BRITISH OPEN : After One Round, It’s Really, Really Close : Golf: Watson, Daly, Crenshaw and McNulty share lead at 67, with 17 players breaking 70 at St. Andrews.

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — What gives with this British Open? You’re expecting a golf tournament and the Grand National breaks out.

In Thursday’s opening round on the rolling, wind-swept, slightly soggy grounds of St. Andrews, Americans Ben Crenshaw, Tom Watson and John Daly, and Mark McNulty of Zimbabwe, beat the rain and finished in a dead heat for the lead at five-under-par 67.

Bill Glasson, Vijay Singh of Fiji, Mats Hallberg of Sweden and David Feherty of Northern Ireland were only a shot back at 68, and there was a rugby scrum of nine at 69.

No one is really sure, but it’s believed that the last time it was so crowded around here, they were giving away free lager.

Corey Pavin is at the forefront of the group tied at 69. Besides Pavin, there are Jim Gallagher Jr., Gene Sauers, John Cook, Steve Lowery, Costantino Rocca of Italy, Darren Clarke of Northern Ireland, David Gilford of England and Per-Ulrik Johansson of Sweden.

It’s a noteworthy lead group and not due solely to the presence of Watson, the five-time champion who showed up for his 21st British Open with his familiar checked cap and an unfamiliar putting stroke.

Watson closed with a 31 on the incoming nine and, for a change, looked entirely at ease standing on the green. For a while now, Watson’s main problem has been that he never met a putt he couldn’t miss. Until Thursday.

“I putted great,” Watson said. “I really, really did.”

He really, really did, and nobody could argue that. Watson eagled the 567-yard 14th when he rolled in a 15-footer right after knocking a three-wood onto the green from 250 yards. He also finished in style with a 10-foot birdie putt.

Crenshaw’s game has gone straight south since he won the Masters, but he’s not thinking about that now. In fact, Crenshaw is wondering about how hard it would be to win two majors in the same year.

“Well, I don’t know, but I’d sure like to find out,” he said.

Since his emotional victory at Augusta in April, Crenshaw has had only one finish better than 26th, which may not be the best preparation for the brand of golf they play here.

“It’s been pretty lean,” Crenshaw said. “But it helped me just coming back here.”

This is Crenshaw’s fourth Open at St. Andrews, so feeling comfortable about the place must help.

Daly thinks so. It’s his second trip to the Old Course, where he played in the Dunhill Cup in 1993, not too long ago to forget.

“I love St. Andrews,” Daly said. “It’s definitely my most favorite golf course in Europe.”

What’s not to love? Daly drove the 316-yard 12th hole and said he thinks it’s possible to drive the greens on four or five others.

If knocking the ball halfway to Dundee isn’t a big change for Daly and neither is his platinum-colored, shag-cut hair, then maybe it’s his new, relaxed course demeanor.

Daly is trying to be patient. The secret is in his shoes, he said.

“I’m walking a little slower,” Daly said. “My caddie can sometimes keep up with me now. And I’m not always being in such a rush to hit my shots.”

The wind, which was blustering through the fabled links course, was quieter during the afternoon. Then the rain took over, although it didn’t affect Glasson or Sauers, who finished in a cold shower.

McNulty’s 67 might have made up for the first-round 74 he shot at the Open here in 1990. He closed with a 65 and wound up tied for second behind Nick Faldo.

Pavin, who won the last major, sailing through Shinnecock Hills on his way to the U.S. Open championship, probably saved his first round with a not-so-simple par on the 13th.

He drove through the fairway onto a hillside, where the only stance he had involved sticking his leg in a gorse bush.

Gorse feels like a cross between stainless steel knives and cactus, so Pavin had no trouble describing the sensation.

“It didn’t feel so good,” he said.

Maybe not, but it probably felt a little better after Pavin knocked the ball onto the green, then just missed a 120-foot birdie putt by inches when it curled behind the hole.

“The ball moves so much in the air,” Pavin said. “And you have to imagine where it will roll. You have to think your way around here.”

That also is the general direction of Daly’s latest problems. He has developed migraine headaches and is staying away from caffeine on doctor’s orders.

His head didn’t hurt much Thursday, but Daly still experiences dizzying pain on occasion and wonders why.

“I don’t know where they are coming from,” he said. “I never had a headache when I drank. It doesn’t make any sense to me.”

When Watson thinks about it, St. Andrews makes complete sense to him. He even likes the wind. Maybe his putting problems did ruin a perfectly winnable British Open last year with a fourth-round 74 at Turnberry after beginning 68-65-69, but Watson said this isn’t about redemption.

“I don’t think I have to prove myself,” he said. “I was disappointed, but I don’t let those moments hang around very long.”

Having won five British Opens probably helps.