Show only key events Please enable JavaScript to use this feature How about a left handed winner this year? History says no. Surprisingly, Bob Charles in 1963 (Royal Lytham) and Phil Mickelson (2013) are the only southpaws to have their names inscribed on the Claret Jug. This is not Wimbledon or Augusta National where left-handers won six of the 12 editions from 2003 to 2014. There are four lefties in the field this week: Mickelson, local Robert MacIntyre, American Brian Harman and South African Garrick Higgo. All four are already off the course and MacIntyre (2) and Harman (1) have both made early runs to sit at -1. Mickelson is tied after five games in a row while Higgo +2 after 6.
Early leaderboard
Simpson makes a careless bogey in 10th and that means the leaderboard is packed. -2: Simpson (10), Brown (9), Herbert (5), Tringale (3)-1: Wu (8), Poulter (6), M Kim (5), Kitayama (5), Hoge (4) , J Kim (4), Smith (3), Young (2), MacIntyre (2), Horschel (1) Updated at 09:00 BST John Daly, wearing the now familiar Father Christmas beard, started the par-bogey-par. The “Wild Thing” has to hold the weirdest major record in men’s golf. In 76 starts, he has just three top 10s but two of those are wins! That includes his memorable victory at St Andrews in 1995, when he rallied to win a playoff after watching in ashes as Costantino Rocca holed a miraculous long-range birdie from the ‘Valley of Sin’ to equalise. Daly hasn’t made the cut at an Open since 2012. John Daly shuts down the 3rd. Photo: Richard Sellers/PA Updated at 08.59 BST Cameron Tringale, the first-round leader at last week’s Scottish Open (finished sixth), has made another bright start. Birdies at 1 and 3 have moved the Californian to -2 and one shot behind Simpson. Tringale has yet to win on the PGA Tour, so this would seem an unlikely place to earn that elusive first victory. He was tied for 26th at last year’s Open at Royal St George’s and tied for 14th at last month’s US Open (his best major finish), so perhaps the 34-year-old can be near the top of the leaderboard this week. Captain Webb Simpson drops a shot at 8 but bounces back with a birdie at 9 to get back to -3. That’s a half out of 33 and a shot away from Australia’s Lucas Herbert, who has taken shots at 2 and 4. Forget Reid, the leader in the hat stakes is English amateur Barclay Brown, who sounds like an English character actor from the Terry-Thomas era. A member of last year’s British and Irish Walker Cup team, Brown made an excellent start: six pars and a birdie at 7 to sit tied for third. Bryson DeChambeau’s ‘drive a load of par 4s’ strategy takes an early hit as he bogeys one of his target holes, the 2nd. Perhaps the message is sinking in that it’s not that simple as he pulls an iron off the tee at just the 3rd. Meanwhile, the other big winner, Patrick Reed, moved to 3rd place to move to -1. Reed is another one of those who will sign up for LIV. And in case anyone doesn’t know, he’s wearing a LIV golf cap.
Justin Rose retires
Justin Rose, runner-up at Carnoustie in 2018, has dropped out. The Englishman was seen warming up but does not appear for the time of 08.14. This is a real shame. Rose has shown good form this season, finishing fourth at the Canadian Open three starts ago. And, of course, we all remember how he first rose to fame in this event when he finished fourth as a lanky teenage amateur at Royal Birkdale in 1998. Rose was also sixth at the last St Andrews Open in 2015 and finished second at Carnoustie four years ago. Justin Rose during practice on Wednesday. Photo: David Davies/PA Updated at 08.35 BST Another birdie for Webb Simpson, this time on 7, and the 36-year-old moves to -3. That’s good enough for a two-shot lead. The American seems to like the fast start in this event. He was third on day one at Royal Portrush in 2019 and shot a 66 to find himself fourth after the first round at Royal St George’s last year. For all the talk of a low score, the field is a collective +4 over par. These pin placements help explain why. It is also quite cold. Some big names are starting to leave and Bryson DeChambeau almost holes his approach on the 1st for eagle, his ball sucks back and he just couldn’t get the cup. The potential eagle makes par as he correctly pushes his short birdie. DeChambeau claimed earlier this week that he thinks he has a chance to drive the par 4s at 2, 3, 7, 9, 10 and 12. Surprisingly, he didn’t say 18. We’ll see if he can walk and what good that does for him. strategy. Not the warmest welcome for Ian Poulter on the 1st blues earlier. Some disapproval in fact. Hard to think the Englishman would feel shy, but he almost stuck his first tee out of bounds, which goes for the widest fairway in golf. Courteous applause for Phil Mickelson though and the six-time major champion/LIV shame finds the right side of the road. He makes par, as does Poulter. A sense of how far out Poulter’s tee shot went left on the first. Photo: Kevin C Cox/Getty Images Updated at 08.22 BST
Preamble
Links golf is all about dealing with bad breaks. But imagine being Rory McIlroy after finishing third in the 2010 Open at St Andrews and being told you won’t be competing for another Claret Jug at the Home of Golf until 2022 because of breaking your foot playing football and a global pandemic. But here we are 12 years later and Rory finally has another chance to make history and do what so many of the greats have done: win an Open at St Andrews. This is the 150th edition of the world’s oldest championship and the 30th at St Andrews. Tom Kidd won £11 to win the first to be held here in 1873, while this year’s champion is on $2.5 million. A scrolling memory lane down St Andrews shows a timeline of great champions: Bobby Jones 1927, Sam Snead 1946, Peter Thomson 1955, Bobby Locke 1957, Jack Nicklaus 1970 and 1978, Seve Ballesteros 1984, 2009, Nick . and, um, Zach Johnson in 2015. Bookmakers believe “Rory McIlroy 2022” is the next entry, but there is an all-star cast of other ideas bidding to be crowned “Champion Golfer of the Year” on Sunday. Here are the tee times for the first round – all-time BST 06.35 Paul Lawrie, Webb Simpson, Min Woo Lee06.46 Sadom Kaewkanjana, Ben Campbell, Barclay Brown06.57 Dean Burmester, Chan Kim, Brandon Wu07.08 Ian Poulter, Jamie Donaldson, Guido Migliozzi07.19 Phil Mickelson, K. 0.30 Lucas Herbert, Kurt Kitayama07,41 Patrick Reed, Tom Hoge, JooHyung Kim07,52 John Daly, Bryson DeChambeau, Cameron Tringale08,03 Cameron Smith, Brooks Koepka, Seamus Power08,14, Justin Rosy Molinetari 0,25 Cameron Young, Kyoung Hoon Lee , Robert MacIntyre08,36 Zach Johnson, Billy Horschel, Corey Conners08,47 Brian Harman, Pablo Larrazabal, Danny Willett09,03 Stephen Dodd, JT Poston, Lee Westwood09,14 Seppa, Justin, De Los Santos09,25 Ernie Els, Adri Arnaus, Brad Kennedy09,36 Mackenzie Hughes, Scott Vincent, Victor Perez09,47 Jason Kokrak, Nicolai Hojgaard, Sihwan Kim09,58 Collin Morikawa, Rory McIlroy9, Justelene Xander. , Victor Hovland10.20 Will Zalatoris, Hidek i Matsuyama, Tony Finau10,31 Kevin Kisner, Chris Kirk, Takumi Kanaya10,42 Dylan Frittelli, Trey Mullinax, Matthew Jordan10,53 Anthony Quayle, Zander Lombard, John Parry11,04 Thomas Detry, Richard Mansell, Marco5 Pengejor11. Oliver Farr, Matt Ford11,36 Mark Calcavecchia, Ryan Fox, Jediah Morgan11,47 Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Bernd Wiesberger, Sam Bairstow11,58 Adrian Meronk, Haotong Li, Marcus Armitage12,09 Thriston Lawrence, Fabriseo Zangot12, Fabrisea Si Woo Kim, Sam Horsfield120 ,31 Talor Gooch, Shaun Norris, Wyndham Clark12,42 Henrik Stenson, Russell Henley, Aldrich Potgieter12,53 Stewart Cink, Sergio Garcia, Aaron Jarvis13,04 Sungjae Im, Paul Woodstin G33, Paul Dooland 13,3. , Adam Scott, Marc Leishman13,26 Scottie Scheffler, Joaquin Niemann, Tyrrell Hatton13,37 Darren Clarke, Richard Bland, Filippo Celli13,48 Kevin Na, Kazuki Higa, Erik van Rooyen14,04 David Duval, Justin Harding 5 Shugo Smith1 Imahira, Jason Scrivener, David Law14. 26 Abraham Ancer, Yuto Katsuragawa, Emiliano Grillo14,37 Louis Oosthuizen, Harris English, Keita Nakajima14,48 Padraig Harrington, Thomas Pieters, Keith Mitchell14,49 Tiger Woods, Matt Fitzpatrick, Max Homa Haring, Jordan III, 15,10 .21 Patrick Candley, Sam Burns, Mito Pereira 15.32 Keegan Bradley, Sebastian Munoz, Sahith Thegala15.43 Lori Kanter, Dimitrios Papadatos, Matthew Griffin15.54 John Catlin, Jamie Rutherford, David Carey 16.05 Jack Vanjelj, Lars Dinwiddie16. Floydd, Ronan Mullarney It’s just under 90 minutes from 1999 Open champion Paul Lawrie – using a yellow ball! – hit the opening shot of this 150th Open Championship. Very few birdies so far with the pins hidden, although Lowry’s partner, 2012 US Open champion Webb Simpson, has hit reds at 1 and 5 and leads at -2. Lawrie bogeyed hard at the 4th to slip to +3, but bounced back with a birdie at the 5th. Your early leaderboard: -2: Simpson (5) -4: Burmester (3), M Kim (2)
