Five players are tied for the lead at Royal Portrush, the most after Round 1 of an Open since a record six all the way back in 1938.
It’s emblematic of the larger leaderboard picture following Thursday’s play: A staggering 44 players are within four shots of the lead entering Round 2.
Here are the top numbers and notes to know after Day 1 of the 153rd Open:
1. The quintet at 4-under-par after Round 1 is a diverse collection, representing five different countries with world rankings spanning from 19th to 354th. It is the first time in major championship history that five or more men, each playing under different flags, were tied for the lead following any round.
A bit about the eclectic mix: 26-year-old Dane Jacob Skov Olesen is playing in his first Open as a pro. He made the cut as an amateur last year at Royal Troon. Ranked in the top 15 on the DP World Tour this season in scoring, Olesen gained strokes through the bag in his opening round.
Haotong Li has a piece of the lead following a major round for the second time in his career. He led by two strokes after the second round of the 2020 PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park. Haotong shot a final round 63 at the 2017 Open to finish alone in third place and is making his first Open start since 2022 at St Andrews.
South African Christiaan Bezuidenhout shot 67, his lowest career round in a major championship. The 31-year-old has represented the International team in the last two Presidents Cups and has never finished better than 12th in a major championship.
2. A couple of slightly more accomplished pros round out our list. Harris English had never scored lower than 71 in the opening round at the Open before bettering that by four strokes on Thursday. English carded seven birdies, most of anyone in the field and a personal career best at this championship.
English is trying to follow in the relatively fresh footsteps of his college teammate at Georgia and 2023 Open champion, Brian Harman. Like Harman, English opened this week with a round of 67. Harman was 36 years old and making his 30th career major start Royal Liverpool two summers ago. English is 35 and playing in his 35th major championship.
3. Matt Fitzpatrick (also 4 under) has spent the better part of the last two years wandering in professional golf darkness. The 2022 U.S. Open champion, who once ascended to as high as sixth in the Official World Golf Ranking, has endured an OWGR dip (as low as 85th last month) reserved usually just for points-less LIV Golf players. In 40 official starts worldwide the last two years, the Englishman has just six top-10 results.
But two of those top-10 finishes came in his last two starts, a sign of life before he headed to Portrush. Buoyed by a hole out from off the green at 16, Fitzpatrick carded the lowest opening round score of his Open career. The Open is the only major in which Fitzpatrick does not have a top-10 finish. His tie for 20th place here at Royal Portrush six years ago was his best career result. Will his good form persist through the weekend?
4. Scottie Scheffler left The Renaissance Club last week perplexed by its putting surfaces. Scheffler missed 17 putts inside 10 feet for the week and ranked near the bottom of the field in strokes gained putting among those to make the cut. Scheffler’s ball striking acumen is unimpeachable, but the question about whether or not he would contend for his first Claret Jug was tied primarily to whether his putting could improve on the slower links surfaces of Royal Portrush.
The world number one answered that question loudly Thursday. Scheffler gained more than two full strokes on the greens, his best putting performance in an Open round since 2022. He was 15-of-16 putting inside 10 feet and kept his scorecard clean of three putts.
The shakiest part of Scottie’s game Thursday was driving accuracy. Scheffler hit just three fairways in his round, one more than his career low in any round as a professional. That Scheffler scored as well as he did while hitting so few fairways is exceedingly rare: Scottie’s round of 68 tied the lowest score in the Open the last 25 years by a player hitting three fairways or fewer.
5. Among the group tied with Scheffler is Englishman Tyrrell Hatton, who made just one bogey in his opening round 68. Hatton was one of the best at keeping mistakes off the card last month at Oakmont, ranking T3 in the field in bogey avoidance on his way to a tie for fourth, his best finish in a major to date.
Hatton is no stranger to success on links-style courses. He is the only player to win the DP World Tour’s Alfred Dunhill Links three times, doing so in 2016, 2017 and again last year. The fiery Englishman ranked in the top-20 in the field Thursday in strokes gained off the tee, approach and putting.
Rory McIlroy kept himself in contention on Thursday at the Open. (Christian Petersen / Getty Images)
6. Despite hitting just two fairways, Rory McIlroy is in fine position after an opening round 70. McIlroy is just the second player in the last quarter-century to record a score under par when hitting two or fewer fairways. Garcia, McIlroy’s long-time Ryder Cup teammate, did it in 2003 and 2017. While McIlroy was wild off the tee, he was sharp in every other facet of his game, gaining strokes with his approaches, around the green and putting. McIlroy is now a combined 13-under-par in his last five competitive rounds despite losing nearly two full strokes off the tee to the field cumulatively in that stretch.
McIlroy’s excellent putting continues his biggest statistical trend in 2025. Five years ago, Rory was ranked well outside the top 100 on the PGA Tour in strokes gained putting. He is all the way up to fourth this season, a stronger position than any of his other strokes gained metrics, including off the tee (fifth).
7. Another pre-tournament favorite, Jon Rahm, also did nothing to eject himself from contention. The two-time major champion shot a first-round 70, his lowest first-round score at the Open since 2019.
That could be particularly ominous considering that in the four Opens played between 2019 and this week, Rahm had the best cumulative score to par of any player. With what has recently been his slowest round of the championship out of the way, Rahm could be poised to make big strides on Friday.
Seve Ballesteros is the lone Spaniard to win the Open, doing so three times, the last victory coming at Royal Lytham in 1988.
8. None of the four major championships favor experienced players more than the Open, in recent years and throughout the history of the sport. Since 2011, winners of the game’s oldest major average the highest age and most major starts made at the time of victory. All-time, the Open has, far and away, yielded more champions age 38 and older than the other three. So, it was no surprise that some of the game’s elder statesmen showed out at Royal Portrush in Round 1.
Lee Westwood, 52, is in the field this week as a qualifier. He made the most of the opportunity Thursday, carding a score of 2 under, his 19th career Open round in the 60s. Phil Mickelson, 55, shot 1 under, the first time he’s broken par in the first round of the Open since shooting 63 in 2016. He would go on to lose an epic duel that Sunday against Henrik Stenson.
Sergio Garcia, 45, is playing in his first Open in three years. He also shot a 1-under-par 71, rolling in more than 94 feet of putts. It was Garcia’s 42nd career round under par in this championship, fifth-most of any player since par was first officially kept in 1963. The veteran trio has combined to make 85 Open appearances and play 291 official rounds.
9. Defending champion Xander Schauffele carded a solid opening 71, making three birdies and three bogeys to begin his title defense. Schauffele, who has struggled with his driver most of the season, picked up more than a stroke on the field with shots off the tee in Round 1. Xander was four back after Round 1 last year, just as he is here at Portrush.
It was a disappointing afternoon for Bryson DeChambeau, who failed to make a birdie in a round for just the second time in his major championship career. Thursday’s 78 is the highest opening round score for DeChambeau ever in a major. His putting, which has beleaguered him more than any other facet of his game in previous Opens, was actually the strongest part of his game in Round 1. Approach play was another story, though, as he lost more than four shots to the field.
10. The afternoon half of the draw wound up with a scoring average of 72.4, about 1.3 strokes lower than their counterparts on the other side. Six of the previous nine Open winners went out in the afternoon in Round 1.
Each of the last 25 Open champions have been within five shots of the lead, which doesn’t exactly narrow the list of contenders after Day 1. Position is the more helpful context this time around: 44 of the last 50 Open winners were in the top 20 entering Round 2.
(Top photo of Harris English: Glyn Kirk / AFP via Getty Images)
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