Over the first round of The 145th Open, we've seen a remarkable difference in the scoring on the front and back nines at Royal Troon.
Only a handful of players have managed to card an inward 35 or better after the turn, and there have been around double the amount of birdies on the front side. Justin Rose bucked the trend when he went out in 35 but was two under for the back nine, and that shows how solid he is from tee to green.
All the players here have the firepower to score well on the front nine and it's just a case of keeping it straight and holing a few putts. They're hitting a lot of wedges into greens on the front nine, but it's a different story on the back. You need to hit solid drives and back them up with some good long-irons, and Justin's about as good as it gets when it comes to hitting long-irons.
The great thing about the back-nine at Royal Troon is that it will expose any flaws in your game, and I think that Justin coming home in two under proves he is more than well-equipped to handle that challenge.
The theme for the first round has been low scoring on the front nine, and many have struggled to hold it together after the turn. Most of the later starters would have seen this pattern developing, so does that put extra pressure on them to make early birdies?
It does, to a degree, but the entire field pretty much knew that would be the case already. They've all played their practice rounds, they know the story, and they will know that to play the back nine in level par will be a really good effort.
They will be standing on the first tee fully aware of the need for birdies over the outward half, and if you get off to a slow start, it really puts the pressure on. You don't want to be over par at the turn, especially when you've got to negotiate the tough 11th.
The "Railway" hole is one of the most brutal tests of golf on The Open rota. It is visually intimidating from the tee because you cannot see any fairway - all you can view is gorse! You know the fairway is there, but it's further complicated because it sits at an angle.
If you go too far left, the fairway ends at about the 260-yard mark and there's yet more gorse there, and even if you find the short grass, you've got to hit a great iron - often into the wind - to find the table-top green.
If the wind picks up over the rest of the tournament, we will see lots of big numbers down the 11th. It's been relatively calm today, and we've seen quite a few sevens and even three nines!
One of the Troon traditions over the years has been the success of players from across the pond. Americans have won the last six Opens at Troon, and there's another strong US presence at the top of the leaderboard again. I think they've enjoyed the sunny weather, but if that changes as it's predicted to, we'll see a different golf course.
The run-off areas around some of these greens allow them to use their lob wedges, and that's not something we're used to seeing on a links course. The Americans tend to be very good at getting a good connection on the ball, land it with some check and stop it by the hole.
Because the greens are relatively soft and receptive, they can play those shots as they would week in, week out on the PGA Tour.
It's a soft course, it's a sunny day and, although it's still a links course, it's not as tough to get to grips with as some others on The Open rota. It's as close to "target golf" as you will get on a links, and that favours the Americans.
It doesn't mean they have a huge advantage over their European Tour counterparts, it's just that they've got less of a disadvantage really.