Hughes great T4 start lost by TV coverage of the Open... live scoreboard

 The Open leaderboard here 

Mac Hughes teed off at 4.36am est along with Brian Harmon and Dylan Frittelli, exactly 3 hours after English veteran Richard Bland nervously hit the first drive of the tournament on a gorgeous sunny,  breezy morning at Royal St George's to kick start this 149th Open.

I know, I watched it all.

Harmon the diminutive American lefty proceeded to birdie the first 3 holes, which caught the attention of the TV producers, we saw his 3 birdie putts.

Mac Hughes then birdied 4,5,6 to join him at -3 in the lead and went out in 32, but that all got lost in the Bryson DeChambeau, Jordan Spieth, Paul Casey, Jon Rahm shuffle.

Even after Mac added a birdie at 10 to join Harmon in the lead at -4, then another at 12 to take the outright lead at -5, (we actually saw that putt) did we see him playing at all.

The European live broadcast team handed off at 8am to the NBC/Peacock American team hosted by Terry Gannon, who are at home in Connecticut in studio due to COVID restrictions, and the theme continued as Spieth who got all the coverage out in 32, made a late surge with  birdies at 15,16 to take the lead -5 with a flurry of his round's highlights, only to be caught a passed by Louis Oosthuizen who came home with 4 birdies, 31 to grab the clubhouse lead at -6 64.  

Mac made his first and only bogey at 15 to drop to -4 and it wasn't until Spieth had done his post round interview did we see his threesome actually play some of 16, 17 and 18 where he made a gutsy 6 footer to save par for his -4 66.

His numbers: Driving accuracy 78.57% (field 52.85), Greens in regulation 83.33% (field 64.56%) and average number of putts per green in regulation 1.61 (field 1.64)

While Mac and his group were far from the early wave's "featured pairings" the director and his producers in the truck have an obligation to show us the leaders, at least mixed in with the big boys who were trailing.

Opinion: Mac and Harmon were the story along with Spieth on the front 9, Mac even more so when he lead alone from 12th -15th. The non coverage is not new to Canadian golf fans, but not to feature the leader with the superb round he was producing was simply shameful, in fact unprofessional.

Canadian scores as I post: Corey Connors -1 (3 birdies, 1 double out in 34), Richard T Lee +3 thru 8, Adam Hadwin +4  (5 bogey's out in 40, 1 birdie so far) thru 12.

The late wave including Rory are now on course.

Bryan Angus