Woods and Nicklaus, who boast six Open wins – four of which in St Andrews – and 33 majors among them, each started with rounds of 67 to follow the leader in one hit.
Woods’ approach game was particularly exceptional in that he made an excellent start, picking up four pitches out of the first nine.
Other highlights of a windy first day include an Ian Baker-Finch eagle on the fifth par-5, which helped the Australian stay three to three apart.
Baker-Finch was joined in that soundtrack by Tony Jacklin, who produced a moment of magic in the last hole with a textbook link hit, a chip-and-run approach that left a tap-in for birdies.
Darren Clarke drew attention with a giant putt birdie on the 13th, while artists of the caliber of Francesco Molinari, Sergio Garcia and Shane Lowry also shone on the greens.
The winner of The Open For The Ages was determined by a fan vote, which recorded more than 10,000 responses, and a data model developed in collaboration with NTT DATA that uses this fan vote together with player career statistics and historical data from The Open to calculate the sample.
The Open For The Ages is in association with HSBC.
