{"id":19070,"date":"2025-07-18T14:00:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T14:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/19070\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T14:00:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T14:00:11","slug":"open-stars-first-shot-goes-just-176-yards-and-fails-to-reach-fairway-in-portrush-nightmare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/19070\/","title":{"rendered":"Open star’s first shot goes just 176 yards and fails to reach fairway in Portrush nightmare"},"content":{"rendered":"

The opening round of The Open Championship swiftly became a disaster for K.J. Choi, with the former PGA Tour star hitting an awful opening tee shot and it set the dominoes falling in a dismal start<\/p>\n

05:35 ET, 17 Jul 2025Updated 16:55 ET, 17 Jul 2025<\/p>\n

\"K.J.K.J. Choi made a dismal start to The Open Championship(Image: Andrew Redington\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

K.J. Choi’s horror start at The Open Championship<\/a> on Thursday was started by a bungled tee shot at Royal Portrush’s first hole.<\/p>\n

Choi was one of the early starters in Northern Ireland, teeing off at 6:46 a.m. local time, and he set the tone for a nightmare day on the Dunluce Course, where members have warned players of its brutal nature.<\/a> In a moment that will make the high handicapers among us feel better about their games, the former world No. 5 failed to make clean contact with his drive and it went just 176 yards.<\/p>\n

That was not far enough to make the fairway, although it was not as bad as Romain Langasque’s 84-yard effort at Royal Troon 12 months ago. But to make matters worse, the South Korean pulled it left into perilously thick rough. It comes as a Super Bowl champion dies at 38 just weeks after diagnosis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: What Rory McIlroy did moments after missing out on Scottish Open showed true colors<\/a>READ MORE: The Open Championship star heartbroken as caddie banned from entering UK<\/a><\/p>\n

Marshals eventually found Choi’s ball, and the 55-year-old would eventually find the short grass.<\/p>\n

But he could not avoid dropping a shot, which set the bogey train in motion. Choi was eight-over-par through his opening nine holes, and another bogey followed at the 11th hole.<\/p>\n

The eight-time PGA Tour winner, whose big victories include The Players and the Memorial Tournament, is playing in The Open for the first time since 2014.<\/p>\n

He qualified for the tournament by winning last year’s Senior Open Championship at Carnoustie by two shots from Richard Green.<\/p>\n

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Major glory eluded Choi in the first chapter of his career, and he admitted it was a “dream” to finally get over the line once making the move to the senior circuit. He said: “I’m very happy for my life. If everyone can pray a lot, [it is] very historical for a Korean player to win this.”<\/p>\n

Choi’s struggles appeared to be infectious. His playing partners in the second group of the day, 2010 Open champion Louis Oosthuizen and Guido Migliozzi, also made dreadful starts to their rounds at Royal Portrush. Both men were five-over-par by the time they reached the 12th tee.<\/p>\n

Cam Smith, the 2022 Open Champion, and fellow Australian Jason Day were also exposed by the challenge of Portrush in the early action. Both men made the turn at three-over-par and have plenty of work to do to rescue a score.<\/p>\n

As does Padraig Harrington, who is also three-over as he nears the closing stages of his first round after hitting the opening shot of the tournament.<\/p>\n

American talent Max Geryserman, meanwhile, went out in 42 for a six-over-par front nine and already has a mountain to climb to make the cut.<\/p>\n

At the right end of the leaderboard, veterans Phil Mickelson, 55, and Lee Westwood, 52, are among the fast starters.<\/p>\n

They have rolled back the years are in a seven-way tie for the early lead at two-under-par.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The opening round of The Open Championship swiftly became a disaster for K.J. Choi, with the former PGA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19071,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[17653,427,17652,16337,10658,3332,16336,99,13035],"class_list":["post-19070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-cam-smith","tag-golf","tag-jason-day","tag-lee-westwood","tag-liv-golf","tag-pga-tour","tag-phil-mickelson","tag-sports","tag-the-open-championship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}