TROON, Scotland — The three words are plastered on every billboard and grandstand and awning, “Forged by Nature,” not so much a slogan as it is the Open’s ethos. It’s golf how it’s supposed to be, without artifice or human intervention, nothing but a player against the earth and her elements and himself. What’s presented is a test and an education, an experience that’s as romantic and religious as this beautifully dumb game can get. That’s the sell, at least.

But marketing doesn’t always match the product, as Friday at Royal Troon proved, because forged was not the f-word that was used ad nauseam. This was not a test, something to weed out the pretenders from the contenders. And religious? Try biblical, Old Testament style, fire and brimstone, wrath from a divine power that cannot be conquered and only hoped to be survived, those left standing not by their own devices but by divine intervention or indifference or sheer dumb luck. It’s why each man who stumbled off the course looked in serious need of a hug or a drink or perhaps both. The thing is, they had an idea that what happened would happen, yet knowing you’re about to get punched doesn’t make the blow any less painful.

And their pain was our pleasure.

After Thursday’s conditions delivered a tough-but-fair setup and Friday morning followed the same blueprint, Friday afternoon arrived and chose chaos, doing away with pleasantries and leaning into the mean that lied within, leaving those in the later Open wave looking on in dazed resignation.

“I need to lie down in a dark room. It’s brutal out there,” said Matthew Southgate after a seven-over 78. “That’s one of the toughest experiences I’ve had on a golf course. It was cross-winds everywhere and pins on the same side where the wind was coming from. It’s just so, so difficult. It was like survival golf really. It’s so difficult just to make a par. The first nine holes … you’re sort of making the best educated guess you possibly can as to what club you need and where to aim. It was so tough.”

Added Dan Brown, one of the lucky ones with a one-over 72: “It was certainly three or four shots harder, I would have said. Even the front nine played a lot stronger, and then the back, you would think going back downwind, it would make it easier, but it was so firm that it was a proper struggle to try and hold onto some of the greens really.”

The Open is notorious for one wave getting the business end of the weather while the other makes it out relatively unscathed, leading to the stigma that the claret jug requires a good deal of providence. That fear didn’t come to fruition in Round 1: The morning shift posted an average score of 3.40 over par, the afternoon 3.50. But Friday proved the axiom true, as a mighty, consistent wind arrived off the Firth of Clyde, turning Troon’s flags into those inflatable, arm-flailing tubemen erected at used car dealerships. The result was tee shots that looked good until they weren’t, approach shots that wouldn’t hold and putts that couldn’t be stopped. Parts of Troon you’re supposed to avoid—the bunkers, the heater, the gorce—could not be avoided.. The afternoon players were a whopping two strokes higher in average than their morning brethren.

Although storms can’t be conveyed by numbers. It has to be viewed by what’s left in its wake.

Justin Thomas finished his Thursday round with the Open lead. Nine holes and 45 shots later he was outside the cut. On the par-3 fifth Thomas hit a 130-yard tee shot, which was a problem considering the hole measured over 210 yards, one of Thomas’ hands on his club and the other on his hip, wondering what the hell was happening.

Robert MacIntyre plays from a bunker on the 12th.

GLYN KIRK

Robert MacIntyre, who won the Scottish Open last week, walked off the first tee and directly into the heater, the Scotsman a whopping eight over through his first four holes. Joaquin Niemann made an 8 at the par-3 Postage Stamp after finding three different bunkers on the 120-yard hole. Any hopes of a Rory McIlroy surge were kaput with a triple at the fourth, where McIlroy was only able to advance his second from the high stuff a few feet and McIlroy could only muster a sly smile, knowing that it wasn’t his day and there was nothing he could do about it. Sahith Theegala had a triple, two doubles and four bogeys through his first 13 holes. Nicolai Hojgaard had to turn his hat around backwards to keep it flying into the ether.

At one moment Friday evening the scoreboard showed that, of the last 99 players that went out, only two—two!— were under par for the tournament. One of them was Brown, the former delivery truck turned Cinderella story, the other Justin Rose, who shot 68. However, Rose is facing the threat of disqualification, as there are rumors that he may have been playing a different course.

“I think today it tipped over the edge where the elements were in control, meaning that you were aiming right of a pin and slicing the ball and seeing the ball hook,” Rose said. “So the wind had all the control on the ball. The player couldn’t have control over the wind. I think that’s the tipping point today.”

Then there is the tale of Aguri Iwasaki, who earned a spot in the field thanks to winning the Japan Open and, at five over through 29 holes, was inside the projected cutline. He proceeded to make a mess on the 12th, leading to double. Then suffered three penalty strokes thanks to pumping a ball out of bounds with several unplayable lies, leading to a quintuple-bogey 9.

The novice may read the above and believe the golf gods would have mercy on Iwasaki’s soul. What they did was not that, as Iwasaki’s approach at the par-3 14th found a bunker. His second, a bunker too. Same with the third, fourth, fifth, and … for the sake of time, Iwasaki eventually made a four-footer for a sextuple-bogey 9. For those scoring at home, it is the first time in 30 years—or as long as the tournament has been keeping stats of such things—that an Open player made back-to-back 9s.

All of it was a trainwreck, and it was a delight. Because this Open was what we want the U.S. Open to be. Where the best of the best are made to look like us, where there’s not so much red and much more black, where “good bogey” is said in seriousness. It was a much-welcomed break from the onslaught of scoring we’ve seen in recent months in professional golf.

In that same breath. this wasn’t a mickey-mouse, gimmicky setup straight out of the USGA of yesteryear. Balls were not oscillating, putts did not roll endlessly off greens. To a man, no one directed blame at the R&A. The only blame could be to nature and no one wants to be the old man yelling at the sky. It was tough and unrelenting and diabolical. Troon is a nuanced challenge no matter the conditions. Add incessant gusts and ever-hardening surfaces to the recipe and what comes off the grill is a slab of charred golfers wondering if they should have gone into another profession.

By Friday evening the wind had died down, with Niemann and Jon Rahm cobbling together viable runs. But while the wind won’t likely be as fierce on Saturday, Royal Troon should still be tough, with storms expected to roll through the area.

It’s here we should state this Open round coincided with the global release of “Twisters,” the sequel to the ‘90s picture featuring tornados wrecking havoc for the better part of two hours. The new film is expected to rake in hundreds of millions at the box office, which makes sense. The entertainment of a good disaster film is hard to beat.

• • •

MORE GOLF DIGEST BRITISH OPEN COVERAGE

British Open 101: Answering all your frequently asked questions

How to watch the British Open on TV and streaming

Power Rankings: Every player in the field at Royal Troon

Video: Every hole at Royal Troon

How hard can the 123-yard Postage Stamp hole really be? Our deep-dive explantion

Tiger Woods and when enough is enough

History of the claret jug: 152 years of triumphs, dents and lots of drinking

How Brian Harman (aka ‘The butcher of Hoylake’) beat the British tabloids

Rory McIlroy’s media blowoff reignites debate about obligation in the face of frustration

Links golf interactive: What shots you should play on a links course

This article was originally published on golfdigest.com