
Unofficial Open Championship Preview 2025
In 2019, under huge expectation from the crowd, he missed the cut when the tournament was last held at Royal Portrush - which is just 60 miles from where he was born.
This time, he will be looking to make amends on the course he knows so well by getting his hands on the Claret Jug.
The Daily Mirror have produced a special edition looking ahead to the 2025 Open, with features on all the leading contenders including McIlroy, Shane Lowry - who won the event the last time it was held on the course - world No.1 Scottie Scheffler, Bryson DeChambeau, defending champion Xander Schauffele and Robert MacIntyre amongst others.
We look at the players who are bidding to end a 33-year drought since the last Englishman lifted the famous trophy, look back at the victories of Tom Watson and Max Faulkner as well as the many magical moments from down the years.
There is a hole-by-hole guide to the course, and we examine how Royal Portrush managed to finally bring The Open back to Northern Ireland.
And there is a tricky quiz to test your knowledge of The Open.
Click HERE to buy online and have it delivered directly to your door, or you can purchase it in participating supermarkets, high street retailers and independent newsagents in the UK, Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland from July 9, 2025. Online postage and packaging costs apply.

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Edinburgh Reporter
6 hours ago
- Edinburgh Reporter
How Solar Trailer Security Systems Can Reduce Crime at The British Open
Golf's biggest UK event is a security headache: tens of thousands of fans, sprawling temporary villages, remote car parks, valuable broadcast and hospitality equipment, and multiple unsecured perimeters that appear and disappear within weeks. Permanent CCTV and fibre are rarely in place where you most need them, and diesel generator towers add cost, noise and emissions. Solar Surveillance trailers solve this by delivering rapid, off-grid surveillance, analytics and comms that can be moved, scaled and redeployed as the build, event and tear‑down phases progress. Photo by Shep McAllister on Unsplash Why The Open is uniquely hard to secure The Open runs across large, open spaces that are reconfigured daily. You have crowds during play, but also long hours of low-footfall risk when kit is left onsite overnight. You often need coverage in car parks, practice ranges, hospitality compounds and merchandise tents where trenching power or data is impractical. Weather is unpredictable, cellular capacity fluctuates, and the infrastructure must disappear as fast as it arrived. A mobile, energy self-sufficient platform is far better suited to this cycle than fixed poles or cabling. What a solar trailer actually delivers A solar trailer is a towable unit with a telescopic mast, high-efficiency panels, a LiFePO4 battery bank sized for multi-day autonomy, and an onboard compute module that runs AI analytics locally. It carries PTZ and fixed cameras (and optionally thermal), uses LTE, 5G or Starlink for backhaul, and pushes only meaningful alerts to the security team. Because it is self-powered, you avoid diesel generator costs and emissions. Because it is mobile, you can reposition it daily as risk shifts. Core capabilities that matter during a major tournament Edge analytics that cut noise. Person and vehicle detection, intrusion zones, line crossing, loitering and object left/removed alerts run on the trailer. Security staff get signal, not a video firehose. Rapid deployment. Units can be dropped and live in hours without trenching, permits or electricians. Connectivity redundancy. Dual SIM, Starlink or microwave links keep footage and alerts flowing when local networks are saturated. Evidence-grade recording. Local storage combined with cloud sync protects the chain of custody and ensures you do not lose video if a link drops. Zero or near-zero operational emissions. The event can meet sustainability objectives and reporting commitments while maintaining high readiness. A deployment blueprint for The Open Perimeter and back-of-house fencing. Place trailers at strategic choke points and blind spots to detect intrusion after hours. Public car parks and park-and-ride. Use PTZ cameras with LPR to track suspicious vehicles, coordinate with police and deter theft. Broadcast, hospitality and vendor compounds. Protect high-value gear when crews leave for the night. Practice ranges and overflow areas. Reposition units to follow crowd flow and newly identified risks without sending electricians. Emergency response staging. Push mobile coverage to first-aid tents and incident command posts that move throughout the week. Operational workflow: before, during, after Before the event: Conduct a rapid risk map. Define autonomy days required based on worst-case weather. Pre-stage SIMs or Starlink, set analytics rules and escalation paths, and test with blue-light partners. During the event: Monitor a single dashboard for all trailers. Trigger PTZ auto-tracking from analytics. Escalate to stewards or police with clipped evidence rather than raw streams. After the event: Redeploy to the next venue, construction site or storage yard. Export incident logs and video packages for insurers and law enforcement. Audit uptime, false alarms and response times to tighten rules for the next tournament. Privacy, legality and standards in the UK Solar trailers are still CCTV, so they must comply with UK GDPR, the Surveillance Camera Code of Practice and the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012. That means clear signage, defined purposes, retention limits, access controls and audit trails for who viewed or exported footage. Make sure your supplier supports role-based access, encrypted storage, and simple export workflows so you can meet Subject Access Requests quickly. Procurement and Budgeting Events can rent, lease or buy. Renting suits one-off or rotational tournaments. Leasing or purchase makes sense if you will redeploy trailers to stadia, training grounds or other events throughout the year. When comparing quotes, include trenching avoided, guard hours reduced, diesel saved, and the ability to reuse the fleet across multiple sites. KPIs to track Time to deploy and configure a unit Number of actionable alerts vs false alarms Mean time to verify and respond Days of autonomy achieved vs specified Percentage of video mapped to incidents for evidence packages Diesel or generator runtime avoided FAQs Will they work through a cloudy week? Yes, if sized correctly. Specify the required autonomy days in your RFP and make vendors model worst-month irradiance for the venue. Can they integrate with police or the event's existing VMS? Choose trailers with ONVIF, RTSP and open APIs so you can stream, share clips and push alerts to existing control rooms. Do they replace guards? No. They reduce routine patrols and improve detection. Human response is still required. What about network congestion when crowds peak? Dual SIM, private microwave or Starlink backhaul plus store-and-forward recording makes the system resilient even when public networks are saturated. Conclusion The Open needs security that moves as fast as the build and tear-down schedule. Solar trailer security systems give organisers an immediate, low-carbon way to deter theft, monitor perimeters and car parks, and generate evidence without trenching or diesel generators. Specify autonomy, analytics, open integrations and GDPR compliance up front, test them before gates open, and you will leave the course with fewer incidents, faster responses and a reusable playbook for the next tournament. Like this: Like Related

Leader Live
14 hours ago
- Leader Live
Charley Hull charges into Women's Open contention at Royal Porthcawl
Hull began the day at Royal Porthcawl on even-par, 11 shots off the lead, but launched her charge with seven birdies and one bogey as her six-under score catapulted her up the leaderboard into a tie for fourth place. Japan's Yamashita, who led by three shots overnight after a bogey-free 65 on Friday, carded a two-over 74 and saw her lead cut to one shot after South Korea's Kim A-lim posted a five-under 67 to climb into outright second. Charley charges into contention. Currently tied third on the leaderboard 👀 — AIG Women's Open (@AIGWomensOpen) August 2, 2025 American Andrea Lee also shot a 67 and sits third, while Japan's Minami Katsu sank seven birdies and an eagle for a brilliant 65 – spoilt by two birdies – to climb alongside Hull, American Megan Khang (68) and Rio Takeda (74). When world number 20 Hull was asked if she would go for victory on Sunday, she told the media: 'Yeah, 100 per cent. I've got nothing to lose have I? 'I hit it in the bunker on the first and made a good up and down there. Then I just made birdies when I gave myself an opportunity to make a birdie, apart from the last hole. 'I just kind of enjoy chasing. It's quite fun. I like it. It's more fun that way. I like hunting someone down.' England's Georgia Hall, Open winner in 2018, also climbed up the leaderboard, a four-under 68 leaving her tied in eighth place with Taiwan's Hsu Wei-ling (69) and Switzerland's Chiara Tamburlini (72). Lottie Woad, in just her second event as a professional after winning the Scottish Open last week, is a shot further back on three under after shooting a 71. The pre-tournament favourite from Surrey, who birdied the final hole after squandering several other chances, is among a group of seven tied in 11th after her one-under round alongside England's Mimi Rhodes (70). World number one Nelly Korda finished two over for the day after a 74 and sits in a group tied in 36th place, which includes New Zealand's defending champion Lydia Ko (70).


North Wales Chronicle
14 hours ago
- North Wales Chronicle
Charley Hull charges into Women's Open contention at Royal Porthcawl
Hull began the day at Royal Porthcawl on even-par, 11 shots off the lead, but launched her charge with seven birdies and one bogey as her six-under score catapulted her up the leaderboard into a tie for fourth place. Japan's Yamashita, who led by three shots overnight after a bogey-free 65 on Friday, carded a two-over 74 and saw her lead cut to one shot after South Korea's Kim A-lim posted a five-under 67 to climb into outright second. Charley charges into contention. Currently tied third on the leaderboard 👀 — AIG Women's Open (@AIGWomensOpen) August 2, 2025 American Andrea Lee also shot a 67 and sits third, while Japan's Minami Katsu sank seven birdies and an eagle for a brilliant 65 – spoilt by two birdies – to climb alongside Hull, American Megan Khang (68) and Rio Takeda (74). When world number 20 Hull was asked if she would go for victory on Sunday, she told the media: 'Yeah, 100 per cent. I've got nothing to lose have I? 'I hit it in the bunker on the first and made a good up and down there. Then I just made birdies when I gave myself an opportunity to make a birdie, apart from the last hole. 'I just kind of enjoy chasing. It's quite fun. I like it. It's more fun that way. I like hunting someone down.' England's Georgia Hall, Open winner in 2018, also climbed up the leaderboard, a four-under 68 leaving her tied in eighth place with Taiwan's Hsu Wei-ling (69) and Switzerland's Chiara Tamburlini (72). Lottie Woad, in just her second event as a professional after winning the Scottish Open last week, is a shot further back on three under after shooting a 71. The pre-tournament favourite from Surrey, who birdied the final hole after squandering several other chances, is among a group of seven tied in 11th after her one-under round alongside England's Mimi Rhodes (70). World number one Nelly Korda finished two over for the day after a 74 and sits in a group tied in 36th place, which includes New Zealand's defending champion Lydia Ko (70).