Scotland's 1999 champion Paul Lawrie opened up a one shot lead on five players and was seven under midway through his back nine as the British Open got underway at St Andrews on Thursday.

Tournament favourite Jordan Spieth was well positioned in his bid for history and was two shots back while Tiger Woods was enduring a nightmare round in his quest to win a 15th major.

The course was playing kindly to the early starters with dry conditions and low winds providing ideal conditions for birdies.

American Dustin Johnson, the man who threw away a chance to defeat Spieth at the US Open in June, was six under through 14 with fellow American Robert Streb and South African Retief Goosen already in the clubhouse on the same score.

Former Masters winner Charl Schwartzel, also of South Africa, completed the leading quartet chasing Lawrie as conditions began to worsen at the windswept Old Course.

Spieth, chasing his third straight major of the year and trying to emulate Ben Hogan from 1953 was also briefly in the lead before finding a pot bunker at 13 and making his first bogey of the day. That dropped him two shots behind the Scot at the front.

Woods meanwhile was way down at the bottom of the leaderboard on five over par and already in danger of missing the cut after failing to make a birdie through 12 holes while making five bogeys.

Big crowds had come to cheer on the hugely popular American but a sign of things to come occured on the opening hole when he hit his approach shot into the water and it got worse from there.