'Brain fart' hurts Spieth despite ridiculously brave putt

Jordan Spieth has lamented the “brain fart” which saw him drop four shots and undo some amazing work with the putter in his British Open title defence.

The defending champion’s bid to become the first player to win back-to-back Open titles for a decade took a nasty turn late in the opening round after the American has wowed fans with his putter.

Spieth found himself in a spot of bother at the par-three 8th when he decided to take on the huge bunker protecting the green in front of him with the flat stick.

The world number six showed incredible bravery to roll his putt centimetres away from the lip of the bunker – watching as the ball twisted, turned and stopped within a couple of metres of the hole.

He then rolled in the short putt for the gutsiest of par saves.

Spieth was three-under-par after 14 holes of his opening round at Carnoustie before running up a double bogey on the 15th, dropping another shot on the 16th and scrambling for a bogey on the 18th after driving into the Barry Burn.

The resulting 72 left Spieth six shots behind clubhouse leader and housemate Kevin Kisner as he seeks to emulate Ireland’s Padraig Harrington in 2008 in holding on to the Claret Jug.

“The problem [on 15] was on the second shot,” Spieth said. “I should have hit enough club to reach the front of the green, and even if it goes 20 yards over the green, it’s an easy up and down.

“That’s what I would consider as a significant advantage for me, recognising where the misses are, and I just had a brain fart and I missed it into the only pot bunker where I could actually get in trouble, and it plugged deep into it.

“It was a really, really poor decision on the second shot and that cost me.”

Fellow American Kevin Kisner took the first step towards joining his housemates as a major champion after a superb start at Carnoustie.

Kisner, who led by a shot after 54 holes of last year’s US PGA Championship before finishing seventh, carded a five-under-par 66 to secure a one-shot lead over compatriot Tony Finau and the South African pair of Erik van Rooyen and Zander Lombard.

Rory McIlroy, seeking a first major title since 2014, was part of a large group on two-under which also included Spain’s Jon Rahm, world No.2 Justin Thomas, 2015 winner Zach Johnson and the English pair of Danny Willett and Matthew Southgate.

Tiger Woods had arrived at the course with tape visible on the back of his neck, a worrying sign given the 42-year-old’s litany of injury problems in recent seasons.

But although the 14-time major winner visibly winced after hitting his opening tee shot, that appeared to be the result of getting some dust from the dry ground in his eye and he went on to make an ideal start with a birdie from 10 feet.

Woods, who has not won a major since the 2008 US Open, also birdied the fourth and followed a bogey on the 10th with another birdie from 35 feet on the next, but dropped shots on the 13th and 15th and had to settle for a level-par 71.

Marc Leishman remained defiant despite letting a golden start to the British Open slip with a deflating back-nine collapse.

Leishman was flying one shot off the lead after collecting four birdies in his first eight holes before fading to a one-over-par 72 in the difficult afternoon conditions at Carnoustie.

“Good start and bad finish. If you hit bad shots around here, you get punished. Unfortunately, I hit a couple of average shots that finished in bad positions,” Leishman said.

“You can rack up bogeys and doubles pretty quick.

“The front nine was promising. Back nine obviously wasn’t what I was after.”

The 2015 runner-up ended the day six strokes off the pace and will battle forecast rain when attempts to revive his hopes on Friday.

With AAP