Phil Mickelson, Americans dominate the top of the British Open leaderboard

Eight of the top 11 golfers on the leaderboard after the first round at Royal Troon are Americans

By Robby Kalland

Jul 14, 2016 at 5:10 pm ET • 1 min read

Royal Troon has been kind to American golfers as the host course for The Open Championship. The last six winners there have been Americans -- most recently Todd Hamilton in 2004 -- and on Thursday that trend continued as eight of the top 12 names on the leaderboard are American golfers.

The last time a non-American won a British Open at Royal Troon was Bobby Locke in 1950. Since then, Arnold Palmer, Tom Weiskopf, Tom Watson, Mark Calcavecchia, Justin Leonard and Todd Hamilton have taken home the Claret Jug in the six Opens staged there.

While Hamilton won in 2004, he did so from behind, as there wasn't a single American in the top 10 going into the second round that year -- Paul Casey and Thomas Levet led after the first round. This year, it's an American-heavy leaderboard going into Friday.

Phil Mickelson's course record 63 has him in first place, three ahead of fellow American Patrick Reed and German Martin Kaymer -- one of only three non-Americans in the top 11. Behind Mickelson and Reed are Americans Justin Thomas, Steve Stricker, Billy Horschel, Tony Finau, Zach Johnson and Keegan Bradley, all at 4 under.

For whatever reason, Royal Troon has fit the game of American golfers in a way that other courses in the rotation hasn't. It's a traditional links-style course, but on Thursday, you didn't need to be as crafty hitting into greens as usual thanks to calm wind conditions and soft course conditions. That suits the style of play American golfers are much more accustomed to on the PGA Tour week in and week out.

With the weather expected to get nasty on Friday, it will be interesting to see if the Americans can maintain a stranglehold on the tournament in high winds -- expected to blow steadily at 18 mph with gusts up to 37 mph -- and driving rain. Those are the conditions that make links golf so unique from American golf.

Mickelson and Johnson are Open champions and have proven their ability to battle through wind and rain in the past. We'll find out if any of the other six have the game to handle those conditions on Friday, or if they will fade at all when Royal Troon comes to life.