Good and satisfying to play a bogey free round, says Shubhankar Sharma

Sharma had 17 pars and his sole birdie was courtesy a brilliant 30-foot monster putt and when play ended he was Tied-20th. Sharma is four shots behind the leader, J B Holmes, who birdied the 18th to move to five-under. However, the 22-year old, despite missing a few chances in the opening rounds and later in the 12th, is overall very satisfied with his opening round returns.

"15 was the longest, 14 and 15 were about 5 feet. Same on the 18th, as well, was about a 5-footer. 15 was a 20-footer for par. So I was in the center of the fairway, hit a bad second shot and it was a tough up-and-down from there. Made that par putt. After that (birdie on 13) I kind of was beginning to read the line properly and made a few crucial ones coming in," Sharma said.

"He just played solid. The best thing about him is that he isn't very cluttered in the mind. He's very calm on the course. He has good decision making and you can see that he's the world No. 1. He gets on the ball and gets on very quickly. I think that's the best part,” Sharma added.

However, Rory McIlroy, a big pre-tournament favourite had a day to forget. He opened with a quadruple bogey and ended with a triple bogey for an eight-over 79. This could easily seem him miss the cut at the tournament. The 2013 Open winner, Phil Mickelson went to five-over 76, while three-time Open winner, Tiger Woods, was struggling at seven-over 78.