It is tight at the top in the opening round of the 153rd Open Championship with five players in a share of the lead, but a lot of focus has been on the other end of the leaderboard as Bryson DeChambeau has struggled at Royal Portrush.
Jacob Skov Olesen, Haotong Li, Matt Fitzpatrick, Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Harris English all shot four-under par rounds of 67 to share the lead.
The wet and windy Northern Irish links were less welcoming to DeChambeau, however, with the LIV Golf star doing his best re-enactment of a weekend hacker in the rough on the fourth.
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DeChambeau’s tee shot at the par 4 landed in the native area left of the fairway, and then he dumped his second shot into a horrible spot on a hill to the right of the fairway.
It left the two-time US Open champion with the ball well above his feet and needing to play a baseball-like shot, and he earned his first strike.
DeChambeau swung and he missed.
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He made contact with the ball at the second attempt, although it only dribbled down the side of the hill a few metres.
DeChambeau went onto make a double bogey and after starting the tournament with a hat-trick of pars, it started his slide as he finished the round with a seven-over par 78, without a birdie.
5 tied at top in closest Rd 1 since 1938 | 03:11
World No.1 Scottie Scheffler is one shot off the lead alongside Matthew Jordan, Sadom Kaewkanjana and Tyrell Hatton after a three-under par opening round of 68.
After Scheffler’s “what’s the point?” press conference in the lead-up, the American was displeased with a question his driving accuracy, having hit just 21.4 per cent of fairways in the first round.
“Yeah, you’re the second guy that’s mentioned that to me. I actually thought I drove it pretty good. I don’t know what you guys are seeing,” Scheffler said.
Commentators lose it as someone lets rip | 00:40
“When it’s raining sideways, it’s actually, believe it or not, not that easy to get the ball in the fairway. Thank you guys all for pointing that out.
“But yeah, 3-under par. Felt like I hit the ball nice off the tee, and really only had one swing I wasn’t too happy with on maybe the 2nd hole, but outside of that, I felt like I hit a lot of good tee shots, hit the ball really solid, so definitely a good bit of confidence for the next couple rounds.”
Jon Rahm, champion the last time The Open was played at Royal Portrush, Shane Lowry, and Masters champion and local favourite Rory McIlroy all made solid starts with one-under par rounds of 70.
Cam Smith off to worst possible start! | 00:53
McIlroy’s round was a long one, finishing after 9pm local time as he spent five hours and 50 minutes on course on a tricky afternoon weather wise, but McIlroy managed to hang in to birdie 17 to be better than par.
Last year’s Champion Golfer of the Year Xander Schauffele is one shot back of that group at even par.
LIV Golf veterans Lee Westwood and Phil Mickelson were somewhat surprise names near the top of the leaderboard as the 55-year-old signed off on a one-under opening round.
Westwood, who came through qualifying at age 52, is -2, while 55-year-old Mickelson is -1 and showed he has lost none of his legendary touch around the greens with an early contender for shot of the day when he holed out from the bunker on the third.
“Yeah, that was a crazy one,” Mickelson said of his par saving shot.
Peake: “Nah, I’m deadly serious” | 00:30
“It was really one of maybe two poor shots I hit, I felt. That bunker shot that buried in the lip, and then to make it, it was obviously a lot of luck. It was crazy. I was just trying to save bogey, and I got lucky and it went in.
“I really hit a lot of good shots today, and it wasn’t too stressful.”
It has been a tough opening day for the Australian contingent with none of the nine Australians in the field even par or better.
Cameron Smith and Adam Scott at +1 after the best placed, while Jason Day and Marc Leishman are a shot back.
‘Really? Whistling!?’ Rahm blows up | 00:21
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EARLIER
The British Open is now underway, but Golf Channel analyst Johnson Wagner already provided entertainment after one wayward shot on Royal Portrush’s most infamous hole.
Royal Portrush’s long par-3 16th hole, better known as Calamity Corner, will be crucial in deciding the fate of many contenders for the Claret Jug at this week’s Open Championship.
With that in mind, Wagner tried to explain the dangers players will face on the hole by taking fans watching at home on a tour during his ‘Live From’ segment on Wednesday.
Wagner explained that misses short might funnel towards danger on the right. A small miss won’t prove too costly, but bigger misses bring into play thick fescue grass while the hill becomes steeper. Such misses will lead to a difficult, massive uphill pitch to the green.
That’s when Johnson threw a ball down the hill, stepped up to the shot and prepared to demonstrate it.
“Such a severe upslope,” Wagner said. “All you’re trying to do here is get it on the green.”
The result was hilarious but, thankfully, not serious.
“Oh God,” said Wagner as the crowd screamed.
“I think I hit it in the grandstand.”
Wagner later called it “one is the most embarrassing” shots of his career.
“I finally had a crowd and I physically scolded it into the grandstand,” he added.
Thankfully the grandstand was only half full, but it will be packed later on Thursday afternoon when the 153rd instalment of the Open gets underway as Rory McIlroy is roared on in his homeland.
Rory confident ahead of Royal Portrush | 00:53
McIlroy returns to Northern Ireland as the Masters champion but determined to make amends for his disastrous start at Portrush six years ago when a quadruple bogey at the opening hole on his way to a first-round 79 saw him miss the cut.
The world number two is the star attraction for the close to 280,000 spectators set to attend the four days of play at the final major of the year.
Scottie Scheffler, though, is the favourite despite having never won the British Open before, while defending champion Xander Schauffele is aiming to put a frustrating year behind him.
McIlroy, who tees off at 15.10 local time (12.10am AEST) alongside Ryder Cup team-mate Tommy Fleetwood and American rival Justin Thomas, may have to battle the worst of blustery weather for the opening round with thunderstorms forecast early evening.
But the man who announced himself as a star of the future by breaking the course record at Portrush with a 61 as a 16-year-old 20 years ago, is confident after ending his 11-year major drought at the Masters in April.
“When I was looking at the calendar for 2025, this was the tournament that was probably circled even more so than the Masters for different reasons,” said McIlroy, who finished second at the Scottish Open last week.
“It’s lovely to be coming in here already with a major and everything else that’s happened this year. I’m excited with where my game is.”
‘I can still bring my best’ | 01:20
Schauffele, meanwhile, is craving that winning feeling after failing to hit the heights of his two major wins in 2024.
Play officially gets underway on Thursday at 3.35pm AEST, with Cameron Smith the first of the Australians to tee off at 3.57pm.
For Smith, who won the 150th British Open, this year’s Championship will be a chance to find his groove again having entered in a crisis of confidence.
There are plenty of other fascinating Australian stories to follow at the Open, including ex-bikie Ryan Peake’s major debut and Curtis Luck’s return to the big stage.
Meanwhile, Adam Scott tees it up in his 97th consecutive major, looking to become only the second player to play 100 in a row.
ROUND TWO TEE TIMES
Game 1 – 3:35PM AESTStewart Cink, Matteo Manassero, Marc Leishman
Game 2 – 3:46PM AEST
Francesco Molinari, Jesper Svensson, Connor Graham (a)
Game 3 – 3:57PM AEST
Zach Johnson, Daniel Hillier, Daniel Brown
Game 4 – 4:08PM AEST
Adam Scott, Rickie Fowler, Ethan Fang (a)
Game 5 – 4:19PM AEST
Laurie Canter, Elvis Smylie, Sergio Garcia
Game 6 – 4:30PM AEST
Andrew Novak, Matthieu Pavon, Matt Wallace
Game 7 – 4:41PM AEST
Davis Thompson, Dean Burmester, Rikuya Hoshino
Game 8 – 4:52PM AEST
Si Woo Kim, Shugo Imahira, Sebastian Cave (a)
Game 9 – 5:03PM AEST
Michael Kim, Bud Cauley, John Parry
Game 10 – 5:14PM AEST
Matt McCarty, Shaun Norris, Angel Hidalgo
Game 11 – 5:25PM AEST
Keegan Bradley, Sungjae Im, Daniel Berger
Game 12 – 5:36PM AEST
Rasmus Hojgaard, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Romain Langasque
Game 13 – 5:47PM AEST
Aaron Rai, Sahith Theegala, Harry Hall
Game 14 – 6:03PM AEST
Justin Leonard, Thriston Lawrence, Antoine Rozner
Game 15 – 6:14PM AEST
JT Poston, Chris Kirk, Carlos Ortiz
Game 16 – 6:25PM AEST
Brian Harman, Maverick McNealy, Joaquin Niemann
Game 17 – 6:36PM AEST
Russell Henley, Tyrrell Hatton, Min Woo Lee
Game 18 – 6:47PM AEST
Robert MacIntyre, Bryson DeChambeau, Justin Rose
Game 19 – 6:58PM AEST
Jordan Spieth, Ludvig Åberg, Viktor Hovland
Game 20 – 7:09PM AEST
Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Tommy Fleetwood
Game 21 – 7:20PM AEST
Harris English, Nick Taylor, Tony Finau
Game 22 – 7:31PM AEST
Lucas Glover, Jhonattan Vegas, Tom Kim
Game 23 – 7:42PM AEST
Brian Campbell, John Catlin, Frazer Jones (a)
Game 24 – 7:53PM AEST
Nathan Kimsey, Jason Kokrak, Cameron Adam (a)
Game 25 – 8:04PM AEST
Daniel Young, Curtis Luck, Curtis Knipes
Game 26 – 8:15PM AEST
Younghan Song, George Bloor, OJ Farrell
Game 27 – 8:26PM AEST
Padraig Harrington, Nicolai Hojgaard, Tom McKibbin
Game 28 – 8:47PM AEST
Louis Oosthuizen, Guido Migliozzi, K.J. Choi
Game 29 – 8:58PM AEST
Cameron Smith, Marco Penge, Justin Hastings (a)
Game 30 – 9:09PM AEST
Jason Day, Taylor Pendrith, Jacob Skov Olesen
Game 31 – 9:20PM AEST
Phil Mickelson, Daniel Van Tonder, Ryan Peake
Game 32 – 9:31PM AEST
Max Greyserman, Byeong Hun An, Niklas Norgaard
Game 33 – 9:42PM AEST
Jordan Smith, Haotong Li, Dustin Johnson
Game 34 – 9:53PM AEST
Darren Clarke, Davis Riley, Lucas Herbert
Game 35 – 10:04PM AEST
Kevin Yu, Julien Guerrier, Mikiya Akutsu
Game 36 – 10:15PM AEST
Thomas Detry, Chris Gotterup, Lee Westwood
Game 37 – 10:26PM AEST
Patrick Cantlay, Cameron Young, Mackenzie Hughes
Game 38 – 10:37PM AEST
Thorbjorn Olesen, Matthew Jordan, Filip Jakubcik (a)
Game 39 – 10:48PM AEST
Henrik Stenson, Stephan Jaeger, Sebastian Soderberg
Game 40 – 11:04PM AEST
Kristoffer Reitan, Martin Couvra, Adrien Saddier
Game 41 – 11:15PM AEST
Takumi Kanaya, Justin Walters, Bryan Newman (a)
Game 42 – 11:26PM AEST
Hideki Matsuyama, Ryan Fox, Matt Fitzpatrick
Game 43 – 11:37PM AEST
Sepp Straka, Ben Griffin, Akshay Bhatia
Game 44 – 11:48PM AEST
Sam Burns, Aldrich Potgieter, Brooks Koepka
Game 45 – 11:59PM AEST
Xander Schauffele, JJ Spaun, Jon Rahm
Game 46 – 12:10AM AEST (Saturday)
Shane Lowry, Collin Morikawa, Scottie Scheffler
Game 47 – 12:21AM AEST (Saturday)
Corey Conners, Wyndham Clark, Tom Hoge
Game 48 – 12:32AM AEST (Saturday)
Denny McCarthy, Nico Echavarria, Patrick Reed
Game 49 – 12:43AM AEST (Saturday)
Matti Schmid, Ryggs Johnston, Richard Teder (a)
Game 50 – 12:54AM AEST (Saturday)
Dylan Naidoo, Darren Fichardt, John Axelsen
Game 51 – 1:05AM AEST (Saturday)
Justin Suh, Oliver Lindell, Jesper Sandborg
Game 52 – 1:16AM AEST (Saturday)
Sadom Kaewkanjana, Riki Kawamoto, Sampson Zheng
