The Open Round 1 Leaderboard: Rory McIlroy remains in the hunt despite shocking day off the tee

The Open Championship Round One Leaderboard: Rory McIlroy finishes in the red despite an errant day off the tee, while Scottie Scheffler moves serenely into contention for a first Claret Jug.

Rory McIlroy still managed to finish in the red despite an errant performance off the tee in the first round of the 153rd Open.

Home favourite McIlroy bogeyed the 1st after missing a short putt for par but he recovered well to progress nicely to 3-under par around the turn.

The wheels soon came off for the grand slam champion as he fell all the way back to level par, but a birdie on the penultimate hole after a brilliant approach from the deep rough saw McIlroy finish the day at 1-under par and right bang in contention.

That's just three shots off the pace, currently set by a logjam group of players including Harris English, Jacob Skov Olesen, Haotong Li, Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Matt Fitzpatrick.

McIlroy incredibly found just two fairways all day, which came at the 8th and 9th.

He didn't hit a single fairway on the back nine, which will no doubt be some concern for the Northern Irishman heading into Friday.

As expected, pre-tournament favourite Scottie Scheffler is hot on the heels of the leaders courtesy of a 3-under 68.

Scheffler nearly holed out for eagle on the 17th, a shot that was made even more dramatic after what unfolded in the commentary box.

The World No.1 is seeking a first Open Championship, which would send him to within one leg of the career grand slam.

England's Tyrrell Hatton also carded a 68 alongside his compatriot Matt Jordan.

Justin Rose, Lee Westwood and Rickie Fowler all moved nicely into contention with rounds of 2-under 69.

Jon Rahm, Phil Mickelson, and 2019 Open winner Shane Lowry also kept themselves in the hunt thanks to rounds of 70.

Defending champion Xander Schauffele carded a level par 71.

Ireland's Padraig Harrington hit the first tee shot and he brought the house down with an opening birdie, but he would go on to card a 75.

Elsewhere, LIV Golf superstar Bryson DeChambeau posted his worst opening round at a major with a dismal 7-over 78.

The Open First Round Leaderboard
1	Jacob Skov Olesen	-4
1	Haotong Li	-4
1	Matt Fitzpatrick	-4
1	Christiaan Bezuidenhout	-4
1	Harris English	-4
6	Scottie Scheffler	-3
6	Matt Jordan	-3
6	Tyrrell Hatton	-3
6	Sadom Kaewkanjana	-3
VIEW FULL R1 SCORES

Scroll down this page to see how the first round played out at the 153rd Open...

Andy Roberts

17 Jul 2025

07:29

Bogey for Harrington

Harrington Par (3)

Harrington drops a shot on the par-3 3rd and he falls back to level par.

Hojgaard has been joined in the lead on 1-under by his compatriot Jacob Skov Olesen, who has just made birdie on the par-4 1st.

07:11

The Open R1 Tee Times

First round tee times in full:

The Open Championship tee times 2025

Open Championship tee times 2025: Round 1
Tee Time	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3
06:35	Padraig Harrington	Nicolai Højgaard	Tom McKibbin
06:46	Louis Oosthuizen	Guido Migliozzi	K.J. Choi
06:57	Cameron Smith	Marco Penge	Justin Hastings (A)
07:08	Jason Day	Taylor Pendrith	Jacob Skov Olesen
07:19	Phil Mickelson	Daniel Van Tonder	Ryan Peake
07:30	Max Greyserman	Byeong Hun An	Niklas Norgaard
07:41	Jordan Smith	Haotong Li	Dustin Johnson
07:52	Darren Clarke	Davis Riley	Lucas Herbert
08:03	Kevin Yu	Julien Guerrier	Mikiya Akutsu
08:14	Thomas Detry	Chris Gotterup	Lee Westwood
08:25	Patrick Cantlay	Cameron Young	Mackenzie Hughes
08:36	Thorbjorn Olesen	Matthew Jordan	Filip Jakubcik (A)
08:47	Henrik Stenson	Stephan Jaeger	Sebastian Soderberg
09:03	Kristoffer Reitan	Martin Couvra	Adrien Saddier
09:14	Takumi Kanaya	Justin Walters	Bryan Newman (A)
09:25	Hideki Matsuyama	Ryan Fox	Matt Fitzpatrick
09:36	Sepp Straka	Benjamin Griffin	Akshay Bhatia
09:47	Sam Burns	Aldrich Potgieter	Brooks Koepka
09:58	Xander Schauffele	JJ Spaun	Jon Rahm
10:09	Shane Lowry	Collin Morikawa	Scottie Scheffler
10:20	Corey Conners	Wyndham Clark	Tom Hoge
10:31	Denny McCarthy	Nicolas Echavarria	Patrick Reed
10:42	Matti Schmid	Ryggs Johnston	Richard Teder (A)
10:53	Dylan Naidoo	Darren Fichardt	John Axelsen
11:04	Justin Suh	Oliver Lindell	Jesper Sandborg
11:15	Sadom Kaewkanjana	Riki Kawamoto	Sampson Zheng
11:26	Stewart Cink	Matteo Manassero	Marc Leishman
11:47	Francesco Molinari	Jesper Svensson	Connor Graham (A)
11:58	Zach Johnson	Daniel Hillier	Dan Brown
12:09	Adam Scott	Rickie Fowler	Ethan Fang (A)
12:20	Laurie Canter	Elvis Smylie	Sergio Garcia
12:31	Andrew Novak	Matthieu Pavon	Matt Wallace
12:42	Davis Thompson	Dean Burmester	Rikuya Hoshino
12:53	Si Woo Kim	Shugo Imahira	Sebastian Cave (A)
13:04	Michael Kim	Bud Cauley	John Parry
13:15	Matt McCarty	Shaun Norris	Angel Hidalgo
13:26	Keegan Bradley	Sungjae Im	Daniel Berger
13:37	Rasmus Højgaard	Christiaan Bezuidenhout	Romain Langasque
13:48	Aaron Rai	Sahith Theegala	Harry Hall
14:04	Justin Leonard	Thriston Lawrence	Antoine Rozner
14:15	JT Poston	Chris Kirk	Carlos Ortiz
14:26	Brian Harman	Maverick McNealy	Joaquin Niemann
14:37	Russell Henley	Tyrrell Hatton	Min Woo Lee
14:48	Robert MacIntyre	Bryson DeChambeau	Justin Rose
14:59	Jordan Spieth	Ludvig Aberg	Viktor Hovland
15:10	Rory McIlroy	Justin Thomas	Tommy Fleetwood
15:21	Harris English	Nick Taylor	Tony Finau
15:32	Lucas Glover	Jhonattan Vegas	Tom Kim
15:43	Brian Campbell	John Catlin	Frazer Jones (A)
15:54	Nathan Kimsey	Jason Kokrak	Cameron Adam (A)
16:05	Daniel Young	Curtis Luck	Curtis Knipes
16:16	Younghan Song	George Bloor	OJ Farrell

07:10

The Open R1 LIve

Welcome to day one updates from the 153rd Open Championship here at stunning Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland.

Good morning from Royal Portrush.

It's time. pic.twitter.com/ivP6ygYsSK
— The Open (@TheOpen) July 17, 2025

Padraig Harrington has just got us off and running with a birdie on the par-4 1st and he's currently in an early share of the lead alongside Nicolai Hojgaard, who has birdied the par-5 2nd.

Here's that birdie from two-time Open champion Harrington from 15 feet at the 1st: