Friday morning underway 154th Open Championship ..Live scoreboard

DP World/PGA Tours : 154th Open Championship   Leaderboard Tee Times

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Yesterday the early wave had the best of the conditions, benign, fresh cut unspiked greens and the scoring reflected that with the two early 66's standing up all day until an unknown American playing in the UK on links for the first time no less, Jackson Suber shot -5 65 to grab the lead..

It was warm and sunny all day, record English crowds basking in all kinds of headwear enjoying an unusually dry summer, that has burnt the rough down in all but the worst places, to wispy and brown.

Expect more of the same today, but remember the players flip their tee times, with the lates now out early.

In this part of the world play can begin at 635am with the sun setting closer to 10pm, so for the first 36 holes before the cut, it is a very long day for officials, fans and the field. 

Nick  Taylor wins Sony Open

Canadian tee times

Corey Conners 7.52am  71 +1

Nick Taylor T14  3.26pm  68 -2

The early cut line is projected to be at +1

more to follow...

Bryan Angus 4.00am est

What happened to Rory ? !!

 Rory McIlroy is hopeful he can play his way back into contention at The 154th Open after he was left ruing “stupid mistakes” in his first round at Royal Birkdale.

The Northern Irishman was uncharacteristically out of sorts as he ran up six bogeys - including on both the par fives - in what were the toughest conditions of the day.

While a closing birdie provided reason for hope, he was seven shots behind surprise first-round leader Jackson Suber.

“There were just too many stupid mistakes – but every time I made a stupid mistake, thankfully I made a birdie to sort of keep myself in it,” he said.

“I’m not too far away. If you look at the discrepancy between the scoring this morning and the scoring this afternoon, it looks like that’s going to be flipped tomorrow with the conditions again.

“Hopefully I can take advantage of the more benign conditions in the morning and shoot one under par and get back in it.”

The career Grand Slam winner carded a closing 64 at last week’s Genesis Scottish Open but he cut a frustrated figure as he faced the toughest conditions of the day.

McIlroy missed three putts from inside four feet – at the seventh, eighth and tenth – either side of driving the green at the ninth to make a birdie.​

Back-to-back bogeys at the start of the back nine halted any momentum before a 25-foot putt dropped in off the left edge at the 13th for just his second birdie of the day.

After he chipped through the green and into a bunker at the par five 17th, he was forced to splash out with one knee on the ground but couldn’t convert the par putt from eight feet.

However, a brilliant approach at the last gave him something to hold onto.

“I drove the ball incredibly well," he reflected.

"I took the golf course on off the tee. Obviously with the positions that I put myself in off the tee, I feel like I obviously should have shot a better score.

“Played the hard holes well. Birdied 13, 15 and 18 on the back.

“The two bogeys on the par fives wasn't great and I struggled the first two holes to get the speed of the greens.”

edit >>>> Friday 10.09am:   Rory McIlroy 72 +2, Matt Fitzpatrick 72 +2, Xander Schauffele 71 +1

europeantour.com

Bryan Angus (edit)

Mac Hughes T3 Corales Puntacana Championship

 DP World/PGA Tours : Corales Puntacana Championship Entry List

Canadians 

Mac Hughes T3rd  -6 66

AJ Ewart T29  -3 69

Ben Silverman T47 -2 70

Adam Hadwin T105  +1 73

Taylor Pendrith T105 +1 73

Adam Svensson T129 +3 75

Leaders

Todd Clements (England), Ivan Cantero (Spain) -7 65

Bryan Angus

Unheralded American Suber leads 154th Open Championship..Taylor top Canadian ..Friday TEE TIMES

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Unheralded American Jackson Suber made light of having no links experience to hold the solo lead after day one of The 154th Open at Royal Birkdale.

Suber is this week competing on European soil for the first time after securing a debut at golf’s oldest championship by finishing tied fourth at the RBC Canadian Open on the PGA TOUR last month.

In just his third career Major Championship appearance, the World Number 115 surged to the summit in what were the tougher afternoon conditions at the sun-baked Southport venue with a -5 65.

England’s Dan Brown and South Korea’s Sungjae Im, playing together in the benign morning conditions on day one, were then one shot off the lead.

Without a win on the PGA TOUR, Suber arrived in England on the back of three top tens in his last six starts.

After opening with four straight pars, he mixed two birdies with two bogeys in a topsy-turvy finish to his front nine to hit the turn at level par.

Suber picked up another gain at the 16th, before producing an excellent second shot to set up a seven-foot eagle putt which he converted to hit the top of the leaderboard.

"Things just really started going after the birdie on the tenth," he said. "I just felt like the momentum was really in my favour. Just kind of kept the ball in good spots and didn't put much pressure on my game to make pars.

"This is my fifth day here. Monday was my first round of links golf, so I've played 27 holes before I played the first round today. I've never been to the UK

Asked what he put his immediate adjustment to the test posed by links golf, he added: "I'm not really sure, but I feel like I've just been playing good the last few months and just knowing that good golf is going to take care of everything, and really trusting my caddie to figure out where we're going to hit it.""

Brown announced himself on the world stage at this event when he finished tied tenth after holding the first-round solo lead on debut at Royal Troon two years ago. 

Very nice day," he said. "Tee to green, it's similar to how I've been playing recently.  But today a few putts dropped, which was nice to see because I've not seen that for a while.

"I think it's just a fair golf course. There's not too many humps and undulations in the fairway, so if you hit a good shot, generally it stays in the fairway, which I like.

There were then nine players two shots off the lead at -3  including 2018 Open champion Francesco Molinari, Scottish star Robert MacIntyre, two-time U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, this year’s Players Championship winner Cameron Young and Belgian Thomas Detry all with -3 67.

Defending champion and World Number One Scottie Scheffler was four under through six holes but stalled with several badly missed putts, and settled for a -2 68, while Rory McIlroy struggled on the greens as he opened with a +2 72.

EDIT>>> Canadians, Nick Taylor T13 68 -2, Corey Conners T60 71 +1

europeantour.com

Bryan Angus (edit)

Thursday morning at the Open Championship.. Live scoreboard, Clubhouse leaders -4 66, Nick Taylor T10

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Thursday morning play is well underway beginning at 635am local (135am est) at Royal Birkdale under blue skies and warm sunshine with a slight NW breeze, ideal scoring conditions.

Royal Birkdale is hosting The Open for an 11th time in 2026

At first glance the rough has become burnt down, drives off the fairway are finding playable lies, scoring is low so far this morning.

The clubhouse leaders at 750am est 1250hrs local are Dan Brown and Sungjae Im at -4 66.

Scotland's Robert MacIntyre is finished at -3 67 at this time as the early wave is wrapping up.

EDIT >>> 11am est  Morning wave results

With the morning wave complete the leaders Dan Brown (England) Sungjae Im (Korea) took advantage of the early benign conditions and their -4 66 has stood up to several challenges.

Canada's Nick Taylor sensational birdie birdie birdie start led to in outward -3 31. The front nine played easier all morning. He was steady, all pars until dropped shots at par3,15th, and par4 16th. However he split the fairway on 18th which was playing the 2nd most difficult. then a 225 yd approach to 19' ended his day in style with a birdie 3.  T10 -2 68..

Corey Conners is playing very steady golf, 11 pars, just 1 bogey +1 thru 12

Notables

Scott Scheffler T10 -2 68, out in 31, back in 37. His fans will rue the putts he missed  including a 3' at the par 5 17th where he was lucky to find a wildly sliced 2nd into deep rough resulting in bogey 6. After a week of practice and his fast start in ideal scoring weather 65 or at least 66 went amiss this morning. 

Bryson DeChambeau made a bogey at the last, but scrambled to an opening 32 35 -3 67.

Scotland's Bob MacIntyre only had 1 bogey in his 33 34 -3 67.

Hometown  hero Tommy Fleetwood went out in 33, had two bogey's (10th, 12th) but battled back to the delight of the sold out crowd with birdies at 15th and 17th for 36 and T19 -1 69..

Rory is out late E thru 3, with the breeze up as the tide comes in, the weather is still sunbaked (some very innovative English headwear !) but the greens are getting faster, so I think those 66's may stand up.

It was a joy to hear the European crew with Sam Torrance on the early broadcast on the Golf Channel, such great stories and descriptions from 4am-10am before the Terry Gannon and the Americans team took over.

For live scoring click on my leaderboard link above.

more to follow..

Bryan Angus

Rory says "Royal Birkdale a fair test of links golf"

 Rory McIlroy believes Royal Birkdale is as fair a links test as they come ahead of this week's 154th Open Championship.

The Northern Irishman is set to make his 17th appearance at golf's oldest tournament, and his second at the world-renowned Southport venue after playing in 2017.

Nine years ago, McIlroy finished tied fourth as Jordan Spieth claimed the Claret Jug - a trophy he won at Royal Liverpool in 2014.

Ahead of Birkdale's return as host venue, every hole has undergone some work in a two-phase project by architects Mackenzie & Ebert. Most notably, a new par three, the 15th, has been added to the scorecard, while the par four fifth has been redesigned.

Birkdale is staging the event for an 11th time, with past winners having included Peter Thomson, Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson and Johnny Miller.

“I think one of the common things you hear about Birkdale is it's very fair for a links golf course,” said McIlroy.

“The fairways aren't overly undulating, so when you land the ball in the fairway here, it seems like it stays on the fairway.

“There's not a ton of blind shots, which I've never really had a problem with in other links courses, but that's quite a common thing that people say.

"But I've always liked this course. I first played here in the Amateur Championship and then played an Open back here in 2017.

“You know, if you were to poll every player in the field, I'd say it would be up there in terms of being everyone's favourite Open venues to play for sure"

Since first hosting the golf championship began in 1954, Birkdale has become the competition's most regular venue, outside of St Andrews.

Next year, the 155th playing of The Open will return to the Old Course, where McIlroy finished third in 2022.

While this week provides the 36-year-old a chance to claim a second Major victory of 2026, having become a two-time Masters winner in April, the career Grand Slam hold the Fife venue with the highest regard.

Asked what his favourite Open venue is, he replied: “St Andrews. The Open at St Andrews just feels different, just like the US Open at Pebble Beach feels different.

“I've only played in two Opens at St Andrews, but they've been my favourite as a player and also were my favourite ones growing up and watching. It sort of helped that Tiger [Woods] won a couple of them early on.”

europeantour.com

Bryan Angus (edit)

What about the WEATHER this 154th Open Championship

  DP World/PGA Tours ; Open Championship  Leaderboard Tee Times

Here is the weather forecast for a hot sunny 154th Open Championship in Southport, England.

With much of the UK experiencing an unusually hot sunny run of summer days, this will not be the rain and windswept weather that often accompany the links golf..

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Expect Royal Birkdale to be running hard and fast, with sparse burnt down rough and firm greens.

Rory McIlroy said "keeping the ball out of the fairway bunkers " will be a key, with tee balls bounding a long way, meaning even short drivers will become much longer.

Open Championship seaside greens are traditionally slower than The Masters or US Opens however as they firm up, they speed up making approach shots and putts more difficult to judge especially with what could be a stiff breeze at times.

Thursday, July 16: Round 1

• ☀️ Sunny and warm

• 🔥 High of 82°F

• ☁️ Minimal chance of rain

• 💨 8-14 mph winds with gusts up to 20 mph

Friday, July 17: Round 2

• ⛅ Cooler temperatures

• 🔥 High of 77°F

• ☁️ Slight chance of showers

• 💨 8-14 mph North winds

Saturday, July 18: Round 3

• ☁️ Cloudy skies

• 🔥 High of 75°F

• ☔ 20% chance of showers

• 💨 8-14 mph North winds

Sunday, July 19: Final Round

• ☁️ Cloudy skies

• 🔥 High of 73°F

• ☁️ Slight chance of showers

• 💨 8-14 mph Northwest winds     Bryan Angus