Saltman falls foul of tricky opener

Scotland's Lloyd Saltman had a nightmare start to the 142nd Open Championship after carding an eight on Muirfield's exacting first hole.

The 27-year-old, winner of the Silver Medal for leading amateur in 2005, was in the first group out at 6.32 but in front of a sparse crowd he carved two tee shots out of bounds to the right and into the tented village area.

Having put his first drive over the screen shielding the internal part of the course his second attempt was heard to hit the screen but could not be found.

Saltman, who earned his spot through local qualifying, found his third tee shot before two-putting for a quadruple-bogey eight on the 447-yard par four.

"The out of bounds in question was present in 2002 and while the tented village footprint is slightly different this year the out of bounds is fundamentally the same," said the R&A's executive director of rules and equipment standards David Rickman.

"Essentially we have two choices with an area like that. We would either play it as out of bounds or a TIO - temporary immovable obstruction.

"Our concern with the latter is that it gives free relief to any ball that goes in there and you would be dropping on a flattened piece of grass.

"We felt strategically on that first tee we did not like the notion of it being a TIO so from a rules point of view that's why when we looked at it - knowing what we did in 2002 - we decided not only was it consistent but it was right for it to be OB (out of bounds)."

Muirfield has two internal out of bounds, the other being the practice ground which borders the ninth fairway.