Matt Fitzpatrick with Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm in Hunt at the top.

In the first round of the Open Championship 2025, Royal Portrush gave the 156-player field everything that made it possible as constantly changing weather conditions to demonstrate the Northern Ireland course, its strength against the best players in the world. Ultimately, 31 players came in red characters in the first round, but the lead is only 4 years old because nobody could take it particularly low on a challenging Thursday.

Five players share this tour when Matt Fitzpatrick, Harris English, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Haotong Li and Jacob Skov Olesen put together all 67 for the low rounds of the day. For Fitzpatrick it is the first time at an open that he fulfilled the massive expectations he created as a teenager. The Englishman was low in 2013, but has never ended better than T20 outdoors, even if he has become a grand master and fought with the other three.

Fitzpatrick came to Royal Portrush this year and played his best Gulf of the season, and finally put together the start of the tournament, which he was reached. He had a hot start with an eagle on No. 2, his only bogey of the round in third place. From there he was solid from there, and even when he occasionally found trouble, he was able to produce some spectacular recovery, no better than his slam-dark-in-in-in-in-one directive.

Fitzpatrick and the managers are the three favorites before the tournament with Scottie Scheffler (-3), Rory Mcilroy and Jon Rahm (-1), who all manage to get into the clubhouse in red figures and, after the first round, to stay good as a result of the lead.

Scheffler's round was the way we expected from the world No. 1 when he made most of the day with a tide with a tide with a tide with a flood with a flood with a flood of around 1 and 17 after two of the best iron shots that took all day. Scheffler tried to find fairways, but was sensational in his approaches to compensate for some idiosyncratic drives. The most important thing was that he was won in the 16th, which was his edition in left -wing courses for a long time, since it never felt particularly comfortable on the slower greens. If he has worked, he will be incredibly difficult to beat in the next three rounds.

Rahm was prematurely early and went down in 2 before opening consecutive Bogeys to open his back to publish it, even when the weather became a factor. He stabilized things from there and collected a birdie on the way to get into red characters and make a shot on his first Claret jug. He was one of the most constant performers outdoors, but has to catch the Champion Golfer of the Year Crown.

And then there is McIlroy, whose round was much more a roller coaster, as you could expect from a man who deals with all the feelings of playing in his home country. After the catastrophe, which was his first round 79 in 2019 and started his tournament with a four-time bogey on the first, Mcilroy was able to hold his ball on the course from the first T-shirt, and made an opening bogy to shake some of these nerves.

“At least I knew what I would expect today, so it wasn't the shock that it was in 2019,” said Mcilroy about the first discount on Thursday. “Fortunately, I was able to get the tee away, even though it was on the left diamond – not quite as left as in 2019. It was a shaky start. I missed the short to 1, but then I retired well. If I consider that I didn't drive the ball well, it is a solid start.

McIlroy immediately got the shot back to No. 2 and made three more birdies to No. 5, 7 and 10 to get 3 from the lead. At this point, the crowds in Royal Portrush were on a fever place, but McIlroy stumbled into four holes with three bogeys to even fall on par, and it looked as if he could go on the way to another early collapse under the weight of the expectation. Instead, he sat down and put together a few pars before producing a sensational birdie on the 17th to get back into red characters.

McIlroy hit shots from the Rough were a consistent event all day when he missed 11 out of 14 fairways in his round. That was a big reason for his wild heights and depths; When he took a good break with the lie, he created Birdie matters, but when the ball settled, he had to fight quickly, just to make par.

McIlroy and Scheffler will both try to equip things out of the tee, but their central focus was not on getting out of the dispute, and Bryson Dechameau with 78. All three favorites before the tournament have achieved this goal and they are hunting.

2025 Open Championship Rangingboard creation

T1. Matt Fitzpatrick, Harris English, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Haotong Li, Jacob Skov Olesen (-4): Fitzpatrick and English, who is without playing his normal caddyare undoubtedly the most experienced players who are connected to the tour. Li has a top 5 open finish in the past (2017), but he, Olesesen and Bezuidenhout have to do something that we have seldom seen from them – to put together Mulitple great rounds in a major – to keep their position into the weekend.

T6. Scottie Scheffler, Tyrrell Hatton, Matthew Jordan and Sadom Kaewkanjana (-3): Scheffler is obviously the biggest threat here, and he is now an even stronger favorite (21/10) to win when he entered the tournament (7/2). That is, HATTON was a trendy choice for a certain reason, and he acted quite well on Thursday and gave himself the chance to determine his performance at the US Open when he scored a T4 for his top finish in his career. Jordan is also no stranger to an open championship ranking, since he seems to have become an annual presence on the first page and achieved T10 final numbers for the past two years in a row. And then there is Kaewkanjana, the Thai golfer, who is also an ordained monk and makes him one of the most fascinating stories on the ranking.

T10. Rickie Fowler, Lee Westwood, Brian Harman, Justin Rose and six others (-2): Thursday was a great day for the old boys outdoors. Westwood turned the clock back with its 69, as did Rose. In the group of the group behind them, Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia and Justin Leonard (!) In the 1960s are all cardiac. Apart from Rose and Garcia, only a few would expect that most of these names will hang around over the weekend, but the 2 substrates also include Fowler, who only came into the field a few weeks ago and makes the best of this opportunity, and the 2023 Open Champion Brian Harman.

T20. Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Shane Lowry, Phil Mickelson, Joaquin Niemann and eight more (-1): Mcilroy fought for the emotions all day, but made it much better than in 2019 and could finally exhale and only concentrate on the Golf. The rest of the group at 1 Under – including Rahm, Niemann and the 2019 Champion at Royal Portrush, Lowry – have all the things you can do better, but you will be held in the lead and hope that you will build on this performance by the weekend.

“I try to hug as much as possible – the ovation when you go to the greens and if you hit a great shot. It is absolutely amazing,” said Mcilroy. “Having the support of a country behind you is a wonderful feeling. But at the same time you don't want to let it down, so there is additional pressure. It is amazing to play the open here at Portrush. I'm just so happy to have a decent start.”

T32. Xander Schauffele, Robert Macintyre and 11 others: Schauffele and Macintyre were also favorites before the tournament who did not have their best on Thursday, but they scratched a decent round of 71 to get into the championship and to maintain their hopes for winning alive.