The initial 18 holes of golf’s concluding major tournament of the year have concluded, and Scottie Scheffler finds himself in a competitive position.
The world’s leading golfer recorded a 3-under 68 in the early hours and completed his round at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland, just one stroke behind the leaders. However, as the day progressed, five golfers — Jacob Skov Olesen, Haotong Li, Matt Fitzpatrick, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, and Harris English — reached a shared lead at 4-under.
Scheffler was grouped alongside Matthew Jordan, Tyrrell Hatton, and Buddhist monk Sadon Kaewkanjana at 3-under. Rory McIlroy, who has been the resounding crowd favorite this week, is demonstrating improved performance compared to the previous Portrush event in 2019. In that tournament, McIlroy’s opening drive went out of bounds, resulting in a quadruple bogey eight and ultimately missing the cut. This year, he bogeyed the first hole, marking a more favorable start, and concluded at 1-under.
Despite one round remaining, several prominent players face a challenge to make the cut. Notably, Bryson DeChambeau struggled, shooting a 7-over, placing him near the bottom of the leaderboard. Patrick Reed, Wyndham Clark, Collin Morikawa, and Brooks Koepka also encountered difficulties.
The second round of the Open Championship will commence at 1:35 a.m. ET on Friday.
Stay connected here as Yahoo Sports provides coverage of Round 1:
