate group of the day.

Long putts at the tenth and 11th handed him a birdie-birdie-start to the back nine and he got up and down from a tough spot on the par-five 16th before a stroke of luck on the 18th handed him the solo lead.

He saw his tee-shot on the par four skip through a bunker but took full advantage, putting an approach to eight feet and holing his putt in the fading light.

Lowry hit an excellent approach to around ten feet at the par-five fourth after laying up and put a pitch to similar range on the short par-four seventh before a brilliant tee-shot handed him a share of the lead at the Postage Stamp.

The Irishman led on his own as he holed a 20-footer on the 11th and a stunning second to five feet at the last moved him to five under.

American Thomas was the man to set the early target, carding birdies on the second, fourth, seventh and eighth with a bogey on the fifth to turn in 33.

Another gain on the tenth saw him be the first man to get to four under and while he double-bogeyed the 12th and dropped a shot at the 13th, he picked two of those shots back up on his final two holes.

Rose put approaches inside ten feet at the third and seventh for a pair of birdies in a bogey-free round, while Noren and Højgaard both carded four birdies and two bogeys.

Dean was one over at the turn but picked up three shots on the back nine, with Schauffele getting to three under through 11 before surrendering his only bogey of the day on the 14th.

Henley also made a single bogey in his 69, while Hughes made five birdies but gave up three bogeys.

World Number One Scottie Scheffler, fellow Americans Chris Kirk and Brooks Koepka, English pair Matt Fitzpatrick and Matt Wallace, Austria's Sepp Straka and Australian Adam Scott were the only other players under par at one under.