The first round of the 2025 Open Championship saw Royal Portrush giving the 156-player field all it could handle as ever-changing weather conditions allowed the Northern Ireland course to show off its strength against the best players in the world. Ultimately, 31 players got into red figures in the first round, but the lead is just 4 under as no one could take it particularly low on a challenging Thursday.
Five players share that lead, as Matt Fitzpatrick, Harris English, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Haotong Li and Jacob Skov Olesen all put together 67s for the low rounds of the day. For Fitzpatrick, it's the first time at an Open that he's lived up to the massive expectations he created as a youngster. The Englishman was low amateur back in 2013 but has never finished better than T20 in The Open, even as he's become a major champion and contended at the other three.
Fitzpatrick came into Royal Portrush this year playing his best golf of the season, and he finally put together the kind of start to the tournament he's been hoping to achieve. He got off to a hot start with an eagle on No. 2, his only bogey of the round coming on No. 3. He was rock solid from there, and even when he did find the occasional trouble, he was able to produce some spectacular recoveries, none better than his slam dunk chip-in from short and right of the long 16th.
Chasing Fitzpatrick and the leaders are the three pre-tournament favorites with Scottie Scheffler (-3), Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm (-1) all managing to get into the clubhouse in red figures and stay well within striking distance of the lead after the first round.
Scheffler's round was the kind we've come to expect from the world No. 1 as he plotted along around even and 1 under for most of the day before closing with a flurry, making birdies on Nos. 16 and 17 thanks to two of the best iron shots anyone hit all day. Scheffler struggled to find fairways but was sensational on his approaches to make up for some wayward drives. Most importantly, he was 16th in strokes gained putting, which has long been his issue on links courses as he's never seemed particularly comfortable on the slower greens. If he has that worked out, he will be incredibly difficult to beat over the next three rounds.
Rahm was similarly steady early, going out in 2 under before back-to-back bogeys to open his back nine dropped him to even as the weather started to become a factor. He stabilized things from there, picking up a birdie on the way in to get into red figures and give himself a shot at his first Claret Jug. He's been one of the most consistent performers in The Open but has yet to capture the Champion Golfer of the Year crown.
And then there's McIlroy, whose round was much more of a rollercoaster, as one might expect from a man dealing with all of the emotions of playing in his home country. After the disaster that was his first-round 79 back in 2019, starting his tournament with a quadruple bogey on the first, McIlroy was able to keep his ball on the course off the first tee and made an opening bogey to shake off some of those nerves.
"At least I knew what to expect today, so it wasn't the shock that it was in 2019," McIlroy said of stepping on the first tee on Thursday. "I was thankfully able to get the tee shot away, even though it was in the left rough -- not quite as far left as in 2019. It was a shaky start. I missed the short one on 1, but then I bounced back well. Considering that I didn't drive the ball well, it's a solid start. If I can hit a few more fairways over the next few days, I'm right in there with a great chance."
McIlroy got that dropped shot back immediately on No. 2 and made three more birdies on Nos. 5, 7 and 10 to get to 3 under, one off the lead. At that point, the crowds at Royal Portrush were at a fever pitch, but McIlroy stumbled with three bogeys in four holes to fall back to even par and it looked like he might be headed to another early collapse under the weight of expectation at home. Instead, he settled down and strung together some pars before producing a sensational birdie on the 17th to get back into red figures.
McIlroy hitting approach shots from the rough was a consistent occurrence all day as he missed 11 of 14 fairways in his round. That was a big reason for his wild ups and downs; when he drew a good break with the lie, he created birdie opportunities, but when the ball settled down, he quickly had to battle just to make par.
McIlroy and Scheffler will both be looking to straighten things out off of the tee, but their key focus Thursday was not to put themselves out of contention -- as Bryson DeChambeau did with a 78. All three pre-tournament favorites accomplished that goal, and they head into Friday firmly in the hunt.
2025 Open Championship leaderboard breakdown
T1. Matt Fitzpatrick, Harris English, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Haotong Li, Jacob Skov Olesen (-4): Fitzpatrick and English, who is playing without his normal caddie, are unquestionably the most experienced players in the tie for the lead. Li does have a top 5 Open finish in the past (2017), but he, Olesen and Bezuidenhout will all need to do something we've rarely seen from them -- putting together mulitple terrific rounds at a major -- to maintain their position into the weekend.
T6. Scottie Scheffler, Tyrrell Hatton, Matthew Jordan and Sadom Kaewkanjana (-3): Scheffler is obviously the biggest threat here, and he is now an even stronger favorite (21/10) to win than he was coming into the tournament (7/2). That said, Hatton was a trendy pick for a reason, and he handled himself quite nicely Thursday, giving himself a chance to best his performance at the U.S. Open when he notched a T4 for his top finish at a major in his career. Jordan is also no stranger to an Open Championship leaderboard, as he's become seemingly an annual presence on the first page, scoring back-to-back T10 finishes the last two years. And then there's Kaewkanjana, the Thai golfer who is also an ordained monk, making him one of the most fascinating stories on the leaderboard.
T10. Rickie Fowler, Lee Westwood, Brian Harman, Justin Rose and six others (-2): Thursday was a great day for the old guys at The Open. Westwood turned back the clock with his 69, as did Rose. In the group one behind them, Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia and Justin Leonard (!) all carded rounds in the 60s. Aside from Rose and Garcia, few would expect most of those names to hang around through the weekend, but the 2 unders also include Fowler, who got into the field just a couple weeks ago and is making the most of that chance, and the 2023 Open Champion Brian Harman.
T20. Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Shane Lowry, Phil Mickelson, Joaquin Niemann and eight others (-1): McIlroy battled the emotions all day but managed them much better than in 2019 and now might be able to finally exhale and just focus on the golf. The rest of the group at 1 under -- including Rahm, Niemann and the 2019 champion at Royal Portrush, Lowry -- all have things they'll feel they can do better but kept themselves close to the lead and will hope to build on this performance through the weekend.
"I'm trying to embrace it as much as I can -- the ovations when you're walking up on the greens, and when you hit a great shot. It's absolutely amazing," McIlroy said. "To have the support of a country behind you is a wonderful feeling. But at the same time, you don't want to let them down, so there's that bit of added pressure. It's amazing to be here playing The Open at Portrush. I'm just so happy to get off to a decent start."
T32. Xander Schauffele, Robert MacIntyre and 11 others (E): Schauffele and MacIntyre were also pre-tourney favorites who didn't have their best on Thursday, but they scratched out a decent rounds of 71 to get into the championship and keep their hopes alive of winning.
