Miguel Angel Jimenez Leads British Open After a Calm Day at Turnberry

It happens more often than you'd think. As with the rain in London, the weather during the summer in Scotland has lead some locals to tell you simply, "If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes."

Some days you'll land beautiful skies with hardly a hint of wind, and some days it'll blow like you're on the set of "Top Gun." Thursday at Turnberry, the conditions were benign and many golfers not named Tiger Woods took complete advantage. The one that went the lowest? Spaniard Miguel Angel Jimenez, who at 6-under 64 is a shot ahead of the field at the British Open.

Jimenez has won 15 times on the European Tour over his long career, and finished in the top-10 at the Masters and U.S. Open last year, so his day isn't a total surprise, but he sure wasn't someone on a lot of people's radar when the week started. Six birdies including closing ones on 17 and 18 changed that, as Jimenez took away the lead from Tom Watson and Ben Curtis, and even went as far as to light up a cigar in his post-round interview for good measure.

All in all, 50 people shot under par at the first day of the British Open, with 19 players at 3-under or better. Of that group, the big name missing is Woods, who struggled with his tee shot even though he only pulled the driver out three times on Thursday. When Woods really has his swing grooved, it is most noticeable off the tee, but that wasn't the case in the first round, as Tiger finished seven shots back of Jimenez.

The 59-year-old Watson certainly stole the show with his 65, but he wasn't the only good story.

Vijay Singh's 67 was his best round at a British Open since 1998. Despite a bogey on the 18th, John Daly posted a 2-under 68 at an event that has seen the highest he's ever risen (1995 champion at St. Andrews) and the lowest he's ever fallen (80-89 last year at Royal Birkdale).

While most majors have early leaderboards scattered with random names, that doesn't appear to be the case at Turnberry. Stewart Cink, Camilo Villegas and Steve Stricker all shot 66s. Mark Calcavecchia and Mark O'Meara fired 3-under 67s to make Watson feel more comfortable as the low old guy. Two-time defending champion Padraig Harrington, who has struggled all year with his changed swing, held it together long enough on Thursday for a 1-under 69, tying Rory McIlroy, Martin Kaymer and Angel Cabrera.

The shot of the day came from two-time U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen, who was up against the lip of a bunker on the par-5 17th. Weighing his options, which included putting both knees on the lip of the bunker and going after it, Goosen decided to swing away at the ball, not three inches short of the lip, blasting it out to nearly a foot away for a tap-in birdie.

With bad weather planned for tomorrow, Thursday was one of those "Go out and get it while you can" type of days at the British Open, where you try and go as low as possible so you can have some room for mistakes come rain and wind. Tiger failed to do this. Others did not, and are probably a little more relaxed to see Wood's name as far down the leaderboard as it is.