All the talk this week has been that links experience would be essential. So what has happened? A man who has played only one and half rounds of links golf leads the championship. His name is not Jackson Superb, but it nearly is.
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-5: Suber (F)
n -4: Im (F), Brown (F)
n -3: Detry (F), MacIntyre (F), F. Molinari (F), Smalley (F), DeChambeau (F), Gerard (F), Daffue (F), Coody (F), Young (F)
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A round of +2 is not what he was hoping for to start his campaign to win a second Claret Jug. But all is not lost because the current top three – Jackson Suber, Dan Brown and Sungjae Im – are unproven at elite level.
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He had 20 feet for birdie at 18 but it dribbles to the hole. Nothing wrong with a 65, though. He’s the new leader on -5 and there’s a good chance he’ll go to bed still there, quite possibly on his own.
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Suber sinks his birdies on the 18th.”,”caption”:”Jackson Suber sinks his birdies on the 18th.”,”credit”:”Photograph: Peter Morrison/AP”}}],”attributes”:{“pinned”:false,”keyEvent”:true,”summary”:false},”blockCreatedOn”:1784221488000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”13.04 EDT”,”blockLastUpdated”:1784221808000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”13.10 EDT”,”blockFirstPublished”:1784221676000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”13.07 EDT”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”13.07″,”title”:”Jackson Suber sets new clubhouse target”,”contributors”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Thu 16 Jul 2026 16.14 EDT”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Thu 16 Jul 2026 01.00 EDT”},{“id”:”6a5769548f08403258549e44″,”elements”:[{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of the 154th Open Championship. Who will prevail at Royal Birkdale? The reigning champion and world number one Scottie Scheffler? Rory McIlroy, long overdue a major title that isn’t the Masters? Local hero Tommy Fleetwood? Justin Rose, who wowed ‘em here as an amateur in 1998? Or … there are many ors, and we could be here all day. Actually, we will be here all day, and here’s the running order (all times BST) …
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6.35 am: Matthew Baldwin, Thomas Detry, James Nicholas
n 6.46 am: Michael Kim, Daniel Hillier, Andy Sullivan
n 6.57 am: Ryan Fox, Andrew Novak, Matthew Jordan
n 7.08 am: Henrik Stenson, Max Homa, Joe Dean
n 7.19 am: Robert MacIntyre, Rickie Fowler, Alex Fitzpatrick
n 7.30 am: David Duval, Martin Couvra, Matthew Southgate
n 7.41 am: Sungjae Im, Daniel Brown, Fifa Laopakdee (a)
n 7.52 am: Gary Woodland, Jake Knapp, Jordan Smith
n 8.03 am: Francesco Molinari, Tom McKibbin, Lev Grinberg (a)
n 8.14 am: Hennie du Plessis, Jose Luis Ballester, Dan Bradbury
n 8.25 am: Angel Ayora, Victor Perez, Mateo Pulcini (a)
n 8.36 am: Stewart Cink, Scott Vincent, Joakim Lagergren
n 8.47 am: Michael Thorbjornsen, Kota Kaneko, Travis Smyth
n 9.03 am: Alex Smalley, Sam Stevens, Ryo Hisatsune
n 9.14 am: Akshay Bhatia, Harris English, Rasmus Hojgaard
n 9.25 am: Ben Griffin, Hideki Matsuyama, Min Woo Lee
n 9.36 am: Russell Henley, Justin Rose, Viktor Hovland
n 9.47 am: Justin Thomas, Alex Noren, Jason Day
n 9.58 am: Scottie Scheffler, Tyrrell Hatton, Bryson DeChambeau
n 10.09 am: Jordan Spieth, Tommy Fleetwood, Jon Rahm
n 10.20 am: Brian Harman, Si Woo Kim, Nick Taylor
n 10.31 am: Ryan Gerard, Maverick McNealy, David Puig
n 10.42 am: Kazuma Kobori, Tom Sloman, David Howard (a)
n 10.53 am: Antoine Rozner, Ren Yonezawa, Caleb Surratt
n 11.04 am: MJ Daffue, Frederic Lacroix, Jack McDonald
n 11.15 am: Jeongwoo Ham, Ryutaro Nagano, Alejandro De Castro Piera (a)
n 11.41 am: John Parry, Eric Cole, Tiger Christensen
n 11.52 am: Eugenio Chacarra, Matt Wallace, Max Greyserman
n 12.03 pm: Michael Brennan, Sahith Theegala, Laurie Canter
n 12.14 pm: Cameron Smith, Keith Mitchell, Stuart Grehan (a)
n 12.25 pm: Sepp Straka, Joaquin Niemann, Kurt Kitayama
n 12.36 pm: Sami Valimaki, Shaun Norris, Jackson Suber
n 12.47 pm: Darren Clarke, Adrien Saddier, Bernd Wiesberger
n 12.58 pm: Keegan Bradley, Corey Conners, Casey Jarvis
n 1.09 pm: Matt McCarty, Harry Hall, Haotong Li
n 1.20 pm: Padraig Harrington, Marco Penge, Michael Hollick
n 1.31 pm: Tom Kim, Billy Horschel, Mason Howell (a)
n 1.42 pm: Johnny Kiefer, Pierceson Coody, Keita Nakajima
n 1.53 pm: Aldrich Potgieter, Jesper Svansson, Jack Buchanan (a)
n 2.09 pm: Bud Cauley, Jayden Schaper, Lucas Herbert
n 2.20 pm: Kristoffer Reitan, Patrick Reed, JT Poston
n 2.31 pm: Chris Gotterup, Sam Burns, Adam Scott
n 2.42 pm: Collin Morikawa, JJ Spaun, Nicolai Hojgaard
n 2.53 pm: Shane Lowry, Aaron Rai, Brooks Koepka
n 3.04 pm: Cameron Young, Wyndham Clark, Luvig Aberg
n 3.15 pm: Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, Matt Fitzpatrick
n 3.26 pm: Jacob Bridgeman, Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, Tim Wiedemeyer (a)
n 3.37 pm: Patrick Cantlay, Daniel Berger, Nico Echavarria
n 3.48 pm: Peter Uihlein, Alistair Docherty, Francesco Laporta
n 3.59 pm: Cameron John, Austen Truslow, Sam Bairstow
n 4.10 pm: Naoyuki Kataoka, Marcus Plunkett, Baard Bjoernevik Skogen
n 4.21 pm: Kazuki Higa, Jiho Yang, Nevill Ruiter (a)
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It’s on!
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Key events
And that’s it for our first round coverage. An excellent day of golf, not the leader we expected, but hope for tomorrow and the weekend. Join Scott Murray and Dave Tindall in the morning and thanks for reading!
Bryson DeChambeau, by the way, opted to only score to the R&A. He said: “I’m having a lot of fun. If I can keep it going and give the crowd something to cheer for on Sunday, that’s all I can ask for.”
I watched him playing around with two putters after his round so maybe a different flat stick for him tomorrow afternoon.
Rory McIlroy on his opening round of 72: “I’ll start with the positives. I drove the ball incredibly well. 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 bad stuff? “The two bogeys on the par-5s weren’t great and I struggled to get the speed of the greens. I felt like they were very inconsistent. Struggled with that early on.”
All in all? “Not too far away. Hopefully we’ll get the better conditions tomorrow and maybe the greens are a little bit smoother in the morning. Go out there and shoot a good one and get myself right back in it for the weekend.”
The plan for tonight? “I’m not going to go back to the house and analyze it too much tonight. Again, focus on the positives – drove the ball very, very well, hit some really good shots. I made too many sloppy mistakes and just need to cut those out.”
Unheralded American Jackson Suber grabs the first round lead
All the talk this week has been that links experience would be essential. So what has happened? A man who has played only one and half rounds of links golf leads the championship. His name is not Jackson Superb, but it nearly is.
-5: Suber (F)
-4: Im (F), Brown (F)
-3: Detry (F), MacIntyre (F), F. Molinari (F), Smalley (F), DeChambeau (F), Gerard (F), Daffue (F), Coody (F), Young (F)
Counter to the last post is this thought: Not only did Padraig Harrington recover from T38 in 2008, in 1998 Mark O’Meara was T62 after 18 holes -and he not only opened with a 72 like McIlroy has, he was also the reigning Masters champion as McIlroy is, and he succeeded at Royal Birkdale.
This is interesting. Padraig Harrington was T38 after 18 holes when he won the Open at Royal Birkdale in 2008. But in the 16 Opens since then 14 eventual winners were T9 or better and all 16 were T18 or better. That would indicate that this year’s champion is likely to be currently -2 or better.
Rory McIlroy opens with a 72
A round of +2 is not what he was hoping for to start his campaign to win a second Claret Jug. But all is not lost because the current top three – Jackson Suber, Dan Brown and Sungjae Im – are unproven at elite level.
Rory McIlroy has 4 feet 10 inches for birdie at 18 and a 72. It would be a minor win, but a win none the less. He makes it and offers a sad wave to the galleries. He’s seven shots back of the pace setter, Jackson Suber. But guess what? Mark O’Meara – like McIlroy this year the reigning – Masters champion, was seven shots back after 18 holes when he won at Royal Birkdale in 1998.
Shane Lowry on his opening round of 69: “Score-wise, I’m pretty happy with that. The wind switch in the afternoon made the course play a little more difficult. It was important I didn’t get caught leaderboard watching and see what the leader guys were doing. Hopefully we’re going to get that nice easterly wind that they had tomorrow morning.”
On the conditions: “I pity the guys that have never played links golf coming here. You’re hitting 4-irons off tees, and they’re going over 300 yards. Sometimes it’s hard to mentally and visually see that.”
Rory McIlroy launches a superb approach to 18. The pin is tucked beheind the two bunkers front left. It’s the Seve pin from the final round in 1976. McIlroy, implausibly, takes a similar angle and the ball lands softly between the two traps before running down close to the hole. McIlroy waves to crowds but looks more than a little rueful.
Rory McIlroy finds the first cut of rough from the 18th tee. Not long to go now in what has become a damp squib of a round. A big sigh from McIlroy. His only hope might be that the main contenders are, with the exception of Bryson DeChambeau and the veteran Francesco Molinari, not major championship winners (yet).
-5: Suber (F)
-4: Im (F), Brown (F)
-3: Detry (F), MacIntyre (F), F. Molinari (F), Smalley (F), DeChambeau (F), Gerard (F), Daffue (F), Coody (F), Young (F)
Read Ewan Murray on Dan Brown – the son of a pig farmer whose smoking habit might be banned by the weekend if conditions remain as they are.
It’s been a little tougher this afternoon that this morning. The AM starters averaged 71.00 and the PM starters currently average 71.64. One of the latter is Rory McIlroy and he’s currently adding to that mean score. He doesn’t find the par at 17 and is now +3 for the round. Not the day he was hoping for.
How did Tommy Fleetwood fare in the first round? Andy Bull reports.
A trick shot is required from Rory McIlroy on 17. He was on one knee when he played his fourth from the greenside bunker. It’s a good shot but leaves him 6 feet for par.
Up at 18 Shane Lowry completes a par at 18 and a round of 69.
Read Sean Ingle on Mateo Pulcini – the only Argentinian in the Open field who imitated his nation’s footballing celebrations after sinking a 40-foot putt on 18.
Rory McIlroy’s second shot at 17 has found just about the only green grass in the North-West of England. Perhaps that explains why his third shot has airmailed the green and found a bunker. “Knifed it,” says Wayne Riley on TV. “Is this Rory McIlroy or an imposter?”
Kristoffer Reitan on the conditions after his 69: “I hit my 3-iron about 320 yards on 17. So it was difficult at some points, but I’ve got a good caddie on my bag.”
Rory McIlroy unpacked an OK drive at 17 and now has 194 yards to the green. He changes club and then … unleashes a horrid hook. Marshals and fans scatter. One fellow stumbles away, less because he’s taken a blow, more because he’s so eager to avoid one. Messy. Again.
No scrambled par for Morikawa at 18. He slips to -2. A frustrating end to the day but a decent effort from the 2021 champion whose links land efforts since his triumph have mostly been underwhelming.
A lovely scene at 18. The sun is dipping low over the hospitality units to the left, the grandstands and the famous clubhouse frame the green. Collin Morikawa’s drive has found rough and his second shot is straight but a scuffler. It pulls up short. He’ll need and up and down to stay -3.
No eagle for Shane Lowry at 17. He had a funny putt that had to rise above a shoulder and then drop towards the hole. It pulls up short. But a nice birdie gets him to -1.
Behind, Rory McIlroy has 11 feet for birdie at 16. A nice putt but it slides by. He remains +2.
Norway’s Kristoffer Reitain made a birdie at 9 and parred every other hole. A first round 69 is a great start and he has a bit of form on links golf. He was T13 at Renaissance last year, T3 at Trump Aberdeen and T5 in the Dunhill Links Championship.
Collin Morikawa was greenside in two blows at the par-5 17th. But he can’t get up and down for birdie. The 2021 Open champion remains -3 with 18 to play. Cameron Young is on the same score, but he has 17 to come.
On that very hole Shane Lowry unleashes a fairway wood from the short grass and gives himself about 25 feet for eagle.
Superb timing from me. You praise a golfer and what happens? He makes bogey. Sorry Xander Schauffele. Back to -1 after 15.
Rory McIlroy’s tee shot at 15 was excellent and he has 15 feet for birdie – and in it pops! A bit of a daft round really. But also classic McIlroy who often makes the impossible look simple and the simple look impossible. Good energy from the galleries. Maybe it can prompt a late revival. A bit of bounce in the step – another classic McIlroy trait, of course.
In striking contrast to his playing partner, Rory McIlroy, Xander Schaufelle is -2. It’s classic Schauffele. He just remains a remarkable accumulator of major championship quality finishes with 29 top 20s in 27 starts. His method? “Keep grinding,” he said at the US Open last month. “Just keep grinding and move on.”
A Shane Lowry birdie at 16 gets him back to level-par with the par-5 17th to come.
Andrew Coltart is suggesting that Rory McIlroy should throw a club to get his blood pumping. Coltart might have forgotten there is a new code of conduct in operation. Laura Davies wonders if hitting a caddie counts.
It gets worse for Rory McIlroy at 14. Wayne Riley talks him up again, but the chip, which needs to negotiate a rise, only just goes far enough. The Northern Irishman now has 22 feet for par. It’s all very messy.
The par putt misses and this is turning into an irritating day. He even stands away from he bogey putt, rattled by a gallery noise. He does make it, however.
He’s now eight shots off the pace and was six shots off it after 18 holes when the Open was last at Royal Birkdale in 2017. That time he rebounded to finish fourth, but McIlroy now wants to add wins to his major championship tallies not top fives.
The 14th is not going well for Rory McIlroy. From the rough he found a plugged lie in a bunker 83 yards short of the green. He thrashed the ball out, clipping the rivetted edge, and the ball has slipped over the back. His birdie attempt exists – but from 17 yards in the semi rough.
Tom Kim has opened with a level-par 70 after a bogey at 18. “I did well,” he said afterwards. “It’s a major championship, so the golf course is going to be tough. Obviously the wind in the afternoon is blowing. I felt like I did a pretty good job, low stress. Just a few more birdies would have been nice, but overall, it’s a decent start.”
And here are the scores on the doors:
-5: Suber (F)
-4: Im (F), Brown (F)
-3: Detry (F), MacIntyre (F), F. Molinari (F), Smalley (F), DeChambeau (F), Gerard (F), Daffue (F), Coody (F), Morikawa (15), Young (13)
As things stand, two Americans are most like to change matters at the top of the leaderboard. Collin Morikawa and Cameron Young are both -3 through 15 and 13 holes respectively. A big 90 minutes for both.
Friend of the leader and fellow traveller (see 19.09), Pierceson Coody, has had a good day, too. He has made a bogey at 18, but a 67 is a strong start to the week.
Yikes. Rory McIlroy has stopped missing short putts and now Shane Lowry has taken up the (very much unwanted) baton. He’s four putted 14 – and three of them were from 9 feet. The prospect of an eagle to a bogey in the blink (or four) of an eye.
McIlroy’s drive at the same hole has found the rough.
Jackson Suber might be new to Europe, but he’s enjoying it. “The golf is really cool, and just the towns, how the train system works. We went into Liverpool the other day with my fiance and Pierceson Coody and his wife, so that was really cool to see a European city and enjoy that.”
What about the course? “I watched a YouTube video on every hole at Birkdale on Friday last week.”
The great Walter Hagen would appreciate the former sentiment, but be bewildered by the latter. Warning to Jackson for Friday, by the way – there’s the threat of a rail strike.
Tremendous stuff from surprise first round leader Jackson Suber: “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 Europe.”
Good news Rory McIlroy fans! He has 24 feet for birdie at 13 … and he makes it. A shake of the head for the man himself, but he’ll want to keep his head focussed because he has two par-5s to come. He’s now +2 for the day and has a chance to card 70 – or maybe better? An outside chance of the latter.
Matt Fitzpatrick is +1 through 12 and grinding. In recent years he’s revealed himself as something of a comedy straight man to his wife Katherine. In many of her social media videos she’s goofing about and Matt remains totally unmoved (for effect, I add). They’re a highly unlikely golfing Morecambe and Wise act.
Last week’s winner of the Scottish Open, Korea’s Tom Kim, is level-par through 16 holes and he has crashed two blows down the par-5 17th to 10 feet. Can he make an eagle-3? Alas, no. But a birdie gets him into red numbers and would represent a good start off last week’s drama.
Rory McIlroy leaves himself 4 feet 9 inches at 12 for par. It’s right in his … what’s the opposite of a sweet spot?! But he makes it. Hopefully that knocks the bad vibes into shape and he can tidy up this card over the next 90 minutes.
Another missed green for Rory McIlroy at the par-3 12th. He’s found only seven of 12 greens in regulation today and that fits with the last Open visit to Royal Birkdale, in 2017. That year the Northern Irishman recorded his worst GIR ranking in any Open where he made the cut.
Photograph: Greig Cowie/Shutterstock
Shane Lowry is ticking along nicely through 12 on -2. But he has 20 feet for par at 13 and it just slips by the hole. Frustration for the Irishman, but he’s in a good position with the two par-5s to come.
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