Bryson DeChambeau, Rory McIlroy struggle at Open Championship - ESPN

TROON, Scotland — Bryson DeChambeau and Rory McIlroy beat everyone in last month's U.S. Open.

But in the opening round of The Open at Royal Troon Golf Club, they struggled to defeat Mother Nature — and themselves — in what was a Thursday morning to forget in the wind and rain on Scotland's west coast.

DeChambeau, who won his second U.S. Open title with a one-shot victory over McIlroy at Pinehurst No. 2, carded a 5-over 76 on Thursday. McIlroy was two strokes worse and trailed clubhouse leader Justin Thomas by 10 strokes.

DeChambeau vowed to play «boring» golf at Pinehurst, but his game was far from that on Thursday — for all the wrong reasons. He was 3 over through four holes after a three-putt bogey on No. 1, badly yanking his tee shot on No. 3 for another bogey and then missing a 3-foot par putt on No. 4.

"[The wind] was in and off the right, and I was trying to draw the ball and the ball was knuckling a little bit," DeChambeau said. «It was a really difficult challenge, and I should have just cut the ball.»

DeChambeau and McIlroy weren't the only golfers left perplexed by the unpredictable wind at Royal Troon. Golfers typically play the front nine with the wind at their backs, then close with a difficult back nine with the wind in their faces, but it was the opposite in the first round.

On the 620-yard sixth hole, DeChambeau pulled his drive into the native area and hit his second shot just 4 yards out of the high grass. He needed five shots to reach the green, leading to a double-bogey 7. He carded two more bogeys on Nos. 8 and 15 before finally ending the carnage by making a 55-foot eagle putt on the 16th.

«It's a completely different test,» DeChambeau said. «I didn't get any practice in it, and I didn't really play