Key events:
Show key events onlyPlease turn on JavaScript to use this feature
A nice graphic shows how leader Cameron Young compiled his 8-under 64. Will anyone catch him and, although it sounds like a daft question, is it a good place to be?
Rod Pampling missed the cut after taking the 18-hole lead at Carnoustie in 1999 (71 followed by an 86!) but that’s very much an outlier.
Looking at the last nine first-round leaders in the Open, six went on to finish in the top three. Two actually went wire-to-wire: Rory in 2014 and Jordan Spieth in 2017.
Seven of the last nine were still on top of the leaderboard at halfway so history says Young will hang around.
World No 1 Scottie Scheffler knocks in a birdie putt at 9 after driving the green and the Texan, who has an air of Elvis ‘68 Comeback Special cool about him, saunters off to the 10th tee after an outward half of 4-under 32. Once more in a major, he’s making it look easy.
Tiger’s miserable start continues. He faces a 40-foot birdie putt at 4 and it pulls up far too soon. That leaves a 12-footer for par and it won’t drop. Woods now +4 after 4 and currently tied 132nd of the 156-man field.
Playing partner Matt Fitzpatrick is also flat. The US Open champion chunked his opening tee shot – not a punishable offence on that hole it has to be said – and has now dropped a shot at 4 to fall to +1.
It’s worth noting Rory McIlroy’s first-round scores when he’s won majors.
65 – 2011 US Open
67 – 2012 PGA Championship
66 – 2014 Open Championship
66 – 2014 PGA Championship
In other words/numbers, he’s always won them from a fast start. Today’s 66 puts him in golden position to end that eight-year drought.
A 12 year old Rory winning the US Open back in 2011. Photograph: Stephen Wilson/PAThanks Matt. Hard to believe that six players haven’t even started their rounds yet! They include Jack Floydd, a man who must have spent much of his life telling people that there are really two d’s at the end of his surname. Floydd came through a five-man play-off in the 36-hole Final Qualifying event at Prince’s in Kent.
Scottie Scheffler drives through the green at the 9th. If he nails the up-and-down for a birdie he’ll complete a front nine of four under after he ticked a hat trick of par breakers from the third. With that, I’ll hand you back to Dave.
Justin Thomas cuts a frustrated figure as he completes a round of level par 72. He swapped two front nine birdies with a double bogey six at the 17th. His playing partner, the 2019 Open champion Shane Lowry, signs for the same score. The third man in the group, Norway’s Viktor Hovland, betters them by four.
3.52pm BST leaderboardJordan Spieth is one under through two and he knocks his approach at the third close, too.
-8: Young (F)
-6: McIlroy (F)
-5: Smith (F)
Ouch. Not the start Tiger Woods was hoping for. After dropping two shots at the 1st, his approach at the 3rd missed the green and he can’t save par. His first putt was bold so he even had a knee-knocker just to minimise the damage.
Photograph: Jane Barlow/PARory McIlroy posts a first round 66.His drive at the last finds the edge of the green and his 84’ eagle putt settles inches from the pin. He taps it in for a six under total, two blows behind Cameron Young’s lead, alone in second for now. He waves to the fans, both those inside the course with tickets and those who have turned up to peer at the action from the town side of the adjacent road.
When I was on the range earlier this week I heard that Adam Scott had slightly confounded everyone in the equipment trucks by changing his equipment on Sunday. It’s certainly looking like a rum decision as he lurches to four over through seven.
Earlier today I referenced the birdie opportunity Rory McIlroy spurned in the 63 he opened the 2010 Open with. Today he saves par from off the green on the same hole. Two very different ways of making the same score and this one will make him much happier. He heads up the last five under for the day.
A young spectator watches Rory McIlroy’s first round. Photograph: Oisin Keniry/R&A/Getty ImagesJordan Spieth opens his 2022 account with a safe par. The 2017 championship winner was also one shot outside a play-off on the Old Course in 2015, the 54-hole co-leader in 2018, top 10 for most of the week in 2019, and second last year. His Open pedigree is considerable.
3.20pm BST leaderboardMcIlroy misses the 17th green with his approach. He faces a fight to save par.
-8: Young (F)
-5: Smith (F), McIlroy (16)
Double bogey start for Tiger Woods! His chip over the burn was solid but didn’t drop for par and the short bogey putt was never on the right line. An unfortunate, and then sloppy, start yet not unprecedented. Woods has a history of making poor beginnings. At the 2003 Open he even lost his first tee shot.
Not a great start from the great man. Photograph: Stuart Franklin/R&A/Getty ImagesTiger finds water at the first! His drive finished in a divot, sand flew up when he made contact with the approach, it flew high, landed short, took one hop, and plopped into the Swilcan Burn.
England’s Paul Casey is three under through six holes. This is his first start since March so the major season had passed him by until now. A pity because, since the end of lockdown, the 44-year-old has recorded five top 20s in seven major appearances.
The biggest roar of the day is for the announcement of Tiger Woods on the first tee (although playing partner Matt Fitzpatrick, the new US Open champion, is not far behind). All eyes on Tiger’s limp, but let’s also focus on the swing. It’s looked very good through the practice days.
Here comes Tiger Woods. Photograph: Paul Childs/ReutersKurt Perleberg emails: “With the Paris Olympics 2 years away will we see Tiger Woods compete in golf at those games?” I’d be very surprised, Kurt. Perhaps the biggest difficulty is that qualification is based on world rankings and Woods is unlikely to ever play enough in the future to rise high enough in them to represent Team USA. As I write he takes his card from the starter. It’s nearly game time!
American Keith Mitchell opens his account with drive down the middle of the first. He has close links with the town because his father is an R&A member and his sister attended college here. He also cuts something of an old-fashioned golfing jib with a visor on his head and slacks with a touch of the 1980s about them.
Trouble for Ernie Els. His drive at the 17th finds the hotel gardens and it leads to a double bogey six. He tumbles from the top 10 but has the driveable 18th to come.
Photograph: Russell Cheyne/ReutersA linksland bounce for McIlroy at the 15th. Of the unfortunate variety. He was eyeing his approach with interest, but it caught the side slope of a mound in the green and ricocheted across the green. He’ll be putting for birdie but happy with a safe lag to tap in range.
Email from David Williams: “What’s the furthest you’ve heard of someone travelling to the Open this year?” Interesting one. Everyone here is very aware that there are more Americans around for the 150th and I feel like the crowds are also much more diversely European. I’ve not heard of any huge journeys, but recall a fellow arrived in Carnoustie in 2018 following a cruise from Australia via North America.
Thanks Dave. During the break I headed out onto the course for a little wander and there was plenty of chatter about Tiger Woods. There’s a growing belief that he has some good golf in him because the course is an ideal fit: fast-running links golf leads us back to his Hoylake win of 2006 and the Carnoustie near-comeback in 2018.
Tiger Woods with the claret jug in 2006. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The GuardianMcIlroy sums up the madness of a firm and fast St Andrews. He belts a driver way down the 616-yard par five 14th and then hits a wedge for his second which bounds way over the green and into rough. But some magic in the wrists leaves him a tap-in birdie after a beautiful chip and he’s back to -5.
And on that bombshell, I’ll hand you back to Matt.
Looks as if the wind is picking up. Tiger Woods is currently on the range and his trouser legs are-a-flapping.
Tiger tees off at 2.59pm alongside US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick and American Max Homa, a two-time winner on the PGA Tour this season and an entertaining follow on Twitter.
Some say it’s good luck to finish up an @Elijah_Craig distillery tour having a drink at the Five Brothers Bar with friends and family. And in the words of Michael Scott, I wouldn’t say I’m superstitious, but I am a little stitious pic.twitter.com/jVrdT5Yomp
— max homa (@maxhoma23) July 13, 2022 “I had some putts today that I thought, wow, that’s glass,” said local man Robert MacIntyre after his 2-under 70. The Scot had it to -4 at one stage but suffered on two of the course’s hardest holes, making double bogey at 13 and dropping another shot at 17.
He also tips his hat to playing partner Cameron Young, who leads at 8-under.
Cameron was just absolutely brilliant. He holed some putts, but overall he hardly missed a shot.
The Austrian journalist who feared for his countryman Sepp Straka had it right. A look at the leaderboard and Straka is dead last on +9.
A few other notes: Tony Finau has birdied three of his last four holes to jump from +2 to -1 while Scottie Scheffler is also into red figures after a par-par-birdie start. Five Aussies in the top 18 with Marc Leishman picking up shots at 1 and 3 to go to -2.
A setback for Rory McIlroy at 13 as his high-tariff chip skirts over a greenside bunker after he’d tried to catch a mound above it to deaden the pace. His ball races away across the huge green but a brilliant lag putt limits the damage to a bogey. Take that and move on. Par five coming up next.
Phil Mickelson shot a decent-enough even-par 72 today but he’s been making more news off the course, as Ewan Murray explains.
Bryson DeChambeau was asked after his 3-under 69 if the fast-running course took driver out of his hand.
Yeah, it did, for sure. Even with 3,000 spin on my driver, which I inherently did for this week, I can’t control it in the fairway. So I’ve got to play a 4-iron that can still run 300 yards and have wedges in from there. It does take driver out of play quite a bit.
And even 3-wood on 9 was too much and there’s bunkers that are kind of diabolical. You’ve got to strategise your way around this golf course really well and it’s not simple by any means.
This is about winning a major championship that I have to be strategic out here. There’s no way to bomb and gouge it out this week.
Should we be surprised to see Cameron Young setting the pace? It’s his Open debut but not really.
The American has a habit of starting fast and has been the first-round leader in two of his last six PGA Tour events (the RBC Heritage and the Memorial Tournament). Wind back to May last year and he was the 18-hole leader in back-to-back weeks on the Korn Ferry Tour. As with his opening lap here, Young started both those events with 64s: a good omen perhaps.
The 25-year-old was also tied third on his PGA Championship debut last month so he’s some player.
Cameron Young plays his 2nd shot to the 17th hole. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The GuardianIn-form Xander Schauffele swallowed an annoying bogey at the 1st but the Scottish Open champion has responded well, working his way back up the leaderboard with birdies at 3, 5, 7 and 12. That’s currently good enough for tied eighth.
Schauffele is now heading to the tough 13th where McIlroy hits first, his iron bounding on and on and on before settling in the rough. Schauffele’s drive rolls up to the edge of the very short stuff and he’ll be pleased with that.
1.43pm BST leaderboardCameron Young dribbles his six-foot birdie putt into the hole at 18 and that completes a fantastic 8-under 64. Catch him if you can! Rory’s doing his best and the 2014 Open winner comes within a fraction of holing his eagle putt at 12. Still, a tap-in birdie takes him into tied second.
Here’s the leaderboard:
-8: Young (F)
-5: Smith (F), Els (13), McIlroy (12)
-4: Brown (F), Kitayama (F), Westwood (15)
Rory McIlroy aiming to please his fans. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The GuardianPlenty of the later starters will have been watching the early footage on TV. Although, if you’re 2016 Open winner Henrik Stenson you can just take it in from the balcony. The Swede is now on the course, currently +1 after 3.
Leader Cameron Young (-7) arrives at 18 and drives through the green. Back at 12, McIlroy launches one and it bounds off the mounds and then creeps into shot on the front of the putting surface to give him a shot at eagle. Meanwhile, back-to-back bogeys from Lee Westwood take him alongside McIlroy at -4.
Next on the 1st tee is world No 1 Scottie Scheffler. The Texan was tied eighth on his Open debut last year and is a big fan of links golf.
He’s had quite the year in the majors, winning the US Masters in April and finishing runner-up to Matt Fitzpatrick in last month’s US Open. He warmed up for this week by playing those classic Irish links at Ballybunion and Lahinch.
Scheffler revealed in his interview on Wednesday that he’s an avid YouTube watcher and has been viewing lots of past Opens. That thirst for knowledge worked well at Augusta where ploughing through old Masters footage helped him end the week in a Green Jacket.
Two-time Open champion Ernie Els is rolling back the years. The ‘Big Easy’ cruises into tied second on five under after another gain at the 12th.
Els has a ridiculously good record in this event: wins in 2002 (Muirfield) and Royal Lytham (2012) and a mighty total of 13 top 10s. These days you’ll find him on the Champions Tour and a third place in the Senior Players Championship last week meant he arrived in St Andrews in good heart.
He was runner-up in the 2000 Open at St Andrews but had to settle for tied 34th in 2005, a missed cut in 2010 and tied 65th in 2015.
A controlled, sawn-off iron by McIlroy from the tee at 11, one of just two par threes on the course, will give him another look at birdie. His 15-footer won’t drop though but it’s another safe par ticked off and he stays in a tie for fourth on -4.
Just plotting his route ahead, the par-four 12th is an obvious birdie chance but the 13th is currently the hardest hole on the course, averaging 4.5, half a stroke above its par.
From there, he has the par-five 14th and then the contrasting difficulties of 17 and 18. The Road Hole is the second hardest hole (4.4) while the closer is the second easiest (3.52).
Thanks Matt. I’ll start with the news that Cameron Smith has two-putted the last for birdie after driving the green and that’s a 5-under 67 for the Aussie. He’s the new clubhouse leader, two back from Cameron Young, who smashed a huge drive at 16 but failed to make his birdie.
Birdie for Marcus Armitage at the fourth. He’s one under for the day and on his way to paying for his spending spree earlier this week. With that, I’ll hand back to Dave.