8am Round-Up: Jordan Spieth celebrates Open win with fishing trip

Jordan Spieth has watched a recording of his final round in the 146th Open at Royal Birkdale. Picture: Ian Rutherford

The Texan joined his dad, Shawn, and brother, Steven, for a few days in the Montana mountains last week recharging his batteries following a draining week at Royal Birkdale.

Now Spieth is ready to get back to work, first in this week’s WGC Bridgestone Invitational in Akron before heading to Quail Hollow next week to try and become just the sixth player to win a career Grand Slam by landing the US PGA Championship.

“Nice to be back here at Firestone and feeling refreshed,” Spieth told Golf Channel ahead of tomorrow’s opening round, which will see him paired with Rory McIlroy and Jason Day.

Refererring to the fact that he’s about to play seven events in nine weeks, the newly-turned 24-year-old added: “That’s a pretty heavy stretch to finish the year.

“But I had a few weeks off before The Open and now another week. I feel refreshed and typically that’s not the case after a major like that.”

Spieth revealed that he also found time last week to watch the final round of the Claret Jug joust with his caddie, Michael Greller.

“It was fun to be able to relive it and do it with Mikey,” he said. “It was a lot more exciting than it needed to be. That 13-through-16 stretch was very memorable.”

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Palmer Cup player Rory Franssen faces a tough opening test in the new-look Scottish Amateur Championship at Prestwick today.

The Inverness teenager takes on Peebles youngster Darren Howie this morning after the pair were among 73 players to progress to the match-play phase.

Another tasty tie sees Elderslie’s Alasdair McDougall, a semi-finalist at Royal Aberdeen 12 months ago, take on Euan Walker of Kilmarnock (Barassie).

Walker Cup captain Craig Watson rolled back the years to pass the event’s first stroke-play qualifying test and is up against Newmachar’s Calvin Cheyne.

Cawder’s Calum Fyfe and Sandy Scott of Nairn shared top spot after the two stroke-play rounds on eight-under.

Fyfe awaits the winner of one of nine first-round matches this morning while Scott faces Lenzie’s Euan McBride in the second round.

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Former Scottish Amateur champion Chris Robb was pipped at the post in his bid for a wire-to-wire win in the Pro Golf Tour’s Polish Open.

The Meldrum House player completed 54 holes without a single bogey in carding rounds of 67-67-68 for a 14-under-par aggregate at Sierra Golf Club.

But he lost out in the end to German Nicolai Von Dellingshausen after closed with a 63 to beat Robb by a shot.

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Fifteen-year-old Akshay Bhatia shot 28 on his first nine holes en route to a record 61 in the Junior US PGA Championship at The Country Club of St Albans in Missouri.

The left-hander beat a record that was jointly held by six players, including Open champion Jordan Spieth and Pat Perez.

Bhatia’s burst swept him into a three-shot lead at the halfway stage on 14-under-par.

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Deeside Golf Club pro Frank Coutts has accepted its invitation to take up the post of Vice Captain of the PGA in Scotland with immediate effect.

Coutts will support captain John Mulgrew throughout the remainder of his term of office and, on assuming the role of captain in 2019, will be the first PGA Professional from the Aberdeen area to hold the office.

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Berkshire player David Langley led an astonishing day of low scoring with a flawless 10-under par 61 in the first round of qualifying for the English Amateur Championship at The Berkshire.

Langley’s 61 on the Blue course included eight birdies, an eagle and just 25 putts.

The 23-year old from Castle Royle is a past Berks, Bucks & Oxon county champion and has just graduated from university in the US.