Matthew Jordan gets The Open Championship started at Royal Liverpool

HOYLAKE, England (AP) -- Matthew Jordan has played Royal Liverpool hundreds of times. Thursday morning was unlike any other. He hit the opening tee shot in the 151st edition of The Open Championship.

Jordan received a rousing ovation from the grandstand behind the first tee and then hit driver just left of the pot bunker into the rough. He put his next shot into a bunker left of the green but got up-and-down by holing a 14-foot par putt.

"Amazing. I'm kind of running out of words to describe it. It was crazy, mental, loud, everything that I could have wished for," the 27-year-old said of the experience. "I'm certainly trying to think of a better experience than that, and I don't think I can."

The DP World Tour professional would go on to make the first birdie of the championship, hitting his second shot at the second to 16 feet. Jordan poured in another birdie at the fifth before his first bogey of the tournament at six. A birdie at the par-4 eighth saw him go out in 2-under par 33.

Shooting level par on the back nine, with a dropped shot on 11 that was rectified by a birdie at the par-4 16th as winds began to pick up on the shores at the northwest Wirral Peninsula, allowed Jordan to enjoy the moment on 18 in front of cheering grandstands.

It's not unusual for the R&A to have the first shot struck by a player with local connections. Jordan is different. He is a member at Royal Liverpool and has been since he was a teenager. He made it through qualifying at nearby West Lancashire, to get into his first Open.

The R&A is expecting 260,000 fans for the week in Liverpool.