IT wasn’t quite sunshine on Spieth during the first round of the 146th Open Championship here at Royal Birkdale.

That flaming ball up in the sky was just starting to break through as young Jordan was coming to the end of his opening 18 but the 23-year-old Texan had already done enough to illuminate affairs with a sprightly five-under 65 as an American assault force plonked a Star Spangled Banner at the summit of the leaderboard.

Rory McIlroy, meanwhile, almost flung his own spanner in the works as he leaked five shots on his first six holes but a spirited four-under back-nine salvaged a one-over 71.

Spieth may have hit just five of 14 fairways on a testy, tricky day but this was a display of skill, patience and resolve as he finished alongside Matt Kuchar and Brooks Koepka.

While Koepka burnished his 65 by holing his bunker shot on the 16th for an eagle, it was a gouge out of the sand on the same hole that gave Spieth his most satisfying moment of a profitable, purposeful day.

His approach dribbled into the menacing clutches of the pot bunker and came to rest on a slight slope near the back edge.

It was a perilous position but Spieth managed to howk it up and out and leave it some 10-feet from the flag. From there, he saved his par. It was a telling moment. “I thought it was the best shot of the day, no doubt about it,” he declared.

Rested and confident – he arrived at Birkdale after a three-week break following his win in June’s Travelers Championship – Spieth cut a contended, composed figure.

All is well with the double major champion’s golf and the rigorous examination of Birkdale was one that he approached with eager gusto. It was a good day at the office but, in this game, there is always room for improvement.

“I give it a nine (out of ten) across the board for everything, tee balls, ball-striking, short game and putting, so things are in check,” he added as he prepared for today’s round in conditions that are set to get particularly lively.

"I thought today's round was extremely important given the forecast coming in. You really needed to be in the red (under-par) today. I’d call it a top five major round that I've played. I couldn't have done much better. I essentially missed two greens today in some 15mph winds."

There was no rust for the rested. Koepka hadn’t played since he won the US Open last month but he picked up in Southport where he left off at Erin Hills as his bid to become the first player since Tiger Woods in 2000 to win both Opens on either side of the Atlantic in the same season got off to a fine start.

Kuchar, meanwhile, went rampaging to the turn during a fearsome early offensive. Here at Birkdale in 1983, Manchester pro Denis Durnian set an Open record for the lowest outward half of just 28 blows and Kuchar just fell short of a equalling that number with a five-under 29.

McIlroy was heading into the second boosted by the morale-lifting words of his caddie, JP Fitzgerald, who helped haul the Northern Irishman out of his early slump.

He said: “JP gave me a good talking too on the sixth tee box and sort of reminded me of who I was.

"JP basically said: 'You're Rory McIlroy, what are you doing?' I said, 'Yeah,' and at that point I mumbled something like, 'whatever'. But it did definitely help. It kept me positive. So he did a great job.

"Thankfully he's not had to do it too often but he's had to do it a few times. And he's never afraid to do that.

"And I feel today it helped a lot more than at other times because I needed something. JP kept me positive out there, so that was very much appreciated.

“That helped, me get back in a positive frame of mind. If I can go out and play a good quality round of golf in the morning and try to get in the clubhouse somewhere around even par, under par, I'll still be around for the weekend."