Seamus Power paid for his mistakes and failed to get the rub of the green as he opened with a rollercoaster 73 in The 150th Open at St Andrews.

The West Waterford star got off to the perfect start when he rolled in a 12 footer down the hill at the first for a birdie on his Open debut.

But he would bogey the second, suffering a 360-degree lip out from two and a half feet at the second after almost holing an impossible chip.

Another shot went at the fourth where he misjudged his approach and left himself a tough pitch that ran to the back of the green and while he had an eagle chance at the fifth from 100 feet,  he ran it 12 feet past and racked up the first of three three-putts, eventually mixing four birdies with three bogeys and a disastrous double-bogey at the 12th.

"It was strange," Power said. "I did a lot of good stuff but I hit it in one bunker on 12 and it probably cost me two and a half, three shots. And then I had a couple of three-putts from long long distance. So that's the difference between shooting one-over and maybe three or four-under.

"I hit a good putt on the second and it kind of bobbled a little bit so it was one of those ones you can't believe it comes out.

"Bu that happens sometimes. It was kind of like that for the rest of the day. Doing some good things and not really getting much reward for it.

"It's kind of like that this course. That's the way it was playing. I'll tried to stay patient and hopefully get some better breaks tomorrow."

He finally got going when he drove through the par-four ninth and chipped close for birdie, then made a 10 footer for another at the 10th to get to one-under par.

He had around 12 feet for another birdie at the dangerous, par-three 11th but missed that, then hit  a bullet drive that ran up the face of a bunker just short of the 12th and ran up a disastrous double bogey six.

Forced to chip out sideways, his third failed to get up a tier and he three putted from around 30 feet to fall back to one-over.

"The bunker is like three yards by four yards and it's anything but there," Power said. "I hit probably my best drive of the day but it never moved and the two boys missed it by a few yards to the left and had pretty easy shot from just over the back of the green."

He did well to par the 14th from eight feet after a crazy sequence of bounces saw his short third shot carom 40 yards from right to left and off the front of the green into a bunker.

Another chance went begging at the 16th when he looked set to have 10 feet for birdie but trickled off the green into a swale.

The downwind 17th required only a wedge to the green but Power came up short and three-putted to go two-over before he reduced the 18th to a 2-iron and two putts from hole high left of the green, expertly judging his 100 foot approach putt.

"Today was not ideal but three more good ones and it'll still be a good tournament," Power said.

St Andrews is so firm and fiery, the course was at the mercy of the field yesterday with only tight pins to protect scoring.

But Power failed to take advantage of the chances offered and then paid a high price for any mistakes.

"One is an opportunity, five is reachable, then you are going to be close to nine, close to 12, you are going to drive 18 and you can reach 14," Power said. "I didn't play those particularly well.

"I doubled 12 and parred 14 and that's three or four shots there. So you have to take advantage of those ones.

"Other time a good shot an be to 40 feet and you have to get down in two which I failed to do on 17 today. I played it smartly, did everything right to get just on the front edge and it took me three to get down.

"So I have to be a little sharper with some of those putts tomorrow and hopefully just get a few more breaks."