The first day of the 2025 Open Championship at Royal Portrush Golf Club featured rain, windy conditions and a lengthy opening round. It produced a five-way tie for the lead atop the leaderboard at 4-under-par between Harris English, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Jacob Skov Olesen, Haotong Li and Christian Bezuidenhout.
Local boy Rory McIlroy weathered a tricky back nine and poor tee shots to finish 1-under 70, three shots off the lead despite only hitting two fairways. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler is one off the lead and in a four-way tie for second after firing a 3-under 68, and he only hit three fairways. Two-time major winner Jon Rahm, who entered this tournament among the favorites to hoist the Claret Jug, also in the hunt with a 1-under 70.
English had the best round among the afternoon wave of golfers, getting into a share of the lead. While the rain subsided, the wind started to pick up, leading to a long first round that was still going on after 9 p.m. local time.
To catch up on Day 1 of The Open as it happened, check out our day one live blog covering all the action here.
