Open Eye Opener: Old Guys Rule!

The first round of the Open Championship is in the books and it's not one for the ages, but one for the guys with a little age on their side.

Forget the young guns. Old guys ruled on day one at Turnberry.

Atop the pack is the consummate golf renaissance man.

He is Miguel Angel Jimenez—wine connaisseur, cigar aficionado, driver of a stunning red Ferrari, and recognized on the European Tour as the guy from Spain with the pony tail.

The 45-year-old Jimenez fashioned a bogey-free, six-under par 64 to grab the first round lead on a day that featured wind-free, perfect scoring weather.

It was, in fact, a day to shoot under par for almost half the field.

Jimenez, nicknamed The Mechanic, enjoys working on cars and Thursday he enjoyed working over the Ailsa course with nines of 31-33.

He grabbed the headlines, surely, but here's a look at the winners and losers from the first day of action.

Tom Watson Turns Back The Clock

Back in 1977, it was Young Tom Watson who prevailed at Turnberry in a heated duel with Jack Nicklaus.

Thursday, it was Old Tom Watson, who is pushing 60, but his golf game didn't know that.

Watson turned back the hands of time and blazed his way to a first-round 65 along with another former Open champion, Ben Curtis.

Watson is a five-time winner of the Open and three times the Senior Open champion.

But his bogey-free effort was most youthful Thursday.

"The course was obviously defenseless," Watson said after his effort.

When TNT's Jim Huber asked if he can keep it up, Watson replied quickly:

"Who knows?"

Still, the 59-year-old was the talk of the opening round and one of the first day winners.

Stricker Continues His Run

Steve Stricker is on a role. He went deep under par to win the John Deere Classic last week, boarded the charter to Scotland, then continued his winning ways on Thursday.

At age 42, Stricker is no spring chicken, but his youthful 66 put him in a group with Stewart Cink, John Senden, and Camillo Villegas.

Add all of them to the list of first day winners at Turnberry.

Mark O'Meara Posts 67 Early

Mark O'Meara joined the "Senior" movement as well.

O'Meara, the 1998 Open champion, fashioned a three-under par 67 and joined the long list of first-day winners.

O'Meara, age 52, is now a fixture on the Champions Tour and will no doubt have a few needles for his pal Tiger Woods at dinner.

Joining O'Meara at 67 were Boo Weekley and Vijay Singh, another "old guy."

Would You Believe....John Daly!!

Holy hangover—it's J.D.!

That's J.D. as in John Daly. Yes, THAT John Daly.

He's back and he shot 68 on Thursday. J.D.'s a member of the over-40 set and the way he's treated his body, he could qualify as a 70-year-old.

Still, Daly, the 1995 Open Champion, had himself a nice opening round.

Is J.D. on the comeback trail?

To put it in the words of Tom Watson:

"Who knows?"

Tiger Joins The Loser List

His iron shots were wayward.

He was totally afraid to use the driver.

Putting wasn't very good either.

In all, it was one lousy day for Tiger Woods on Thursday.

Woods, the overwhelming favorite entering the championship, failed to take advantage of the perfect scoring conditions and wound up over par for the day with 71.

In the process, he watched 17-year-old Japanese sensation Ryo Ishikawa show him up as the youngster shot 68, as did their other playing partner, Lee Westwood.

Tiger's temper was on full display as he slammed clubs and blurted expletives at himself.

"He does have a temper, doesn't he?" said the radio commentators.

Who can blame him?

It was a great day for scoring and Tiger fell flat on his face. His play at the par 4 16th hole summarized his day. He finally drove his ball in the fairway, then hit a really poor iron shot that found the berm guarding the green and landed in a watery grave.

"Untidy," is how BBC annoucer Peter Alliss described Tiger's efforts.

We'll leave it at that.

Poulter Plays Unfashionably Poorly

Things really didn't go well for Ian Poulter either.

Decked out with a Union Jack vest, the fashion horse of the UK stumbled to an opening 75 that left him in the field's dust.

Poulter played quite well at last year's championship and was one of the European favorites this week.

Although his wardrobe stood out on Thursday, his play did not.

Sir Faldo Flops

Nick Faldo was knighted by the Queen a few weeks ago, but the golf course does not recognize such honors.

"Sir Nick" floundered to an opening round 78 and most likely will not be around to play the weekend.

Greg Norman, who was the major story last year, won't be much of a story at Turnberry. The Shark opened with 77 and will most likely join Faldo on the sidelines come Saturday.

There you have it, a quick look at the first day at Turnberry.

It was a day that served age over youth.

But there is a lot of golf still to play and many stories still to be written.