The first day of the 147th Open Championship may have provided a taste of life in the fast lane on the toasty links but it was still something of a slow burner.

Kevin Kisner, playing in the eighth group out in the early morning, took a route 66 to the top of the leaderboard. And his name was still there when they were emptying the wheelie bins in the tented village as the shadows lengthened.

The terrain here is so hard, the sound of the ball clattering on the baked grass just about resembled a wrought iron rivet falling on the workshop floor.

And as for speed? Good grief. Par could’ve been measured in mph and you half expected the air to smell of overheating brake pads as the great and the good of the global game tried to stop that little dimpled sphere careering out of control.

Some managed that particular task better than others. Kisner’s neatly assembled five-under card featured just 22 putts. At the other end of the order, meanwhile, the 2011 champion, Darren Clarke, got himself in a desperate guddle with a debris strewn 82 which equalled his worst score in 27 Open appearances.

In between all that, there were 69s for Rory McIlroy and the highly-fancied Jon Rahm with Tiger Woods two strokes further back on 71. Jordan Spieth, the defending champion, and Justin Rose both had eventful and, at times, tetchy 72s while Dustin Johnson, the world No1, came a cropper on Carnoustie’s devilish finish and racked up a crippling triple-bogey seven on the 18th in a grisly 76.

The marquee names were upstaged in a top half-dozen which also includes Erik van Rooyen, Tony Finau, Zander Lombard, Ryan Moore, Brendan Steele and the Scottish Open winner, Brandon Stone.

It was Kisner who set the early standard with a 66 which was “jump started” into life on the sixth when he flung a nicely flighted 3-iron into the green and holed a very good putt.

The 34-year-old does his own line in droll humour. At times, for instance, he’s so dry, the Carnoustie greenkeepers just about have to put the sprinklers on him. Asked what he learned from leading the PGA Championship going into the final round last year but not winning, he said simply: “That everybody’s really good at golf.”

Kisner was pretty good at it yesterday. If his eagle on the sixth got things going, then his telling thrust of three birdies in a row from the 13th fortified his position of early authority.

The courses in his native land of South Carolina tend to crisp up nicely in the summer months and Carnoustie was something of a home from home for Kisner. “It (his home course) is firm, fast and undulating around the greens and that’s why I feel so comfortable here as I see the same type of shots back home,” he noted.

Kisner is sharing a billet this week with a band of golfing brothers which includes Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Zach Johnson, Jimmy Walker, Jason Dufner and Rickie Fowler. It’s a household boasting eight major wins among them, with only Kisner and Fowler yet to make that breakthrough.

“I’ve spent a lot of time with Jordan and the Claret Jug and I flew home with him when he won last year,” he added. “It would be cool to return the favour. If I have 22 putts over the next three days, I’ll have a pretty good shot. ”

Finau, who is building a solid body of major work this season with a 10th and a fifth in the Masters and US Open respectively, got into his stride with a 67 to match van Rooyen’s earlier effort.

Lombard, who lost to Scotland’s Bradley Neil in the final of the 2014 Amateur Championship, made it three South African’s in the top-five with a 67 of his own. Half a century after Gary Player’s Open win here in 1968, the new generation’s sprightly start would’ve had the energetic Black Knight doing a couple of extra press-ups to celebrate.

McIlroy, who adopted a fairly aggressive approach by unleashing the driver, tucked himself into a handy position with a two-under card which was polished by a putt of some 20-feet on the 16th for a nifty par save.

“That was massive,” he said of the significance of that putt. “I didn’t see the fairway much but, as I said at the start of the week, it’s very playable from not on the fairway.”

Woods, who utilised a considered, plotting strategy akin to his Hoylake masterclass of 2006, was largely content with a level-par round following an early salvo which included two birdies on his first four holes.

“I played better than what the score indicates,” said Woods, who stressed that the protective tape visible on his neck was nothing to worry about.

“I had two 8-irons into both par-5s and ended up with par on both of those.”

Rose was distracted by the clicking of the cameras as he missed a short birdie putt on the sixth before a double bogey on the 14th saw him slither over par.

Spieth, meanwhile, was plodding along nicely at three-under through 14 but stumbled over the finishing line with a double-bogey, bogey, par, bogey finish. “It felt like a missed opportunity,” he said of a round that got away from him.

On a testing day that required plenty of patience and mental resolve, Brooks Koepka, the US Open champion, kept his head when it would’ve been easy to lose it, particularly after a ruinous outward half of 41.

The spirited salvage operation was superb as he birdied four out of five holes from the 10th in a back nine of 31 for 72 to repair the earlier damage.