SOUTHPORT, England — Stuart Manley was up part of the night tending to his 6-month-old son, and so nervous when he stood on the first tee that he thought he wouldn’t be able to hit the ball.

By the time he had finished his first round in the British Open the journeyman from Wales had the equally hard task of explaining how he somehow managed to get on the leaderboard today at Royal Birkdale.

“I didn’t dream of it. I didn’t think about it,” Manley said. “I just thought, post a decent score, give myself tomorrow for making the cut and have a good weekend.”

Manley had his reasons for being surprised. At the age of 38 — after 13 years struggling as a pro — he was playing in his first British Open and just hoping for a respectable outing.

What he ended up with was an eagle-birdie finish that gave him a 68 to put him atop the early leaderboard at the Open — a lead that lasted about an hour before Ian Poulter came in with a 67.

“It happened so quick,” Manley said, seemingly still in a daze. “I eagled 17, birdied 18. Didn’t have much time to look at the leaderboards. So it hasn’t really sunk in, I don’t think yet.”

It wasn’t as if Manley was in good form coming in to the Open. After qualifying with a tie for second at the Johannesburg Open in February he has made the cut in only one of his last 10 tournaments.

“I thought the warmup would have gone better this morning, but it didn’t,” he said. “So I thought, OK, this is the game I’ve got. I’m just going to have to plot my way around, and it seemed to work.”

What Manley did was what more seasoned players are trying to do at Royal Birkdale. He wanted to avoid the fairway bunkers and aim for the front edge of the green on every hole.

Jordan Spieth is in the early mix at Royal Birkdale as he tries to add a British Open title to his collection of major championships.

Poulter also had quite the day, making only one bogey on his way to a 3-under 67 that gave him the clubhouse lead among early finishers.

Spieth, who narrowly missed getting in a playoff two years ago at St. Andrews, set the tone for his day when he slashed an iron out of the rough on the second hole to within 10 feet for his first birdie. He added two more to finish off the front nine and was at 3 under on the back nine.