LYTHAM members looked almost pityingly at their defenceless links, baked by the sun and brushed by only the gentlest breeze. Yet the subtlety of its design resisted a full scale massacre in the opening round of the 125th British Open yesterday, when the best that the leader, Paul Broadhurst, could do, was to equal the course record of 65.

In a way, it was ironic that an Englishman should have been out in front, given the formidable strength of the American challenge. No fewer than seven of them, including Fred Couples and Tom Lehman, were sharing second place on 67. And a stroke further back was the admirable Padraig Harrington, bringing a proud glow to the large contingent of supporters who crossed the Irish Sea to follow his progress.

The celebrated Lancashire stretch has never been so vulnerable at this level, but it still administered widespread grief. For instance, an inability to extract even one birdie from his opening eight holes, caused Paul Azinger to smash his putter on the next green before he had completed the hole.

"I was sick of taking 19 putts for the front nine in recent weeks," he said afterwards. "I have been threatening to do this ... and I've done it." Using a variety of implements, largely long irons, for putting on the remainder of the round he shot 74.

Then there was defending champion John Daly who displayed such murderous power as to make a par five seem a ridiculous term. For instance, the 490 yard sixth was reduced to a drive and a sandwedge and at the 553 yard seventh, he smashed an even longer drive of 384 yards over the bone hard terrain, to leave himself with a wedge shot of 158 yards to the green.

When I asked him how it felt to be hitting a sandwedge secondshot to a par five, he replied with a grin: "That's what the caddie (Greg Rita) handed me. That's all I know." Yet for all his power, Daly dropped four strokes from the 12th in a round of 70.

Meanwhile, though it was probably overdue, nobody in the huge galleries wanted the course to hurt Seve Ballesteros, on whom it had showered such favours in 1979 and 1988. But it did. And despite the best urging of a partisan crowd, he failed to rekindle the old flame in a round of 74.

There was rich irony in the fact that the highlight of his round was a birdie at the 16th, the scene of his miraculous recovery from a car park in 1979. "I drove it right, but there were no cars there today," he said with a smile. Then he added: "The weather reminds me of Birkdale in 1976 when it was also hot and dry."

For a glorious period in mid afternoon, it looked as if Jack Nicklaus might turn back the years in what may be his last challenge in this championship. With a run of three birdies at the 11th, 12th and 13th, he got to four under par. Even allowing for the difficulty of the remaining holes, we wondered if he might just squeeze a few more birdies and join Broadhurst at the top of the leaderboard.

But the magic left him. Conscious of a suspect back that had been very painful the previous night, he made a poor swing with his drive at the 15th; the ball finished in the rough and he went on to card a bogey. Then came another bogey at the next, which he three putted, missing a second attempt from less than four feet.

Referring to his back after completing around of 69, that was disappointing in the circumstances, Nicklaus said: "I called Peter Egoscue (described by Nicklaus as an anatomical functionalist) last night to get me out of the spasm but when I got up this morning I couldn't stand up or sit down." He added: "I think it's fatigue. I'm not in any pain at all now.

Nick Price went one better than Nicklaus by getting to five under par with four to play. But he, too, stumbled, as did Carl Mason. The Englishman was closer to challenging for the lead when he chipped into the hole for a birdie at the 16th. His prospect of improving on five under par, however, disappeared in the wild rough of the finishing two holes.

Meanwhile, on a lighter note, there was the charming if somewhat confusing reaction of the Japanese, Hidemichi Tanaka, to a sparkling 67 on his British Open debut. Indeed his delight was such that, through an interpreter, he proclaimed it to be the best round of his career, adding: "If I had to mark every round out of 100, I'd give myself 20,000 points today." No wonder he felt pleased!

Greg Norman struggled with his putter on the way to a level par 71 but Broadhurst had no such problems. In fact the 30 year old Englishman, had need of the blade on only 23 occasions on the greens; he used it once more to get up the slope from off the back of the 15th.

Though he got up and down to save par on no fewer than eight occasions, Broadhurst dismissed these efforts as no more than "run of the mill." Indeed he seemed remarkably composed, given the achievement of leading the British Open on his home soil. Perhaps it had to do with the fact that he captured the Lytham Trophy in 1988 when he was also the silver medallist as leading amateur in the Open here.

Highlight of his round was an eagle three at the sixth where he hit a glorious, five iron second shot of 197 yards to eight feet. On the rare occasions when he was hunkered, he had the good sense not to be adventurous from the sand. Typical, was his play of the 342 yard 14th where he hit a three iron into the left fairway bunker; escaped with a sandwedge; hit another sandwedge on to the green and sank a two foot putt to save par.

This hole characterised the special challenge of Lytham, even in benign conditions. For instance, Couples hit a two iron into the same bunker from the tee for his only bogey of an otherwise exemplary round. When John O'Reilly, Harrington's caddie, saw this, he recommended that his man hit a four iron. Harrington chose to go with a three and was only two yards short of the trap.

As to escaping from the traps, David Feherty told me: "You must always take a sandwedge even if you happen to have had success with a longer club. If you become greedy, it's a certainty that you'll get into serious trouble, sooner or later." Couples was more succinct: "They're easy to get in and hard to get out of."

Nick Faldo knows about such things. Which is why he could face the remainder of his 39th birthday with optimism, after a solid if unspectacular opening 68. "I was expecting a lot of good scores today and it was important for me to get somewhere close to them," he said. Then he added ominously: "With no breeze and a short course, I think the Americans are going to be very strong this week."

Mark O'Meara would have been closer to the lead but for a bogey at the last where he was forced to take an unplayable lie from a blocked drive. A nagging doubt about his prospects, however, is whether 39 is a little old to be winning one's first major championship.

Meanwhile, the Lytham members found an unlikely ally in Couples. "I like it here in 30 mph winds, when it's ugly," he said. "The British Open is not about 80 degree temperatures and no wind.

It is this weekend.