Darren Clarke made a smooth transition from regular practice on the links terrain of Royal Portrush to capture a share of the first round lead in the 126th British Open here yesterday. With a four-under-par 67 in wild, north-westerly winds, he matched the effort of American Jim Furyk in the group immediately ahead.

The more successful players called it a day for imaginative golf. Others, including the local favourite, Colin Montgomerie, saw it as the stuff of nightmares. The big Scot went from two-under to five-over in the space of nine holes. Significantly, the slide started at the seventh.

There was rich irony in Monty's personal struggle, apart from the fact that he was upstaged by amateur compatriot Barclay Howard. "He was a wonderful help to me for the way he showed me the various lines off the tee during practice rounds on Monday and Wednesday," said Clarke. "I've no doubt he saved me several shots."

As it happened, the Ulsterman emulated the achievement of colleague Paul McGinley, who was joint leader after 36 holes at Royal Lytham last year. And Clarke did it through particularly thorough preparation - little more than 50 years after a favourite son of Portrush, Fred Daly, captured the title at Hoylake.

Meanwhile, even Tiger Woods was jolted into the tough reality of a classic links challenge when he carded a triple-bogey seven at the punishing 11th. But he had the grit and skill to produce a birdie, par, birdie finish for a highly acceptable round of 72.

He seemed to have no problem in handling a tooting salute from a passing train-driver at the critical 11th, the so-called Railway Hole. But spectators who should have known better clearly affected him. "They had sneaked cameras onto the course and were taking pictures of my swing while I was hitting shots," he said.

Did he ask them to stop? "Yeah," he replied. "But they're going to do it anyway. And we didn't get a lot of help from the people on the tee boxes, the marshals and stuff. So it was kind of difficult for everybody."

Of his problems at the 11th, Woods said: "I hit a driver off to the right into thorn bushes, took an unplayable lie and didn't draw a very good lie from my drop." In fact, he made poor contact with a two-iron recovery and still had 120 yards to the hole. He then hit an eight-iron over the green, chipped back to six feet and missed the putt.

Other, recently enlightened Americans, such as Furyk, had only a rough idea of what lay in store. And in a way, ignorance was a blessing, certainly for Tommy Tolles, who blithely took out his driver at the 364-yard first, gave the shot his Sunday best and finished six feet past the pin for the makings of an eagle two.

Never mind that Tolles went on to card a 77, Ian Baker-Finch would have killed for such an outcome. On an occasion of profound sadness for the 1991 champion, he carded a wretched 92 which contained only four pars. Afterwards, announcing his withdrawal, he said: "The only shot that I played differently from normal was the chip-shot at the last. I just wanted to get it on the green and two putt for my five and get off the course."

Not even the joint leaders could improve on a level-par back nine of 35 from the great Jack Nicklaus, making his 36th successive appearance in the event.

Still, the forbidding 11th refused to relent. Now a 463-yard par four for the first time, it was a 481-yard par five when Nicklaus took a 10 there on his Open debut in 1962. He halved that figure on this occasion, but the hole still cost him a shot.

Meanwhile, the defending champion, Tom Lehman, admitted that the wind affected his swing on the way to a 74. "I wasn't hitting the ball solid, which for me is unusual," he said. "In fact I struggled so much that I didn't hit many greens, because my ball-striking was off-centre most of the time."

Certainly the 25mph wind created serious confusion for quite a number of competitors, notably at the 379-yard third, where the Gyaws Burn crosses the fairway at 285 yards off the tee. This prompted Davis Love, one of the game's longest hitters, to play a five-iron off the tee.

"It was only after I hit the shot that I realised I could have flown the burn easily with my driver," he said after a round of 70. "In fact, as I went along, I realised that this was a situation in which stock, iron shots counted for nothing. You often had no idea how far the ball was going to travel."

Another five-iron travelled 272 yards at the sixth, while the same club could deliver only 149 yards into the teeth of the wind at the long 16th. All of which placed a huge premium on control, with players giving shots the full treatment downwind and then hitting to about 75 per cent capacity on the homeward stretch.

As for Clarke: he happens to be in a winning mood right now. He collected £1,800 yesterday on a spread bet that there would be more than 30 bogeys at the short eighth - the famous Postage Stamp. With the pin 13 yards on and only four yards in from the left edge, he reckoned it was in "a perfect bogey position".

He was correct. By the time all the groups had gone through the eighth, it had claimed 48 bogeys or worse. And the "worse" included Australian Craig Parry, who carded a wretched six by missing the green, chipping into a bunker, then overshooting the green with a recovery before taking three more to get down.

After some experimenting the previous night, Clarke changed his putter - to splendid effect. He has rarely used the blade with such authority, overcoming his tendency to lift the left shoulder on the follow-through.

His play of the front nine was exemplary, with birdies at the second (20 foot putt), fourth (five footer), sixth (greenside bunker to five feet) and seventh (two putts from off the front edge). And the eighth? Clarke forgot about the bet and eased a gentle six-iron to 15 feet from the target for a two putt par.

Though he tended to block his drives, he got away without undue punishment, except at the 10th and 18th, both of which he bogeyed. In between, he had a rare birdie at the 11th, where he was just off the front edge with a two iron approach and proceeded to sink a huge, 70-foot putt. The last of six birdies in the round came at the long 16th, where he punched a seven-iron third to 12 feet and sank the putt. But the quality of his putting was further emphasised at the next, where he saved par by sinking an 18-footer.

"I concentrated on getting a good, solid roll on my putts - and it worked," said the player who has now emulated Michael Moran, Fred Daly, Harry Bradshaw, Christy O'Connor Snr (1958), Christy O'Connor Jnr and McGinley as Irishmen who have either led outright or shared the lead at some stage of a British Open.

Furyk, meanwhile, is no stranger to major leaderboards, having been tied fifth behind Ernie Els in the US Open last month. Like Clarke, he reached the turn in 32, and he also birdied the 11th.