British Open Leaderboard 2025 Review of Top Scorecards and Player Stats on Day 1

Five golfers are on top of The Open Championship leaderboard after one round of play at Royal Portrush.

Matthew Fitzpatrick, Harris English, Jacob Skov Olesen, Haotong Li and Christaan Bezuidenhout all sit at four-under.

Most members of the quintet turned in consistent rounds with few bogeys. English was the lone exception to that. He had the most bogeys among the five leaders.

Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and a handful of other notable players are lingering right beneath the leaders.

The congested leaderboard and sometimes unpredictable conditions on the Northern Ireland coast has the potential to give us a completely different list of leaders after 36 holes.

British Open Leaderboard

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Matthew Fitzpatrick (-4)

Harris English (-4)

Jacob Skov Olesen (-4)

Haotong Li (-4)

Christiaan Bezuidenout (-4)

Scottie Scheffler (-3)

Matthew Jordan (-3)

Tyrrell Hatton (-3)

Sadom Kaewkanjana (-3)

Full leaderboard can be found here on the tournament website.

Harris English, Matthew Fitzpatrick Among Five Leaders

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Harris English and Matthew Fitzpatrick headline the group of five leaders.

English and Jacob Skov Olesen were the only members of the group to reach five-under at some point of their respective rounds.

English got to five-under after a birdie on the 12th hole, but he gave that shot back two holes later at the par-four 14th.

The American rolled in a total of seven birdies during his round, but a trio of bogeys kept him from running away from the field.

Fitzpatrick had a much cleaner scorecard with three birdies, one eagle and a single bogey. The eagle and bogey occurred right after each other on the second and third holes.

Fitzpatrick progressively got up to four-under over the final 15 holes.

Olesen, Haotong Li and Christaan Bezuidenhout got to the five-way tie at the top with consistent rounds. None of the three players had more than two bogeys in their rounds.

Scottie Scheffler Lingering One Shot Back

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Scottie Scheffler is lingering one shot behind the leaders after 18 holes.

Scheffler made a late surge with birdies on the 17th and 18th holes to finish at three-under for the round.

The consecutive birdies were a welcome sight for Scheffler, who gave two shots back to the course at the ninth and 11th holes.

Without the late birdies, Scheffler would be in decent shape, but the two gained strokes put him in a great spot to chase the lead on Friday.

Scheffler hasn't won the Claret Jug yet, but he has four top-25 finishes in his Open career, including a pair of top-10 placings, so the expectation is that he'll be around the top 10 come Sunday.

Rory McIlroy Rebounds to Finish Under Par

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Rory McIlroy went through his share of struggles on the back nine.

The Northern Irishman carded bogeys on the 11th, 12th and 14th holes to take him out of first-round leader contention.

Prior to those holes, the 2025 Masters champion sat at three-under thanks a two-under front nine and a birdie on the 10th hole.

McIlroy bounced back at the end of his round with three pars and a birdie at the par-four 17th that got him back into red numbers.

Like Scheffler, McIlroy resides in a strong spot to pounce on Friday, but to do so, he has to clean up the errors he had on Thursday.