Ben Coley: Jordan Spieth's peerless iron-play the highlight in round one of the Open Championship

 Click here for Ben Coley's live blog and latest leaders

Open Championship: Related content

Ben Coley's Open tips at-a-glance
Open Championship tee-times
Latest Sky Bet Open odds 

Ask the man in the street – rather, the man on the internet – just what makes Jordan Spieth a great golfer, which he unequivocally is, and there are two likely answers: ‘putting’ and ‘not sure’.

Thursday at the Open confirmed the short-sightedness of both, as Spieth’s iron play once again paved the way for the right putts at the right time to propel him to the top of the leaderboard.

Afterwards, Spieth gave the media 30 minutes of his time. Every question, from the obvious (what’s behind your confidence levels this week?) to the obscure (what did you have for breakfast?) was met with a fixed gaze, returned with a thoughtful reply.

Back Jordan Spieth to win the Open Championship with Sky Bet! 

Spieth had eggs, avocado, toast, some juice and a shake. He’s confident because he won last time at the Travelers, because he felt he would’ve won the US Open had his putter behaved, and because his coach made the inspired decision to bring Trackman to the range and dial in his numbers.

“Because I knew how far balls were carrying from our session this morning, I was able to know how far that ball would carry and then I can trust that,” he said, crediting coach Cameron McCormick.

“And that's the most important thing. Because you feel like you're hitting so much club. You feel like you're going to fly the world.”

All day, as it has been all year, Spieth’s approach play was on. At the second, he hit a six-iron to no more than 15 feet. At eight, it was a sand wedge to what he called ‘six or seven’, and his birdie at nine came courtesy of an eight-iron to 10. There were no bombs here, the longest putt made just inside 20 feet. It wasn’t so much magic wand as icing on the cake.

When the approach shots weren’t setting up birdies, they were leaving the best available route to par. At the first, he came up short, knowing – because he watched TV coverage before teeing off – that long was more difficult. At six, he hit four-iron, again to the front of the green, the defensive play on a hole where attack is reckless.

“My ball-striking has been better in any years that I've ever played golf,” Spieth said, and he meant it. The PGA Tour’s strokes-gained: approach shots statistics reveal that he is making up more ground with his iron play than all bar three players have made over the last three seasons. This year, he’s out in front on his own.

The difference between Thursday’s round and the US Open was, therefore, the putter. Spieth confessed that it’s on the putting green and with a new fitness regime that he’s spent his focus. Par saves like the one he made on 16 revealed that it’s working, but a short miss on 18 confirmed that there is improvement yet to come. Should it arrive this week, he’s likely to prove hard to beat.

Spieth’s clubhouse advantage didn’t last long, however. The man who benefited most from his putting issues at the US Open, Brooks Koepka, defied a subsequent absence and a golf course not expected to lend a hand to his driving power to also shoot 65, thanks largely to an eagle two holes from home.

Koepka is in many respects everything that Spieth is not. By no means does he overthink golf and the intensity levels of the pair are worlds apart. Koepka is fundamentally less interesting, but that’s okay. He’d rather his golf do the talking. The pleasure he gets isn’t from planning a method of attack but by going all-out and proving he can survive.

Friday, with 35mph gusts and rain in the forecast, will be a real test of that survival and one Spieth is probably better equipped to handle – if he can sharpen up from the odd errant tee-shot which twice threatened to force a bogey onto his scorecard.

“I'm prepared for the worst, having experienced it before,” he said, citing last year’s second round at Troon as conditions which could be no tougher – any more and play would’ve been suspended.

“You control the ball off the tee, keep your hands dry, and you grind from inside ten feet or you make a mid-ranger for par, something to keep the momentum going, that's important for tomorrow.

“Being mentally prepared is key. I think I'm going into it, at least going into it the right way, and we'll see if I hold that together.”

Spieth has won two majors so far, both in 2015, where he might’ve made it four but for the putter letting him down when he needed it most at St Andrews, and Jason Day playing sensationally at Whistling Straits. Later that same year, he won the TOUR Championship and the FedEx Cup to go with it.

It’s likely that this is the most confident that he’s been since. It’s unquestionable that his iron-play is as he says it is – the best of his career. It’s possible, then, that he takes control of this tournament on Friday, although he’ll be leaving nothing to chance. 

Some might watch Spieth and see chance as an overriding factor in his success, especially so when he makes bunker shots like the one which ultimately sealed the most recent of his victories in Connecticut.

In fact, what Spieth does better than anyone else is represented by the work he does on the range, where he’s never been happier with the grouping of his irons. In other words, he pulls the boundaries inwards, narrowing the focus. There is only so much that can go wrong.

Through this type of meticulous preparation, a clear understanding of path to target, he pulls in the boundaries of chance.