British Open 2012 Leaderboard: Live Analysis of Round 1 Highlights

By the time most of America woke up on Thursday morning, many of the PGA Tour's biggest names were nearly finished with the first round at the British Open.

And many of those Americans were thrilled to see Tiger Woods' name near the top of the leaderboard. 

However, it's still too early to determine Tiger's true chances of winning his first major since 2008. As we've seen recently, you can't make that kind of an assessment until Tiger's final hole of the third round, at the earliest. But one day in, there's still hope for him—which is more than we can say for his performance at some of this year's toughest tests.

Here's a look at some of the early highlights from the first round of this year's British Open. You can see the full leaderboard on The Open's website here.

Tiger Woods

From the outset, Tiger looked good on Thursday. He was accurate. He was dominating the fairways. His short game wasn't perfect, but it was good enough to put him at three-under through 15. 

Maybe he was buoyed by some early confidence after beginning his day with a birdie on the first hole. He compounded on that early momentum by birdying the fourth, sixth and seventh as well, and with only one bogey through 15, he remained just three shots off Adam Scott's lead in a four-way tie for fifth.

It's hard to avoid getting excited, particularly since Tiger's early dominance is a good sign. Ever since imploding at the Masters a couple of months ago, Tiger has looked better and better at this year's majors, and Thursday's early performance suggests nothing different. 

Adam Scott

Considering Scott has never won a major, it's not all that surprising that he's the early leader at Royal Lytham. The last nine major champions have been first-time winners, and by that logic, Scott was one of the favorites even before play began on Thursday.

Scott finished the first round with a one-shot lead over Paul Lawrie and Zach Johnson, standing strong at six-under. He didn't start off dominantly as Tiger, but it didn't take him long to catch up: After parring the first two holes and bogeying the third, he birdied three of the final six holes on the front nine—including the seventh, which served as his turning point—and birdied five of six on the back nine.

Scott didn't end on such a strong note, bogeying No. 18, but with a 64 in the first round, he can't be too concerned. For the first time ever at a major, he stands to finish a round as the leader.

Bubba Watson

Did anyone really expect Watson to be in the running after the first round at The Open, especially considering the way he started off his last major? At the U.S. Open a month ago, grouped with Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods, he shot a 78 in the first round to all but assure the world that he'd miss the cut.

That wasn't the case on Thursday at Royal Lytham, where he was three-under and tied for fifth through 17. He was certainly stronger in the early going, tallying three birdies on the front nine and just one (thus far) on the back, but he has to be pleased with his early performance. For Watson, it's all about starting off strong, like he did at the Masters, when he shot a first-round 69. And we all know how the Masters ended.