Golfers compete at The Open Championship first round at Royal Birkdale
The Guardian Sport • 3 min read • Latest: Jul 16, 2026, 5:00 AM
Last updated Jul 16, 2026

The first-round action of the 154th Open Championship is underway at Royal Birkdale. Top golfers including Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose, and Tommy Fleetwood are among those competing today. The tournament features a full schedule of tee times, with the first groups teeing off early in the morning. Coverage includes anticipated matchups throughout the day.
- •First-round matches began at Royal Birkdale this morning.
- •Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy are key players in today's field.
- •The tournament features multiple groups teeing off at various times throughout the day.
- •Local favorite Tommy Fleetwood is expected to draw significant local support.
- 5:00 AMThe Guardian Sport — The Open 2026: golf updates from day one at Royal Birkdale – live
"️Updates from the first-round action at Royal Birkdale ️Ewan Murray’s preview | Sport in Focus | Mail Scott Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of the 154th Open Championship. Who will prevail at Royal Birkdale? The reigning champion and world number one Scottie Scheffler? Rory McIlroy, long overdue a major title that isn’t the Masters? Local hero Tommy Fleetwood? Justin Rose, who wowed ‘em here as an amateur in 1998? Or … there are many ors, and we could be here all day. Actually, we will be here all day, and here’s the running order (all times BST) … 6.35 am: Matthew Baldwin, Thomas Detry, James Nicholas 6.46 am: Michael Kim, Daniel Hillier, Andy Sullivan 6.57 am: Ryan Fox, Andrew Novak, Matthew Jordan 7.08 am: Henrik Stenson, Max Homa, Joe Dean 7.19 am: Robert MacIntyre, Rickie Fowler, Alex Fitzpatrick 7.30 am: David Duval, Martin Couvra, Matthew Southgate 7.41 am: Sungjae Im, Daniel Brown, Fifa Laopakdee (a) 7.52 am: Gary Woodland, Jake Knapp, Jordan Smith 8.03 am: Francesco Molinari, Tom McKibbin, Lev Grinberg (a) 8.14 am: Hennie du Plessis, Jose Luis Ballester, Dan Bradbury 8.25 am: Angel Ayora, Victor Perez, Mateo Pulcini (a) 8.36 am: Stewart Cink, Scott Vincent, Joakim Lagergren 8.47 am: Michael Thorbjornsen, Kota Kaneko, Travis Smyth 9.03 am: Alex Smalley, Sam Stevens, Ryo Hisatsune 9.14 am: Akshay Bhatia, Harris English, Rasmus Hojgaard 9.25 am: Ben Griffin, Hideki Matsuyama, Min Woo Lee 9.36 am: Russell Henley, Justin Rose, Viktor Hovland 9.47 am: Justin Thomas, Alex Noren, Jason Day 9.58 am: Scottie Scheffler, Tyrrell Hatton, Bryson DeChambeau 10.09 am: Jordan Spieth, Tommy Fleetwood, Jon Rahm 10.20 am: Brian Harman, Si Woo Kim, Nick Taylor 10.31 am: Ryan Gerard, Maverick McNealy, David Puig 10.42 am: Kazuma Kobori, Tom Sloman, David Howard (a) 10.53 am: Antoine Rozner, Ren Yonezawa, Caleb Surratt 11.04 am: MJ Daffue, Frederic Lacroix, Jack McDonald 11.15 am: Jeongwoo Ham, Ryutaro Nagano, Alejandro De Castro Piera (a) 11.41 am: John Parry, Eric Cole, Tiger Christensen 11.52 am: Eugenio Chacarra, Matt Wallace, Max Greyserman 12.03 pm: Michael Brennan, Sahith Theegala, Laurie Canter 12.14 pm: Cameron Smith, Keith Mitchell, Stuart Grehan (a) 12.25 pm: Sepp Straka, Joaquin Niemann, Kurt Kitayama 12.36 pm: Sami Valimaki, Shaun Norris, Jackson Suber 12.47 pm: Darren Clarke, Adrien Saddier, Bernd Wiesberger 12.58 pm: Keegan Bradley, Corey Conners, Casey Jarvis 1.09 pm: Matt McCarty, Harry Hall, Haotong Li 1.20 pm: Padraig Harrington, Marco Penge, Michael Hollick 1.31 pm: Tom Kim, Billy Horschel, Mason Howell (a) 1.42 pm: Johnny Kiefer, Pierceson Coody, Keita Nakajima 1.53 pm: Louis Oosthuizen, Jesper Svansson, Jack Buchanan (a) 2.09 pm: Bud Cauley, Jayden Schaper, Lucas Herbert 2.20 pm: Kristoffer Reitan, Patrick Reed, JT Poston 2.31 pm: Chris Gotterup, Sam Burns, Adam Scott 2.42 pm: Collin Morikawa, JJ Spaun, Nicolai Hojgaard 2.53 pm: Shane Lowry, Aaron Rai, Brooks Koepka 3.04 pm: Cameron Young, Wyndham Clark, Luvig Aberg 3.15 pm: Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, Matt Fitzpatrick 3.26 pm: Jacob Bridgeman, Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, Tim Wiedemeyer (a) 3.37 pm: Patrick Cantlay, Daniel Berger, Nico Echavarria 3.48 pm: Peter Uihlein, Alistair Docherty, Francesco Laporta 3.59 pm: Cameron John, Austen Truslow, Sam Bairstow 4.10 pm: Naoyuki Kataoka, Marcus Plunkett, Baard Bjoernevik Skogen 4.21 pm: Kazuki Higa, Jiho Yang, Nevill Ruiter (a) Continue reading...
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