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So much for needing experience to have success in the Open Championship. The first-round leader at Royal Birkdale is Jackson Suber, a second-year PGA Tour pro who played his first round of links golf on … Monday upon arriving in England.
“I’ve never been to Europe,” he said after shooting a five-under 65 to take a one-shot lead over Sungjae Im and Dan Brown.
The 26-year-old former collegiate golfer at Ole Miss seems to be learning fast, playing 27 holes over the last three days and trusting a game that’s been steadily improving during the 2026 season.
After starting the year missing the cut in five of his first eight starts, Suber has three top-six finishes since May, including a T-6 two weeks ago at the John Deere Classic.
Oisin Keniry/R&A
With Suber ranking 115th in the world and 81st in the FedEx Cup standings, perhaps you’re not familiar with Suber’s game. Here then are eight things to know.
• This is the first time that Suber has ever led a PGA Tour event after the first round in 45 tour starts.
• This is only the second time he’s held a lead after any round in his tour career, the other coming after the third round of last month’s RBC Canadian Open. He eventually finished T-4 at TPC Toronto to earn an exemption into the Open.
• Suber shot a five-under 31 on the back nine on Thursday, including a bogey on the 13th hole and an eagle on the par-5 17th.
• He is rooming this week with Pierceson Coody, who is also playing in his first British Open and shot an opening-round 67.
• It hasn’t been all business this week for Suber. He and his fiancée, along with Coody and Coody’s wife, visited Liverpool earlier in the week. Asked if he tried driving on the other side of the road, he quickly said no, adding, “I’m trying to make it here for four days.”
• Ahead of going overseas, Suber watched a YouTube video on every hole at Birkdale.
• Suber’s explanation for his solid play on Thursday? He’s comfortable hitting long irons into holes. “I think that suits my eye,” he said. He also likes chipping off tight, firm turf, which makes the baked-out Birkdale track something he’s adjusted to well.
• Suber has seen a change in his game, both physically and mentally, in the last few months. “I feel like I’ve been really coming into myself as a golfer and maturing and learning what makes … what works for me,” he said. “Just learning how to deal with my golf game on the road and playing a whole year and what I need to change when things are going a certain way and kind of what I need to be … how I need to be calibrating stuff every day.”
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Main Image: Oisin Keniry/R&A
