The Open 2025: first round updates from Royal Portrush
Date: 2025-07-17T05:00:29.000Z
Title: Preamble
Content: Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of the 153rd Open Championship. Xander Schauffele, who saw off Billy Horschel, Justin Rose and Thriston Lawrence at Troon last year, is the defending champion … and yet because this edition will be contested on the links of Royal Portrush in County Antrim, it kind of feels like Shane Lowry, the winner here in 2019, is defending too. Hey, we don't write the rules, it just does.
Another Irish winner on home soil, then? Lowry fancies doubling up, while course-record holder Rory McIlroy will doubtless think the old place owes him one after that quadruple-bogey start in 2019 and subsequent tearful missed cut. Tom McKibbin, 2007 and 2008 winner Padraig Harrington and 2011 champion Darren Clarke also hear Ireland's call.
Bob MacIntyre, fresh from his runner-up spot at the US Open, will be aiming to become Scotland's first major champion since Paul Lawrie in 1999. As for the English, Tommy Fleetwood, second at Portrush six years ago, would be a popular winner as well, while it feels like Tyrrell Hatton is effing and jeffing his way closer and closer to a breakthrough major.
Other European hopes include Jon Rahm, Ludvig Åberg, Viktor Hovland and Sepp Straka. The US charge, led by world number-one and tournament favourite Scottie Scheffler, also features the aforementioned reigning champ Schauffele, Bryson DeChambeau, Collin Morikawa, Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth.
And yes, we probably have forgotten your particular favourite and/or dark-horse tip, so sorry for neglecting to mention them. We'll get round to them soon, no doubt. The first shot will be hit in anger by Padraig Harrington, and this Hole-By-Hole report will be up and running the moment persimmon meets featherie. It's on!
Here are the tee times for the first round (GBR & IRE unless stated, all times local, (a) denotes amateurs) …0635 Padraig Harrington, Nicolai Hoejgaard (Den), Tom McKibbin
0646 K. J. Choi (Kor), Guido Migliozzi (Ita), Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa)
0657 (a) Justin Hastings (Cay), Marco Penge, Cameron Smith (Aus)
0708 Jason Day (Aus), Jacob Skov Olesen (Den), Taylor Pendrith (Can)
0719 Phil Mickelson (USA), Ryan Peake (Aus), Daniel van Tonder (Rsa)
0730 Byeong-Hun An (Kor), Max Greyserman (USA), Niklas Noergaard (Den)
0741 Dustin Johnson (USA), Haotong Li (Chn), Jordan Smith
0752 Darren Clarke, Lucas Herbert (Aus), Davis Riley (USA)
0803 Mikiya Akutsu (Jpn), Julien Guerrier (Fra), Chun-An Yu (Tai)
0814 Thomas Detry (Bel), Chris Gotterup (USA), Lee Westwood
0825 Patrick Cantlay (USA), Mackenzie Hughes (Can), Cameron Young (USA)
0836 (a) Filip Jakubcik (Cze), Matthew Jordan, Thorbjoern Olesen (Den)
0847 Stephan Jaeger (Ger), Sebastian Soederberg (Swe), Henrik Stenson (Swe)
0903 Martin Couvra (Fra), Kristoffer Reitan (Nor), Adrien Saddier (Fra)
0914 Takumi Kanaya (Jpn), (a) Bryan Newman (Rsa), Justin Walters (Rsa)
0925 Matthew Fitzpatrick, Ryan Fox (Nzl), Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn)
0936 Akshay Bhatia (USA), Ben Griffin (USA), Sepp Straka (Aut)
0947 Sam Burns (USA), Brooks Koepka (USA), Aldrich Potgieter (Rsa)
0958 Jon Rahm (Spa), Xander Schauffele (USA), JJ Spaun (USA)
1009 Shane Lowry, Collin Morikawa (USA), Scottie Scheffler (USA)
1020 Wyndham Clark (USA), Corey Conners (Can), Tom Hoge (USA)
1031 Nicolas Echavarria (Col), Denny McCarthy (USA), Patrick Reed (USA)
1042 Ryggs Johnston (USA), Matthias Schmid (Ger), (a) Richard Teder (Est)
1053 John Axelsen (Den), Darren Fichardt (Rsa), Dylan Naidoo (Rsa)
1104 Oliver Lindell (Fin), Jesper Sandborg (Swe), Justin Suh (USA)
1115 Sadom Kaewkanjana (Tha), Riki Kawamoto (Jpn), Sampson Zheng (Chn)
1126 Stewart Cink (USA), Marc Leishman (Aus), Matteo Manassero (Ita)
1147 (a) Connor Graham, Francesco Molinari (Ita), Jesper Svensson (Swe)
1158 Daniel Brown, Daniel Hillier (Nzl), Zach Johnson (USA)
1209 (a) Ethan Fang (USA), Rickie Fowler (USA), Adam Scott (Aus)
1220 Laurie Canter, Sergio Garcia (Spa), Elvis Smylie (Aus)
1231 Andrew Novak (USA), Matthieu Pavon (Fra), Matt Wallace
1242 Dean Burmester (Rsa), Rikuya Hoshino (Jpn), Davis Thompson (USA)
1253 (a) Sebastian Cave, Shugo Imahira (Jpn), Si-Woo Kim (Kor)
1304 Bud Cauley (USA), Michael Kim (USA), John Parry
1315 Angel Hidalgo (Spa), Matt McCarty (USA), Shaun Norris (Rsa)
1326 Daniel Berger (USA), Keegan Bradley (USA), Sung-Jae Im (Kor)
1337 Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa), Rasmus Hoejgaard (Den), Romain Langasque (Fra)
1348 Harry Hall, Aaron Rai, Sahith Theegala (USA)
1404 Thriston Lawrence (Rsa), Justin Leonard (USA), Antoine Rozner (Fra)
1415 Chris Kirk (USA), Carlos Ortiz (Mex), JT Poston (USA)
1426 Brian Harman (USA), Maverick McNealy (USA), Joaquin Niemann (Chi)
1437 Tyrrell Hatton, Russell Henley (USA), Min-Woo Lee (Aus)
1448 Bryson DeChambeau (USA), Robert MacIntyre, Justin Rose
1459 Ludvig Aaberg (Swe), Viktor Hovland (Nor), Jordan Spieth (USA)
1510 Tommy Fleetwood, Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas (USA)
1521 Harris English (USA), Tony Finau (USA), Nick Taylor (Can)
1532 Lucas Glover (USA), Joo-Hyung Kim (Kor), Jhonattan Vegas (Ven)
1543 Brian Campbell (USA), John Catlin (USA), (a) Frazer Jones
1554 (a) Cameron Adam, Nathan Kimsey, Jason Kokrak (USA)
1605 Curtis Knipes, Curtis Luck (Aus), Daniel Young
1616 George Bloor, OJ Farrell, Young-Han Song (Kor)
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