THE first Isle of Wight player known to have ever qualified for arguably the biggest golf tournament on the planet — The 151st Open Championships — Brandon Robinson Thompson has got off to a great start.

Among the penultimate group to go out yesterday (Thursday) for the opening round, Island-born Brandon was -1 at the turn, but a sticky patch saw him drop to +2 art one stage, with bogeys at 10, 12 and 14.

However, Brandon picked up his form to end the round in style, with birdies on the 16th and 18th holes, to card a par 71 round, to go into the clubhouse content with being tied for 31st place — five strokes off the lead.

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His round was equal to that of Rory McIlroy and better than the likes of some of the greats of the game, including Jon Rahm (+3), Justin Rose (+3), Bryson Dechambeau (+3), Dustin Johnson (+4), Ernie Els (+4), Phil Mickelson (+6) and Justin Thomas (+11).

In fact, Rose and Els are two of Brandon's favourite golfers.

Tiger Woods, who has won The Open before, is Brandon's all-time favourite, but is not appearing at the Royal Liverpool this weekend due to injury.

Brandon tees off the second round at 11.04am this morning (Friday) with the same playing partners playing partners Jorge Campillo (+11) and Michael Stewart (-3).

To keep tabs of Brandown's progress, visit The 151st Open Championship website.