Two putts for Sharma, and that’s pretty much it for day one. Thanks for reading this blog. Join us again tomorrow morning!
-5: Lamprecht (a), Fleetwood, Grillo
-4: Rozner, Otaegui, Harman
-3: Cink, Clark, Noren, Homa, Sharma, Stewart
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Shubhankar Sharma makes his way down 18 in fuss-free fashion. He calmly gets back into position by whipping his second to 150 yards, then finds the heart of the green with his approach. He’ll have two putts from 50 feet for par and a wonderful opening round of 68.
Shubhankar Sharma has to wait on the 18th tee for an age. The end-of-day play has slowed right up, with the 18th, all out of bounds and deep bunkers, proving troublesome to so many. No wonder he eventually sends his drive into thick nonsense down the left. A wee bit of bother there, as while he’ll definitely have to lay up, the OB on the right is very much in play. The final knockings of day one have been glacial, but the action has been gripping nonetheless.
An abysmal end to the 2013 champion Phil Mickelson’s round. A double bogey on 17 – and if that upturned saucer of a green can fox Phil, it can fox anyone, so watch out – followed by an out-of-bounds triple at 18. A highly respectable score turns into a 77 in short order, and at +6, Lefty will need to shoot low tomorrow if he’s to survive the cut.
Shubhankar Sharma has a tidy record at the Open Championship … in so much as both of his appearances have ended in ties for 51st. They came at Carnoustie in 2018 and at Portrush a year later. The 26-year-old Indian, a two-time winner on the DP Tour, is promising much more this year, though. Having turned in 34, he’s added birdies at 12 and 15, then got up and down from 80 yards at 16 to save his par. Now he’s negotiated the tricky 17th without fuss, and will take to the 18th tee at -3.
Pars for Tyrrell Hatton, Collin Morikawa and Max Homa on 18. The latter’s was achieved via some poor grandstand-dwelling punter’s chin. They’re level par, +2 and -3 respectively.
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Rory McIlroy speaks to Sky Sports. “I felt like I played OK … missed a couple of putts … started to get the putter going on the back nine, which was nice to see … I could have let the round get away from me but I didn’t … it’s a solid start … it was really good in the end … these bunkers are really tough, it just doesn’t seem to go into the middle of them and you’re always up against the face … I actually got lucky [with his first bunker shot on 18] … it could have gone into a deeper part of my footprint … I might have been there all night so it was great to get away with a five, it was a great putt to end on … I’m right in the golf tournament … I need to shoot a score in the 60s tomorrow and I’ll be right there for the weekend.”
Jon Rahm’s par putt shaves the left-hand edge of the cup. A nuclear blast threatens to erupt, but he takes a deep breath, looks to the heavens, and taps in for bogey. An extremely disappointing 74 for the world number three and reigning Masters champion. But it’s a pleasant end to Rory’s day, as he makes his par saver, and signs for a 71 that could have been a whole lot worse. Should he get his game going for the rest of the week, that astonishing up and down could prove so important come Sunday.
Rory’s turn. He opts to go out sideways, even though he thought about trying to launch skywards with a view to going straight for the pin. But the safe play doesn’t pay. He hits the side face, and his ball rolls back into one of his footprints. He’s in all sorts of bother now … but finally works a stance, one leg extended into the bunker, one knee perched to the side. He’s like a treble clef in human form. He splashes out to eight feet, which is a preposterous result from where he was. He’ll have a good chance to save his par!
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For the second time today, Jon Rahm is forced to chip backwards out of a bunker. He splashes out cutely, so much so that the camber nearly gathers the ball back into the sand. But it stops on a flat area and he’ll be chipping four onto the green. This time he doesn’t get too cute, aiming for the heart of the putting surface. He’ll have a look at saving par from 20 feet.
Viktor Hovland takes two putts for his par, and ends the day having salvaged a 70. Given how he so nearly sent his second out of bounds, he’ll be so relieved at how his round has panned out, especially having witnessed poor JT’s meltdown. Once they clear the green – Tony Finau shot a two-over 73, by the way – Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm take turns to send their second shots into the bunkers guarding the front left … and both are right up against the face. Some Seve-style magic required here.
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A massive stroke of good fortune for Viktor Hovland, who nearly sends his second at 18 out of bounds. But his ball squirts over the corner of the right-hand turn, and he takes advantage of his luck by sending his third into the heart of the green. But before he can putt, Justin Thomas suffers a golfer’s worst nightmare: he becomes the recipient of sympathetic applause. Already +7 for his round, and having sent his tee shot out of bounds, he goes from one greenside bunker into another, from where he’s forced to chip out backwards. This is awkward to watch. He ends up with a quadruple-bogey nine – smiling wryly as his final putt stops stubbornly on the lip – and that’s an awful round of 82. He’s +11 and that wry smile doesn’t last long. The poor chap’s face falls as he takes stock: he already knows he’ll be missing the cut in yet another major.
A disappointing bogey finish for Keegan Bradley, the result of finding a fairway bunker with his tee shot. He nevertheless ends the day with a very decent 70. Back on 17, Tyrrell Hatton takes two putts for a par that, for a couple of hairy seconds, would have looked extremely unlikely when his tee shot was sailing towards the back of the green and potential oblivion. He remains at level par, while his playing partner Max Homa also pars to stay at -3.
Things had been threatening to unravel for Tyrrell Hatton. Having turned in 33, he bogeyed 10, 11 and 14, and a hack out of rough on 15 led to him inspecting his troublesome wrist gingerly. But he’s just rattled in an unexpected 30-foot birdie effort on 16, and suddenly he’s back to level par and looking a little happier. Doubly so when he slightly overhits his tee shot at 17, his ball threatening to dribble off the back and into a world of trouble, but stopping just in time. He’ll want to get up there and mark it quickly, though, should the wind suddenly decide to start playing silly buggers.
Rory and Rahmbo both find the 17th green safely … though McIlroy only just manages to do so. His ball hangs on the front edge of the green, and for a second threatens to topple back down the swale and into the bunker, where monsters be. But the ball behaves and stays put. He can’t make the left-to-right slider from 15 feet for birdie, though getting out of Dodge with par is nothing to be sniffed at. Rahm makes his par too, having left a very makeable straight 12-footer short. They remain at level par and +2 respectively.
Max Homa plays the par-five 15th almost perfectly. Bang, bang, chip to four feet … then misses the short birdie putt. He hangs his head as he shuffles off. He remains at -3. Up on 16, a two-putt par for Rory McIlroy, who remains at level par … but a three-putt fiasco for Jon Rahm, who exits the scene fuelled by lug-steam. He’s +2.
Rory McIlroy belts a drive down the middle of 16. As he does so, a wag in the crowd yells a very British take on the American mashed-potato routine: “Mushy peas.” It won’t be long before we get to crispy bits, will it. Meanwhile up on the green, birdie for Viktor Hovland, who has set about rebuilding his round in staunch fashion; two over after bogeys at 8 and 10, he’s responded with birdies at 11, 12 and now 16. He’s -1, in red figures for the first time today. An impressive display of mettle, especially as he’d missed a very gettable birdie putt on 15.
It’s back to back birdies for Rory McIlroy! He follows up the one on 14 by splashing out of the deep bunker guarding the front of 15 to three feet. Such a delicate shot; he didn’t have much green to play with. In goes the putt, and all of a sudden he’s back to level par and the Rory Spring is back in the Rory Step. Jon Rahm trudges off, however, having taken three to get down from a much more promising position. He remains +1.
A brilliant birdie at the last for Brian Harman! He’s out of position down the left, so lobs high over the bunkers and into the heart of the green. A different, but equally sensible, solution to the problem solved by Emiliano Grillo not so long ago. And like Grillo before him, Harman gets his reward for his common sense. He guides in a gentle right-to-left slider from 30 feet, and raises his putter to celebrate his birdie. That’s a 67, the third of the day, and he joins Antonie Rozner and Adrian Otaegui in second place.
-5: Lamprecht -a- (F), Fleetwood (F), Grillo (F)
-4: Rozner (F), Otaegui (F), Harman (F)
-3: Cink (F), Clark (F), Noren (F), Homa (14)
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Jon Rahm and Rory McIlroy both send their drives down the middle of the par-five 15th. Neither make the green with their second shot, Rahm missing harmlessly front right, Rory in a little more bother in a deep bunker guarding the front left. As they mosey on up towards their fate, Max Homa splits the fairway behind them.
Max Homa nearly replicates Rory McIlroy’s birdie putt on 14. But his ball shaves the lip. He remains -3.
Rory McIlroy has long needed something to re-energise his round … and here it is! His second into 14 isn’t all that, pulled a good 40 feet left of the hole. But he’s pin high, and the birdie putt he’s left with is pretty straight. He confidently walks it in, the crowd erupts, he moves back to +1, and he’s got a couple of par-fives coming up. He could yet salvage something half-decent from what has so far been a distinctly average day’s work!
Argentina's Emiliano Grillo shoots 66!
Grillo finds himself out of position to the left of the 18th, so doesn’t go for the flag, tucked behind a bunker on the same side, with his approach. He lands his ball safely on the front-right portion of the green, 50 feet from the flag … then sends a tramliner straight into the cup! That matches the best-of-day 66s by the amateur Christo Lamprecht and local lad Tommy Fleetwood … and here’s a reminder that Argentina already has produced one Open champion at Hoylake, the legendary Roberto De Vicenzo in 1967. What a putt! What a finish! What a leaderboard!
-5: Lamprecht -a- (F), Fleetwood (F), Grillo (F)
-4: Rozner (F), Otaegui (F)
-3: Cink (F), Clark (F), Noren (F), Harman (17), Homa (13)
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A sour look on Rory’s puss at the par-three 13th. It’s understandable, though. Having hit his tee shot to 30 feet, he looks to have made the long birdie putt, only for it to veer a couple of millimetres to the left at the death and horseshoe out. So unlucky, that deserved better. He has the air of a man convinced he’s been singled out for particular abuse from the Golfing Gods, though he’s had his fair share of good breaks today as well. His current mark of +2 seems fair enough, given how ragged and uncharacteristically uninspired he’s been.
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Remember that Jon Rahm drive at 12, the one that pinged off someone in the gallery and flew into the bunker, necessitating that backwards chip out? Well, it turns out our man Michael Butler happened to be right next to the supporter who got hit upside the head. He tells the sorry tale via the medium of Twitter …
Rahm’s wayward tee shot on 12 hits the head of a supporter in and pings into a bunker. The man is OK, conscious but with a nasty bang and is seen to by medics. Rahm comes over and hands him a signed glove. “There’s a reason we miss here”, Rahm jokes. “It’s a good angle in” pic.twitter.com/x1agRdkKmF
— Michael Butler (@michaelbutler18) July 20, 2023
Awkward second shot for Rahm, who opts to come backward out of the bunker back onto the fairway and sends his third shot to the middle of the green. Can’t save his par though and slips to +1. A bogey for McIlroy as well, he’s now +2. pic.twitter.com/no85HlI6Du
— Michael Butler (@michaelbutler18) July 20, 2023
For the second time today, Max Homa cards back-to-back birdies. Having done so at 4 and 5, he repeats the trick at 10 and 11. Some way to follow his first dropped stroke of the day at 9. Meanwhile Emiliano Grillo hits one of the shots of the day at the mind-bending Little Eye, and tidies up from six feet to move to within a shot. For the first time in a wee while, there’s a little bit of movement at the toppermost of the poppermost (well this is Liverpool after all).
-5: Lamprecht -a- (F), Fleetwood (F)
-4: Rozner (F), Otaegui (F), Grillo (17)
-3: Cink (F), Clark (F), Noren (F), Harman (16), Homa (11)
Neither Rahm nor McIlroy can save their pars on 12. They’re +1 and +2 respectively. Meanwhile it’s back-to-back bogeys for Tyrrell Hatton, who follows that dropped shot at 10 by putting excitably through the break from short range on 11. Once again the lid threatens to rattle, but he keeps everything in check. He’s back to level par.
While we’re on the subject of piping-hot salvoes …
According to Rich Beem on Sky, McIlroy has missed the fairway at 12 by 70 yards to the left. He does pretty well to send his second to the apron in front of the green, but doesn’t get particularly close with his third. Meanwhile Rahm is forced to take a big gulp of medicine and chip backwards out of the bunker. He then clips his third into the heart of the green and, left with a 40-footer for par, is doing very well to keep his temper in check right now. I’d pay good money for a Just Stop Oil protestor to rock up at exactly this second with a sack of orange confetti, just to see how the ensuing debate would pan out. The climate would change in Rahm’s noggin, that’s for sure, possibly to a polar-ice-cap-bothering degree.
An awful break for Jon Rahm on 12. His drive hits a punter down the right of the hole and rebounds into a fairway bunker, where it settles snugly against a high face. I suppose he can’t complain too much – he did hoick his tee shot towards the gallery, after all – but even so! Meanwhile Rory McIlroy appears to be in the mood to look that gift horse in the mouth: having somehow escaped with par from the previous hole, he now flays another spectacularly wild drive into deep oomska down the left of 12. Trouble ahoy.
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Yes he can! In it goes, and could that be a momentum shifter for the 2014 champion? McIlroy remains at +1. Bogey for Tyrrell Hatton back on 10, and he briefly threatens to boil over, before his inner angel calms him down. He keeps his counsel, perhaps surmising that he’s still nicely positioned at -1.
McIlroy decelerates mid-chip and only just clears the bunker. Not only does the ball avoid dunking into the trap, it lands softly on the shoulder of the bunker and rolls to six feet. Given he’d have done well to hit a properly struck shot to 15 feet, that’s an almighty break. Can he capitalise by rolling in the putt and scrambling an unlikely par?
Rory McIlroy is not on his game at all. Wedging in from the centre of the 11th fairway, he sends his ball wide right of the green, leaving himself short-sided and snookered by a bunker. There’s next to no green to play with there, plus his ball’s ended up nestled against some taller grass. Good luck getting that close. He looks extremely uncomfortable right now, as he has done from the get-go.
A closing birdie for Adrian Otaegui. The 30-year-old from San Sebastian, a four-time winner on the DP World Tour, posts a fine first round of 67. Tommy Fleetwood and Wyndham Clark apart, there are quite a few surprises on this leaderboard, to say the very least. The singular charm of the Open Championship, right here.
-5: Lamprecht -a- (F), Fleetwood (F)
-4: Rozner (F), Otaegui (F)
-3: Cink (F), Clark (F), Noren (17), Grillo (15), Harman (14)
Collin Morikawa completes a front-nine repair job by rolling in a 25-footer on 9 for birdie. The last time we heard from him, he’d made double at 3. Having bounced back with a birdie on 4, the 2021 champion turns in level par. There’s a notable spring in his step again; see also Jon Rahm, who steers in a swinging right-to-left 30-footer on 10 to return to level par as well. But there’s no joy for Rory McIlroy, who misses his birdie effort from half the distance and remains +1.
Emiliano Grillo has a strangely binary record at the Open: he either finishes tied for 12th, which he’s done twice (in 2016 and 2021) or misses the cut, which he’s done four times (in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2022). The 30-year old Argentinian looks more likely to add to the former tally than then latter right now; he nearly drains a long eagle putt on 15 but makes birdie, his fourth in seven holes. He moves to -3.
Tyrrell Hatton is this close to draining a 40-foot birdie putt across 8. He’ll settle for par; having birdied 2 and 5, he’s nicely positioned at -2. He’s alongside Keegan Bradley, another in-form player who represents a good-value punt for this tournament. The 2011 PGA champion adds birdie at 10 to his previous one at 4.
McIlroy can’t make his birdie putt, which is always staying high on the right, and he hits the turn having taken 36 strokes. Jon Rahm also pars and turns for home at +1, while Justin Rose bogeys to fall to +3. This group is failing to deliver on its promise. The conditions are a little tougher than the morning, with a slight increase in the breeze … but not so tough that you’d expect such a storied trio to be this undercooked.
Rory McIlroy yips a three-foot putt at 8, and that’s his second clumsy bogey of the day. He’s now +1, but responds well by landing his tee shot at 9 pin high, leaving himself a ten-footer to make good. Meanwhile a burst from the back by the veteran Swede Alex Noren, who follows eagle at 15 with birdie at 16 to spring up the standings to -3.
With the exception of that ring-a-ding-ding tie-and-cardigan combo at Birkdale in 2017, two-time major champion Justin Thomas has failed to leave any sort of lasting mark on the Open. That doesn’t look like changing any time soon: he’s doubled 7 after finding bother in a greenside bunker and failing to splash out close, and after another dropped stroke at 9, he’s turning in four-over 39. Having already missed the cut at the Masters and the US Open, this is shaping up to be an utterly forgettable majors season for the 2017 and 2022 PGA Championship winner. Top hat and tails tomorrow? He shot 67 while wearing the necktie and cardie, so anything’s worth a try.
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A three-putt bogey for Jon Rahm at 7. Not what the Masters champion was looking for after an underwhelming run of pars. It’s met with plenty of groans from the gallery, though not as many as the number that react to Phil Mickelson missing a short birdie effort on 6 after hitting one of the shots of the day at the 204-yard par-three to four feet. Lefty remains at -1 after birdie at 4.
Three birdies in four holes for Adrian Otaegui. The 30-year-old from the Basque Country has only played in one previous Open, missing the cut at Portrush four years ago. But he’s going along nicely now at -3 after picking up strokes at 12, 13 and 15. His mentor Jose Maria Olazabal – who himself came closest to Open glory at Muirfield in 1992 – will be very proud.
Our man Michael Butler is at Hoylake. Here’s his take on the potential of the 17th hole as the stage for widespread carnage later in the week.
Addendum. I can’t in all good conscience post that without putting up the proper stuff.
Rory McIlroy seriously underhits his putt on 6. So much so that it’s still his turn afterwards. He limits the damage to mild embarrassment, tidying up from six feet to remain at level par. “To keep the golf video thread going, try Feel the Pain’ from the mighty Dinosaur Jr,” writes Dominic Maher.
Yeah, not bad. Though everyone knows they nicked the idea from Cannon and Ball.
Back-to-back birdies for Max Homa. Big putts on 4 and 5, and it’s about time the late-blooming Californian made a mark in a major. He’s done nothing of note in any of them, his best result being a tie for 13th in last year’s PGA. But he’s won twice already on the PGA Tour this season, at the Fortinet Championship and the Farmers Insurance Open, and he tied for 12th at the Scottish Open last week. Could this week bring his first top-ten finish in a major at least? He’s -2 in short order.
Rory follows his disappointing par by finding the dance-floor on the par-three 6th … but he’s a long way from the hole. It’s just ever-so-slightly flat for the 2014 champion at the minute. That could soon change if he rakes in the uphill 50-footer he’s left with. Meanwhile up on 10, bogey for Brian Harman, who drops back to -2.
Yes, so about Rory and those cold Open starts. Having carelessly handed back his slightly fortuitous early bogey on 4, he now sends his approach at 5 way right, and he’s in thick rough, short-sided and behind a bunker. He very nearly gets away with it, thanks to an outrageous whip over the trap to ten feet, the best he could do, but the birdie putt shaves the hole. Just a par. We’ve been here a few times before. Plenty of time to arrest the trend, with not too much damage done, but he isn’t exactly exuding confidence at the minute. Might sound silly at such an early stage, but the next hour or so could be pretty pivotal in his latest hunt for major number six. A potentially mood shaping par-three coming up!
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Birdie for Antoine Rozner at 18! Up and down from greenside sand, and the 30-year-old from Paris scribbles his name at the bottom of a fine 67. Meanwhile the diminutive lefty Brian Harman hits the turn in 32 strokes after birdies at 5, 6 and 9. You’d have got a good price for some of the names on this leaderboard this time yesterday …
-5: Lamprecht -a- (F), Fleetwood (F)
-4: Rozner (F)
-3: Cink (F), Clark (F), Harman (9)
-2: Jordan (F), Spieth (F), Kim (F), Otaegui (14), Niemann (6)
Birdie for Tyrrell Hatton at 2. He’s currently -1 through 3. Meanwhile Alexander Bjork drops a stroke at 12 to slip back to -2. Not a great deal going on right now, which may explain why Sky Sports have cut to a lengthy post-round interview with Stewart ‘Drippy Faucet’ Cink. Any old excuse …
Collin Morikawa bounces back from that opening bogey with birdie at 2 … only to make a double at 3 after sending his second shot out of bounds. He’s +2. Meanwhile up on 4, a dropped shot for Rory McIlroy, who walks off looking particularly pained having taken an iron off the tee for safety. Facing a longer shot in, he found greenside sand, and the die was cast. Was that decision to take an iron off the tee the result of those wayward drives at 1 and 2? Those shots of concern on the driving range? Classic dramatic foreshadowing.
It’s already been a good sporting year for Antoine Rozner. The 30-year-old Parisian, who went to college at the University of Missouri, has seen his beloved Kansas City Chiefs win the Super Bowl … and bagged himself a DP World Tour victory at the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius. But could 2023 get even better for him? Rozner has only played in one Open previously, last year’s 150th birthday event at St Andrews, where a tie for 59th wasn’t a bad result at all. Now, after birdie at 16 and solid par at the tricky 17th, he’s coming up 18 sitting at -3. A par will give him an opening round of 68.
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A positive end to an otherwise underwhelming opening round by Bryson DeChambeau. The 2020 US Open champion birdied the last, but only for a three-over 74. An extremely sorry conclusion to Rickie Fowler’s round, however. Standing on the 18th tee, the Californian, who came joint-second here in 2014, was comfortably placed at -2. He then crashed his drive down the fairway … from where he sent his next two strokes out of bounds down the right. Astonishing, even if the OB line is just a couple of paces into the rough. A triple-bogey eight, and he signs for a 72. Expect the leaders on Sunday afternoon to be aiming well left. He’s +1.
Scrub that about Rory and his slow starts! He’s sent his tee shot at 2 so far right that he gets a free drop because a grandstand is in the way. He takes advantage of that break to wedge from 116 yards to four feet, then makes his birdie … but only just, the ball looping the loop before dropping. He has the good grace to look extremely relieved. His soda farl landed jam side up a couple of times there. A super-early sign that the Golfing Gods are looking down kindly on him and this could be his week? OK, fair enough, let’s not get silly with 70 holes still to navigate. He’s -1.
-5: Lamprecht -a- (F), Fleetwood (F)
-3: Cink (F), Clark (F), Bjork (11)
Birdie at the last for Kim Si-woo and the erstwhile Players champion signs for a 69. A few minutes beforehand, Bob MacIntyre also birdied 18 to limit the damage of an otherwise underwhelming 74. Meanwhile back-to-back birdies at 10 and 11 for the 33-year-old Swede Alexander Bjork, who has played in four previous Opens and never survived the cut. At -3 he’s looking good to snap that sorry sequence, albeit with an awfully long way to go yet.
Justin Rose couldn’t get up and down from 100 yards for his par at 1, incidentally. Jon Rahm made his though. Then in the group behind, the 2021 winner Collin Morikawa suffers a cold start, zig-zagging down the rough from right to left, then thinning a chip across the green. He putts up from a swale and taps in for bogey. He’s not won anywhere since his victory at Royal St George’s, which is a jaw-dropping state of affairs considering how good he is. But it’s a strange game, golf, all right.
Rory takes his two putts for an opening par. But there was footage of him on the driving range earlier, frowning, chomping on his tongue and narrowing his eyes as he looked on at his own work with concern, and the early evidence of this round explains why. He sends another tee shot miles right, and he doesn’t half like starting an Open slowly, does he?
The aforementioned Rory, then. After waiting around all day, the pre-tournament joint-favourite (alongside Scottie Scheffler, who salvaged a round of 70 with birdies at 15 and 18, and will presumably be off to spend some time on the putting green) lashes his opening drive miles right. But he sends his second into the heart of the green, from where he should at least salvage his par. Ditto Jon Rahm. Justin Rose, the third member of the group, finds a fairway bunker down the right and is forced to take a splash-out of medicine. He’ll have plenty of work for his par from distance.
Hats off to Wyndham Clark. You’ll have seen the US Open champ hacking his way down 14 (below). Two blows to extricate his ball from difficulty, only to find himself in more rough down the opposite side of the hole. But as Rory McIlroy and the rest of the field found to their cost in LA, Clark doesn’t lie down. He got up and down to limit the damage to bogey, then immediately bounced back with birdie at 15. Another birdie at the last, and that’s a 68. He’ll be extremely pleased with that after a quiet start – nine straight pars going out – and that’s one step towards adding the Open to his US Open title. Should he win this week, he’d join a super-select group of players to have won both championships in the same calendar year, alongside Bobby Jones, Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson and Tiger Woods. Now that is a top table.
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Thanks James … and that’s one hell of a back nine by Tommy Fleetwood. Four birdies to come home in 32. Tell you who will be equally as pleased with their performance along the closing stretch, and that’s Brooks Koepka. He was looking out of sorts after bogeys at 8 and 10, but birdies at 11, 12 and 15 see him sign for an opening round of 70.
England's Tommy Fleetwood shoots 66!
Two putts, including a five-footer, see the local favourite home in 32. Six birdies on the card, a solitary blemish at the sixth. He is your joint-leader at -5 alongside amateur Christo Lamprecht. With that, I’ll leave you in Scott’s far more capable hands. Enjoy the rest of the day.
-5: Lamprecht -a- (F), Fleetwood (F)
-3: Cink (F)
-2: Jordan (F), Spieth (F) – ha! – Clark (17), Kim (16), Rozner (12), Langasque (9)
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A bit of a struggle for Fleetwood up 18. From the left rough, he carves up to the right rough on the corner of the fairway, still the best part of 210 yards away. He does well to then find the back edge, from where two putts will see him in for a 66.
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On the 18th, Fleetwood again goes left off the tee, finding a spot in the rough. And speaking of the long stuff … Wyndham Clark (-2) may have had to play one of the day’s shortest shots …
Find the wrong spot at @RLGCHoylake and you'll get big trouble.@usopengolf winner Wyndham Clark found that out the hard way. pic.twitter.com/bApMttgZtk
— The Open (@TheOpen) July 20, 2023
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Antoine Rozner is the latest to make his way to -3, a birdie three on the 11th. US pair Brooks Koepka and Patrick Cantlay are both -1 through 17, while Bryson DeChambeau is +4, steadying the ship after a sketchy front nine.
To the 17th for Tommy Fleetwood and co. We mentioned it a bit earlier and should add that it’s currently playing as the ninth hardest hole on the course, a stroke average of 3.12 for its 126 yards. A reminder too that said number is slightly misleading given the grievous rise from tee to pin. Anyway, Fleetwood isn’t having anything to do with the flag, finding the back left edge and leaving himself a mighty putt. He does well from range, lagging up and gladly knocking in. He remains -5 with one hole to play.
“Silly, stupid question, but how can a golf course have a course record when the pin positions move daily, changing its difficulty?” asks Andy Flintoff (not that one). It’s not really either of those, Andy, but there’s not really a better option out there … I think?
Tommy Fleetwood goes to -5, a tie for the lead! He did well to find the green from the left rough on 16, a good 25 feet or so away from the pin with his approach and then made no mistake with the flat stick again, finding the cup for a third birdie on the spin. Meanwhile, up on the 18th, Jordan Spieth finds a fairway bunker off the tee and ends up having to come out sideways. He misses the green long and left, getting flirty with the stands, and is unable to get up and down. A frustrating finishing 6 and he’s back to -2 … three behind our joint-leaders.
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Another player on the back-to-back birdie trail is Romain Langasque of France, with a two at the sixth taking him to -2.
“I just thought I’d say the course set-up is almost perfect,” emails David Thomson with regards to Hoylake. “A great test with a mix of risk reward with relatively straightforward holes, but then again there’s nothing straightforward about an Open links. Makes a great contrast with the hairy monstrosity that was the US Open set-up last month. The US PGA seems to have this thing about rough and bunkers to the extent that it protected greenside bunkers with a fringe which made the bunkers pointless. It also forgets that the ball is round and it rolls – or should that be releases? – especially when it’s not hit or aimed very well the fringe prevented natural roll-offs as penalties. Crazy.
“I must say though I’ve mixed feelings about the 17th it stands out a wee bit crazy golf in amongst the excellent others. It will be good to see it in a hooly with rain but I think it might have been better placed earlier in the round to test the golfers’ recovery abilities towards the finish. But anyway things look good for the week. Lamprecht played well, hope he can keep it going.”
Another birdie for Tommy Fleetwood, then, doing the business on the par-five 15th. He takes second place on his own. Next up is the 466-yard 16th, another brute of a hole. He tugs his tee shot down the left and finds the rough.
1.55pm BST leaderboard
-5: Lamprecht -a- (F)
-4 Fleetwood (15)
-3: Cink (F), Spieth (17), Siem (10)
-2: Jordan (F), Scott (15), Clark (13), Rozner (9)
Royal Liverpool member Matthew Jordan, who got the ball rolling all the way back at 6.35am, has been talking about his day and an impressive round of 69. Remember, though, he is the course record-holder, having been around in here in just 62 shots. Speaking to PA, Jordan said:
Amazing. I’m kind of running out of words to describe it. It was crazy, mental, loud – everything that I could have wished for. I’m certainly trying to think of a better experience than that, and I don’t think I can.”
The first to fall foul of the 17th was Lucas Herbert, who arrived on the tee box as the early leader at three under but ended the hole at even par after an ugly six. Having missed the green long and left from the tee, he then chipped through the green to the right sand, duffed his first bunker shot into the bank, chipped out to 18ft and two-putted.
“I don’t think I’ll be the only one to run up a big number,” sighed Herbert after signing for even-par 71. “Our group all missed the green. It’s not easy. When there’s no wind, it’s a gap wedge and you can make a two pretty easily, but that wind gets going and you can’t really feel it too much on the enclosed tee. It becomes a really tricky shot.
“I had sort of one foot in the bunker, one foot out,” Herbert continued. “It didn’t come out the way I wanted and it rolled back in. Felt like there was about 5,000 professional golfers sitting around us in the stands watching it.”
Tucked up somewhere around the 17th hole today – which Jordan Spieth has just safely negotiated with a par three – is our very own Michael Butler. “Absolutely deadly,” he calls it. And if you need a bit more info about the new hole, here you go.
Hole 17 - Little Eye.
— The Open (@TheOpen) July 17, 2023
Par 3. 136 yards.
(17/18) pic.twitter.com/EnRBQOTMZz
“Perhaps a little unkind to detail the struggles of those having a bad day,” writes Dean Kinsella. “God knows, we’ve all had ‘em.” Some of us more than others, unfortunately, Dean.
Hello there … moving up to -3 and joint-second is Tommy Fleetwood, joining Jordan Spieth after a birdie on the par-four 14th. It’s been playing at 4.31 today so that’s a real bonus for the Englishman, whose approach from the left-side of the fairway ended up around 10ft from the pin and he duly rolled in the putt.
Currently bringing up the field is Jazz Janewattananond, who is in with an 81 or +10. He reached the turn in 39 but things went further south, ending with a double on the 18th. That’s three worse than Ryan Fox, while there’s currently a quarter of players stuck on +6, including Rasmus Hojgaard of Denmark, who is just through the 6th. A quadruple-bogey 8 on the 3rd has done most of the damage there.
Good afternoon, good morning, good evening wherever you are. Thanks to Scott, who will be back later to helm this good ship home.
A brief update on Scottie Scheffler: he’s parred the 13th and remains on level par, five back on our shock early leader, Christo Lamprecht. But you can add another name to the group on -3: Jordan Spieth.
Scottie Scheffler yips another short putt. The only surprise being he misses to the right. He walks off the 12th green with the hangdog look of a man who knows this is untenable if he wants to lift the Claret Jug this week. He’s back to level par.
And I’m off to lift a mug of hot tea, so I’ll leave you in the company of James Dart. See you later.
Marcel Siem bounces straight back from a bogey on 6 with birdie at 7. He punches the air in delight, along a huge swinging arc, the sort of celebration you normally see on the back nine on Sunday, not on the front nine on Thursday. Don’t be using all of that energy up too soon, Marcel. But he’s -3, so you can understand the sentiment. Meanwhile back-to-back birdies for the US Open champ (and real deal) Wyndham Clark at 10 and 11, and suddenly he’s in the mix at -2. He’s alongside Tommy Fleetwood, who having turned in 34 has since birdied 11, and Jordan Spieth, who follows birdie at 11 with another at 15. That’s a fine response by the 2017 winner to that double at 8, his tee shot on that hole being the only serious mistake he’s made all day. And birdie for 2012’s nearly man Adam Scott at 12. This is some leaderboard already!
-5: Lamprecht -a- (F)
-3: Cink (F), Siem (7)
-2: Jordan (F), Spieth (15), Fleetwood (12), Scott (12), Clark (11), Kim (10), Rozner (7)
The Cameron Smith Entertainment Rollercoaster continues to whistle around Hoylake at breakneck speed. Having hit the turn in 34, after those back-to-back bogeys and that outrageous scramble on 9, he’s bogeyed 10 and now flayed his drive into deep oomska to the left of 11. He thrashes a 9-iron through the waist-high grass and sends his ball into another swale. Time for some more wedge-based escapology, perhaps? He’s currently level par and who knows which direction he’ll be heading in next. Meanwhile it’s a par on 18 for the 2009 champion Stewart Cink, and an excellent blemish-free round of 68.
The amateur Christo Lamprecht shoots 66!
Two no-nonsense putts for the 6ft 8in South African amateur Christo Lamprecht on 18. That’s his seventh birdie of the day, and he’s signing for a sensational five-under opening round of 66. That’s the second-lowest first round by an amateur in Open history, behind Tom Lewis’s 65 at Sandwich in 2011 and ahead of Jordan Niebrugge’s 67 at St Andrews in 2015. It ties for the second-lowest amateur total in any round, matching the 66s of Frank Stranahan (Troon 1950), Tiger Woods (Lytham 1996), Justin Rose (Birkdale 1998) and Paul Dunne (St Andrews 2015).
And there’s more! Lamprecht, who plays college golf in the US, is here because he won the Amateur Championship last month, becoming only the third player out of Georgia Tech to do so. One of the other two? The legendary Bobby Jones, who won his Amateur Championship in 1930 as part of his famous Grand Slam season … that also included winning the Open at Hoylake. No further comment, other than to remind you all that dreaming is free.
-5: Lamprecht -a- (F)
-3: Cink (17)
-2: Jordan (F), Kim (8), Hojgaard(7), Siem (8), Rozner (5)
The veteran Marcel Siem is enjoying a late career renaissance. The 43-year-old German’s triumph at this year’s Indian Open was his first on the DP World Tour since 2014, and he’s since finished tied for second at the European Open and tied for 10th at the Made in Himmerland. He finished 15th at last year’s Open, too, and is out of the blocks quickly today. Birdies at 1, 4 and 5 – the latter so nearly an eagle – and he joins Stewart Cink in second spot at -3.
Cameron Smith is also fearless. The reigning champion pulls his tee shot at the par-three 9th down a swale to the left of the green, and he’s left with a tricky chip. But he clips it crisply from 65 feet to 18 inches, and in goes the par saver. He’s an absolute magician. Meanwhile up on 18, Christo Lamprecht lashes his second over the flag to 47 feet. The new Amateur Champion will have a long look at eagle for an opening round of 65. On Sky Sports, the former PGA champ Rich Beem says he’ll be surprised if Lamprecht doesn’t turn professional very soon, and parlay his talent into spending money.
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Christo Lamprecht is fearless. He smashes his tee shot at 18 down the right-hand side of the fairway, worried not a jot about the out-of-bounds line mere yards away. Ah the certainties of youth. He’s now got the ideal line into the green. Birdie here for 66 wouldn’t match the lowest first round by an amateur in the Open – that’s 65 by Tom Lewis at Sandwich in 2011 – but it would beat the second-lowest on record, a 67 shot by Jordan Niebrugge at St Andrews in 2015.
Patrick Reed, having dropped a stroke at 17, pars the last and signs for an opening round of 70. He walks off in a slightly disappointed fashion, his last putt having stopped half-a-dimple short of dropping. Cameron Smith meanwhile backs up his birdie at 7 with another at 8, the reward for knocking his approach pin high to six feet. The defending champion moves back into red figures.
The leader Christo Lamprecht pays the price for that wayward drive down 16. Bogey, but it doesn’t rattle him too much, and he finds the centre of the green at the terrifying short par-three 17th. That’s all you can ask, all anyone wants. Two putts to remain one clear of the 2009 champ. He nearly drains the 30-footer he’s left with, but the ball stops stubbornly on the lip, and must be tapped in for the par.
-4: Lamprecht -a- (17)
-3: Cink (15)
-2: Jordan (F), Pieters (17), Kim (6), Hojgaard (5), Siem (4), Bland (4)
Tommy Fleetwood is going along nicely. Birdies at 5 and 7 sandwich bogey at 6, and he’s -1. Cameron Smith is also in Entertainment Mode, following up bogey at 6 by rolling in a confident 20-footer at 7. The bounce-back birdie brings the defending champ back to level par. But on 8, it’s a first bogey of the week for world number one Scottie Scheffler, who coquettishly hitches up a leg of the old metaphorical trousers to reveal that very real Achilles heel: a short putt pulled left. That exactly the problem that put paid to his Scottish Open bid. He’s -1.
Jordan Spieth moves back into the red after playing 11 pretty much perfectly. A drive crashed down the right-hand side of the fairway, and an iron screwed to six feet. In goes the birdie putt, and he’s -1 again. Meanwhile it’s back-to-back birdies for 2017 Players champion Kim Si-woo, at 4 and now 5, and he joins the group at -2. But that doesn’t give him a share of second, because Stewart Cink birdies 15, and is now just two behind the leader at -3.
Time to turn another page of the fairytale. Christo Lamprecht finds greenside rough at the par-five 15th in two, then gently wedges to four feet. He nearly misses the short birdie putt, but it drops, and the big amateur reclaims sole ownership of the lead. But he sends his tee shot at 16 into a spot of bother down the right, and with Thomas Pieters further up the hole making double bogey – the result of being forced to chip out sideways from a fairway bunker - it would appear that we’re now reading this fairytale at flick-book speed. Look at this!
-5: Lamprecht -a- (15)
-2: Jordan (F), Reed (16), Pieters (16), Cink (14), Straka (11), Scheffler (7), Kim (5), Siem (4), Bland (3)
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Thomas Pieters joins Christo Lamprecht in the lead! He drains a 30-footer across the par-five 15th for eagle. The 31-year old Belgian has never delivered at the Open, but he’s got high finishes at the Masters and the PGA on his CV, albeit back in 2017 and 2018 respectively. Time to build on that early-career promise? Pieters, by the way, is six feet and five inches tall, which means the combined height of the leading duo (Lamprecht is 6ft 8in) crashes through the 13-feet barrier by a whole inch. An Open record? It can’t be far off, can it?
-4: Pieters (15), Lamprecht -a- (14)
Lucas Herbert isn’t the only one loudly crashing down the standings. Jordan Spieth sends his tee shot at 8 into a Native Area, with predictable consequences. He runs up a double-bogey six, and like Herbert before him, finds himself back at level par.
Lucas Herbert takes two to get out of the bunker on 17. Two more putts and that’s a triple-bogey six. Whatever you think about its brazenly punitive design, this hole is going to make for appointment viewing on Sunday. Herbert slips to level par, and now Christo Lamprecht stands alone in the lead … which is now two strokes, because he bumps in a delicate wedge from 50 yards for birdie at 14! What a story this is turning into.
-4: Lamprecht -a- (13)
-2: Jordan (F), Reed (14), Pieters (14), Cink (13), Scheffler (5)
Big bother for the co-leader Lucas Herbert at the controversial new par-three 17th. The hole is only playing at 126 yards today, but the green is a proper upturned saucer. Miss the flat portion at your peril. That’s what Herbert does, pulling his tee shot to the left, then whistling a clumsy chip up and across the green, down a swale on the other side, and into a deep bunker. He’s got an awkward lie, and he’ll do well not to run up a big number here. He could become the week’s first big casualty of this hellishly tricky hole; if he does, he won’t be the last.
The local hero Matthew Jordan creams a perfect drive down the left-hand side of the 18th fairway – there’s out of bounds to the right – but sends his second into thick rough. No matter: he wedges wisely into the heart of the green, and settles for a two-putt par. The crowd erupts as he signs for a magnificent opening round of 69.
Stewart Cink may be nicely placed at -2, but a few other veteran former winners are struggling. While the 50-year-old trucks on, the following trail in his wake: Darren Clarke and Ernie Els are +2 through 13 and 9 respectively; Louis Oosthuizen, who had gone out in 34, doubled 10 before dropping further strokes at 11 and 12 to slip to +3; Henrik Stenson is also +3, through 11; and Padraig Harrington, who still harbours hopes of playing his way into Europe’s Ryder Cup team, drops four strokes in three holes between 4 and 6, and plummets to +4.
Much better news to report for those reading down under: Lucas Herbert eagles 15 to bring a little professionalism to the top of the leaderboard! The 27-year-old Aussie, who finished in a tie for 15th at St Andrews last year, joins Christo Lamprecht at -3. Meanwhile an ominous rumble from behind, as the tee-to-green maestro Scottie Scheffler makes his second birdie of the day, at 4. If he gets his occasionally misbehaving putter going this week, the rest of the field may as well pack up and go home. He’s first in pretty much every metric, bar the flat stick: the world number one is only ranked 130th on tour! Strange game, golf.
-3: Herbert (15), Lamprecht -a- (12)
-2: Jordan (17), Reed (13), Cink (11), Spieth (7), Scheffler (4)
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Cameron Smith looked confident when opening his defence with that birdie. But since then he’s been a tad wayward. A tee shot wide right at 2. He makes par. But he goes wide left with his tee shot at 3, and this time it costs him. His second disappears down a swale to the left of the green, then a heavy-handed chip trundles off the other side. He nearly drains a putt up the bank for an outrageous save, but the ball shaves the lip and he drops back to level par.
Christo Lamprecht will be used to dizzy heights: he stands at 6ft 8ins after all. But there are dizzy heights, and dizzy heights, and leading the Open is something else. He makes his first mis-step of the day, dropping a stroke at 11. He remains one clear, but there’s now a pack on his shoulder, with local boy Matthew Jordan and 2018 Masters winner Patrick Reed joining Stewart Cink in second after birdies at 16 and 12 respectively.
-3: Lamprecht -a- (11)
-2: Jordan (16), Reed (12), Cink (10)
You’ll have spotted the 2015 nearly man Jason Day sneaking onto our leaderboard. He’s just carded back-to-back birdies at 4 and 5. He’s going round with Jordan Spieth, and the par-five 5th has ignited the 2017 champ’s round; birdie moves him into red figures after a steady start. No mean feat, either: of the 62 players currently out on the course, only 16 are under par.
The 22-year-old South African amateur Christo Lamprecht keeps on keepin’ on! He birdies 10 to move to -4 and increase his lead to two shots! Seeing you ask, because we’re all thinking about it, the lowest opening round by an amateur at the Open was the 65 shot by Tom Lewis at Sandwich in 2011. And while we’re at it, two of the three amateurs to win the Open have done so at Hoylake: the aforementioned Bobby Jones in 1930, and Harold Hilton in 1897. Frank Stranahan came second here in 1947, too. But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. Give it another hour at least.
-4: Lamprecht -a- (10)
-2: Cink (9), Day (5)
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Rickie Fowler pays the price for his errant opening drive. He sends his second into a pot bunker to the right of the green, takes two to get out, and ends up with an opening bogey. Magnificent birdie for his partner Shane Lowry, though, as the 2019 winner strokes in a gentle right-to-left curler from 15 feet. Par for Bob MacIntyre.
A couple of big birdies to report. The defending champion Cameron Smith parlays his fine opening tee shot into a fuss-free birdie, arrowing his approach to ten feet and rolling in the putt. Meanwhile a crowd-teaser up on 2, where the world number one Scottie Scheffler tickles a 25-footer towards the hole. The ball stops momentarily on the lip before toppling in. Two of the tournament favourites waste no time in moving into red figures.
You know you’re popular when you get a louder cheer than Rickie Fowler. Everyone loves Rickie, and he receives a huge ovation before sending his opening drive into the rough down the right. But then Robert MacIntyre steps up. Scotland hasn’t produced a Champion Golfer of the Year since Paul Lawrie broke Jean van de Velde’s heart at Carnoustie in 1999, and the 26-year-old from Oban is the old country’s best bet for a long while. The roar he’s given is deafening, fuelled by sympathy for that near miss at the Scottish Open last weekend, no doubt. What a 3-wood into 18 he hit … but all for nowt. But it’ll have given him confidence, and he splits the fairway with a booming drive. An excitable crescendo follows the ball down the track. The 2019 champion Shane Lowry isn’t short of fans either, and he finds the fairway too. Could you get a more fan-friendly three-ball?
Scottie Scheffler powers his second into 1 to set up a birdie chance from 12 feet. But he seriously underhits the putt and looks disappointed as he tidies up for par. Tommy Fleetwood is much happier with his four, after flying his approach over the back, from where he gets up and down. Adam Scott makes it three pars out of three from the group. “These are the days us golf nerds live for,” begins Steve Pye, speaking for us all. “There’s something special about the first day of the Open – and the second, third and fourth days – although I’m not sure my wife shares my enthusiasm. As I watched the first tee shot at 6.35am she looked at me and said: ‘Why is there golf on our television at this time of day?’ My tip is Rickie Fowler, which means everyone else should avoid him. The last time I backed a winner was Harrington in 2007, ironically picked by my wife. After I collected the winnings we went for a curry, and I said to her that I had no idea she had heard of Padraig Harrington. ‘It all sinks in eventually,’ she sighed.”
Cameron Smith begins his defence of the title. He’s not messing around, either. Looking as calm as you’d expect, the easy-going Aussie creams his opening drive down the middle. He’s followed there by partners Xander Schauffele and the new US Open champion Wyndham Clark. What’s been the problem, everyone? Meanwhile the 2009 dreamwrecker champion Stewart Cink birdies 5 and 7 to move into second spot on this early leaderboard.
-3: Lamprecht -a- (8)
-2: Cink (7)
-1: Jordan (13), Herbert (12), Pieters (9), Oosthuizen (8), Burns (4), Cantlay (1)
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Neither Brooks Kopeka nor Patrick Cantlay can find the 1st green from their positions wide left of the fairway. The former sends his second to the right, short-siding himself behind a bunker, and ends up with an opening bogey; the latter however makes an outrageous birdie, having sent his second down a swale to the right, before whistling an undulating putt up, down and up onto the green, then in. Had it not been bang on line, it would still have been travelling today. And people say he’s slow. He’s -1.
A huge roar at the 1st as another local lad, Tommy Fleetwood, takes to the tee. But before he can hit, the world number one Scottie Scheffler has a crack. He receives a warm ovation as well, the Open gallery recognising game as it always does. Scheffler becomes the latest to tug his opening shot into the rough down the left … then Fleetwood and the third member of a stellar group, Adam Scott, follow him in. Nobody wants to find either of the bunkers down the right of the fairway, that much is clear. The 2011 Masters champion Charl Schwartzel earlier illustrated exactly why: he found one of them and ended up with a double-bogey six.
Brooks Koepka and Patrick Cantlay take turns to send their opening drives over the startled heads of the spectators lining the left-hand side of the 1st fairway. Those tee shots are beyond wild, though there shouldn’t be too much danger over there, the grass already flattened by all the human traffic. Still, there haven’t been too many opening tee shots bothering the fairway this morning. The strategically placed bunkers messing with everyone’s head. Meanwhile the leader Christo Lamprecht is this close to making yet another birdie, this time at 7, but his swinging 15-foot putt stops a dimple short. He remains at -3.
… the 22-year-old South African amateur Christo Lamprecht! Playing in his first Open, as reward for winning the Amateur Championship last month, he’s birdied 3, 5 and 6 to hit the top of the famous yellow leaderboard. And here’s a funny thing: Lamprecht studies at Georgia Tech, as did the legendary Bobby Jones, one of only two other men from the Georgia Institute of Technology to win the Amateur Championship. Jones won the Amateur as part of his famous 1930 Grand Slam season … that also included winning the Open at Hoylake. Blimey. Here, what if … no, it’s not even 10am on Thursday morning, we can’t start thinking like this.
-3: Lamprecht -a- (6)
-1: Jordan (11), Herbert (10), Larrazabal (9), Reed (8), Pieters (7), Oosthuizen (6), Cink (5)
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Another salvage job from the sand here. It’s made by Matthew Jordan at 11, who finds himself right up against the steep face of a greenside bunker. The situation looks almost impossible, but he opens his wedge and swings as hard as he can, launching the ball almost completely vertically to escape in one sensational swipe. He can only land 30 feet from the flag, but that’s still some result from where he was. A bogey, but that could have been so much worse. The local lad slips to -1 and out of the lead, which is now held by …
Jordan Spieth can’t make his birdie putt on 1, but an opening par will always suffice at the Open. As for his playing partners, Jason Day pars as well, but it’s a dropped shot for Matt Fitzpatrick, although walking off, he won’t be too upset, as it could have been worse: having hit a weak wedge into a bunker, he did extremely well to get up and down to limit the damage.
From one Jordan to another … here comes the ever-entertaining Mr Spieth. The 2017 champion sends his opening tee shot into the rough down the right. That’s not ideal, but then Matt Fitzpatrick trumps it by pulling over the heads of the punters lining the left-hand side of the fairway. A nervy one from the slightly out-of-sorts 2022 US Open champ. He gets a break, a relatively decent lie near a dust track, but sends his next one into rough wide right of the green, where he’ll be short-sided and with a bunker to navigate as well. Spieth however responds by guiding his second into the heart of the green, and he’ll have a look at birdie from 15 feet or so.
Jordan’s birdie at 2 was the first of the week. The first eagle of the week has been made by Pablo Larrazabal. The 40-year-old Spaniard rakes a 35-foot right-to-left curler across the par-five 5th, and that’s why you see him tucked in behind the leader at -1. Larrazabal’s best finish at the Open, and indeed any major, is a tie for 30th at Sandwich in 2011, so a sustained challenge is unlikely … but then again he’s won twice on the DP World Tour in the last four months, at the Korea Championship and the KLM Open, so you can understand why he’s currently striding the links in the confident style.
The first shot of the 151st Open was hit by Matthew Jordan. The 27-year-old from Hoylake has been a member at his local club since he was seven, so knows the place pretty well. Still, taking the first shot at the oldest major makes things a bit different, not least because the 1st is the 17th for the members in the course’s everyday configuration. He had half of Liverpool looking on from the gallery, as well, or at least that’s what it felt like. So you couldn’t blame him for tugging his tee shot nervously into the thick rough down the left. But he gathered himself, advancing his ball into a greenside bunker, from where he got up and down for par. And now, having made several big putts along the way, he’s reached the turn in 33 strokes, birdies at 2, 5 and 8 more than compensating for a single dropped stroke at 6. The local hero leads the Open! Not bad for someone who has only played in it once before, last year at St Andrews, where he missed the cut. Now look!
-2: Jordan (9)
-1: Fox (7), Larrazabal (6), Ballester Barrio -a- (5), Lamprecht -a- (4), J Smith (1)
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Preamble
Welcome to our coverage of the 151st Open Championship at Royal Liverpool, where so many questions will be answered over the next four days. Will Cameron Smith become the first player to retain the Claret Jug since Padraig Harrington in 2008? Will Rory McIlroy repeat his 2014 win here, thus ending his subsequent nine-year major drought? Will Rickie Fowler, runner-up behind Rory that year, crown his 2023 return to prominence with that long-awaited maiden major? Will a surprise champion emerge from the pack as Wyndham Clark did at the US Open last month? (Tom Kim? Bob MacIntyre? Why not?)
Will this year’s Masters champion Jon Rahm, PGA winner Brooks Koepka, or world number one Scottie Scheffler lift their first Claret Jug? Will comparatively out-of-sorts former champion golfers Collin Morikawa, Shane Lowry or Jordan Spieth suddenly click and land their second title? Will Viktor Hovland, out in the final pairing on Sunday at last year’s Open and this year’s PGA, finally get over the line in a major? Will Tommy Fleetwood, links expert and another Open nearly-man, seal the deal at last? Will the in-form Tyrrell Hatton finally enter the winner’s circle? Or copter a club out into the Dee Estuary in a glorious fit of pique?
Or will Xand… but we could be here all day, couldn’t we. In fact, we will be here all day, but that time will surely be better spent on action as opposed to preambulatory yakking. So without further ado, let’s mosey on out there. Hoylake ahoy!
The tee times
All times BST, the players are GB & Ireland unless stated, (a) denotes amateurs
06.35 Branden Grace (Rsa), Matthew Jordan, Richie Ramsay
06.46 Russell Henley (USA), Jazz Janewattananond (Tha), Graeme Robertson
06.57 Ryan Fox (Nzl), Lucas Herbert (Aus), Byeong-Hun An (Kor)
07.08 Rikuya Hoshino (Jpn), (a) Alex Maguire, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa)
07.19 Hiroshi Iwata (Jpn), Pablo Larrazabal (Spa), Adrian Meronk (Pol)
07.30 (a) Jose Luis Ballester (Spa), Patrick Reed (USA), Connor Syme
07.41 Darren Clarke, Victor Perez (Fra), Thomas Pieters (Bel)
07.52 (a) Christo Lamprecht (Rsa), Joost Luiten (Ned), Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa)
08.03 Stewart Cink (USA), Trey Mullinax (USA), J. T. Poston (USA)
08.14 Harris English (USA), Andrew Putnam (USA), Henrik Stenson (Swe)
08.25 Thorbjoern Olesen (Den), Jordan Smith, Scott Stallings (USA)
08.36 Ernie Els (Rsa), Takumi Kanaya (Jpn), Kurt Kitayama (USA)
08.47 Sam Burns (USA), Chris Kirk (USA), Sepp Straka (Aut)
09.03 Jason Day (Aus), Matthew Fitzpatrick, Jordan Spieth (USA)
09.14 Talor Gooch (USA), Padraig Harrington, Seamus Power
09.25 Kyoung-Hoon Lee (Kor), Davis Riley (USA), Taiga Semikawa (Jpn)
09.36 Patrick Cantlay (USA), Brooks Koepka (USA), Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn)
09.47 Tommy Fleetwood, Scottie Scheffler (USA), Adam Scott (Aus)
09.58 Wyndham Clark (USA), Xander Schauffele (USA), Cameron Smith (Aus)
10.09 Rickie Fowler (USA), Shane Lowry, Robert MacIntyre
10.20 Bryson DeChambeau (USA), Si-Woo Kim (Kor), Cameron Young (USA)
10.31 Bio Kim (Kor), Kazuki Yasumori (Jpn), Nicolai Hoejgaard (Den)
10.42 Haydn Barron (Aus), Daniel Bradbury, Oliver Farr
10.53 (a) Tiger Christensen (Ger), Martin Rohwer (Rsa), Marcel Siem (Ger)
11.04 Richard Bland, Lee Hodges (USA), Antoine Rozner (Fra)
11.15 Laurie Canter, Yannik Paul (Ger), Sami Valimaki (Fin)
11.36 Alex Fitzpatrick, Rasmus Hoejgaard (Den), Matthew Southgate
11.47 Daniel Hillier (Nzl), Kensei Hirata (Jpn), Kyung-Nam Kang (Kor)
11.58 Kazuki Higa (Jpn), Michael Kim (USA), Callum Shinkwin
12.09 Kyle Barker (Rsa), Zack Fischer (USA), Taichi Kho (Hkg)
12.20 Romain Langasque (Fra), Travis Smyth (Aus), Brendon Todd (USA)
12.31 Alexander Bjoerk (Swe), Adrian Otaegui (Spa), Gary Woodland (USA)
12.42 Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa), (a) Harrison Crowe (Aus), Min-Woo Lee (Aus)
12.53 Corey Conners (Can), Billy Horschel (USA), Alexander Noren (Swe)
13.04 Abraham Ancer (Mex), Tom Hoge (USA), Joo-Hyung Kim (Kor)
13.15 Zach Johnson (USA), David Micheluzzi (Aus), Matt Wallace
13.26 Emiliano Grillo (Arg), Dustin Johnson (USA), Sahith Theegala (USA)
13.37 (a) Mateo Fernandez (Arg), Denny McCarthy (USA), Francesco Molinari (Ita)
13.48 Thomas Detry (Bel), Brian Harman (USA), Thriston Lawrence (Rsa)
14.04 John Daly (USA), Taylor Moore (USA), Danny Willett
14.15 Ben Griffin (USA), Ockie Strydom (Rsa), David Lingmerth (Swe)
14.26 Adria Arnaus (Spa), Ewen Ferguson, Keita Nakajima (Jpn)
14.37 Keegan Bradley (USA), Sung-Jae Im (Kor), Joaquin Niemann (Chi)
14.48 Tony Finau (USA), Viktor Hovland (Nor), Justin Thomas (USA)
14.59 Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm (Spa), Justin Rose
15.10 Tyrrell Hatton, Max Homa (USA), Collin Morikawa (USA)
15.21 Phil Mickelson (USA), Adam Schenk (USA), Nick Taylor (Can)
15.32 Alejandro Canizares (Spa), Ignacio Elvira (Spa), Marc Warren
15.43 Connor McKinney (Aus), Guido Migliozzi (Ita), Oliver Wilson
15.54 Kalle Samooja (Fin), Shubhankar Sharma (Ind), Gunner Wiebe (USA)
16.05 Jorge Campillo (Spa), Brandon Thompson, Michael Stewart
16.16 Seung-Su Han (USA), Hurly Long (Ger), Marco Penge
