The Open: Jamie Donaldson happy with first round at Royal Troon
Last updated on .From the section Wales
| Venue: Royal Troon, Ayrshire, Scotland Dates: 14 July to 17 July |
| Coverage: Highlights on BBC TV, listen live on BBC Radio 5 live and follow live text on the BBC Sport website. Click here for full details |
Golfer Jamie Donaldson hopes to build on his solid first round at The Open Championship at Royal Troon.
The Welshman opened with a promising two under par round of 69.
"It was good, but I've got three more days to produce the same sort of shots and scores," Donaldson said.
"I played nice and hit a lot of fairways and greens and you've got to make some birdies on that front nine because if you don't it's difficult after that."
Donaldson told BBC Wales Sport: "I played nicely at the start and got up to two under and played the back nine well making level par so I'm happy with the day."
The 40-year-old teed off alongside former Open champions Louis Oosthuizen and Padraig Harrington.
South African Oosthuizen hit a hole-in-one, the first of this year's Open, on the 178-yard par three 14th hole.
Royal Troon basked in sunshine with light winds making conditions favourable, but Donaldson says the wind and rain forecast for Friday will cause problems.
"I'll have to wait and see what we get tomorrow, I think the weather might be dodgy which is crazy after looking at today with no cloud in the sky," he said.
"It's very difficult even without wind it's still difficult. It was still a little windy today, but not as windy as it has been in practice."
Donaldson will start his second round at 13:26 BST on Friday and says he will keep an eye on the early starters to see how the course plays.
"You can pick up some lines on puts and stuff like that," Donaldson added.
"Sometimes you can get a great draw with the weather and sometimes you don't.
"It pans out over the course of the year so you don't know if it's beneficial playing late or early in the day until the first two days are over."
