British Open 2019: Live Leaderboard Results for Thursday at Dunluce Course

Shane Lowry entered The Open Championship with four consecutive missed cuts at the tournament.

On Thursday, the Irishman started to put his bad form at the major to rest with a four-under 67 that placed him on top of the leaderboard at the Dunluce Course at Royal Portrush Golf Club.

Lowry leads a group of seven players by one shot, while three others are two shots behind at two-under.

Rickie Fowler and Brooks Koepka are among the players on course in red numbers attempting to chase down Lowry from the latter set of tee times.

Tiger Woods, Justin Rose, Jason Day and Dustin Johnson are a part of the afternoon wave of tee times in Northern Ireland.

The Open Leaderboard

Shane Lowry (-4)

Alex Noren (-3)

Webb Simpson (-3)

Sergio Garcia (-3)

Dylan Frittelli (-3)

Robert MacIntyre (-3)

Kiradech Aphibarnrat (-3)

Jordan Spieth (-3)

Full leaderboard can be found on TheOpen.com.

Although Lowry has had not the best luck at The Open in recent years, he did come into the tournament off a solid string of results.

After missing the cut at The Masters, Lowry put together a trio of top-10 performances, including a tie for eighth at the PGA Championship.

Lowry also landed in a tie for second at the RBC Canadian Open and shot a pair of 69s at Pebble Beach to earn a top-30 finish at the U.S. Open in June.

The 32-year-old recorded two birdies in his first five holes at Royal Portrush and added birdies at No. 9, No. 10 and No. 12 to earn the title of early leader.

Lowry's lone hiccup was a bogey at No. 11, but other than that, he played a consistent round of golf, which is what most golfers are searching for at a tournament where conditions can change in a heartbeat since most of the courses are near the coast.

Webb Simpson and Sergio Garcia are the two previous major champions one shot back of Lowry.

Simpson, who won the 2012 U.S. Open, used a run of five birdies from No. 7 to No. 12 to make his mark on the leaderboard.

Unfortunately, the American slipped up at the end of his round, recording a bogey on each of the final two holes.

Garcia, the 2017 champion at The Masters, took advantage of the middle holes on the course with four birdies in a six-hole stretch. He also carded bogey on one of those holes.

The Spaniard's place near the top of the leaderboard is a bit surprising given his dreadful major form since he put on the green jacket.

The 39-year-old Spaniard missed the cut at seven straight majors before earning a tie for 52nd at the U.S. Open.

Among the less notable names one shot back of Lowry is Scotland's Robert MacIntyre, who has one victory to his name from the Middle East North Africa Tour, as Doug Ferguson of the Associated Press noted:

MacIntyre had one of the more up-and-down rounds of the low scorers, as he had five birdies, four bogeys and an eagle at the par-four fifth.

Thailand's Kiradech Aphibarnrat joined the collection of golfers at three-under with a long birdie putt at the 18th.

Aphibarnrat put in an opposite round compared to MacIntyre, with 15 pars and three birdies.

Not all of the players from the early tee times achieved success Thursday, especially the golfers playing on home soil.

Rory McIlroy experienced a disastrous start, carding a quadruple-bogey at the first hole. He was at three-over through 14 holes.

Graeme McDowell was putting together a solid round, but he stumbled to the finish with two bogeys and a triple-bogey at No. 18.

Of the players on the course, Jordan Spieth is one shot back of Lowry through five holes, while Koepka is two back of the leader after six.

Woods tees off at 10:10 a.m. ET alongside Matt Wallace and Patrick Reed. Jon Rahm, Patrick Cantlay and Matt Kuchar follow him at the first tee at 10:21 a.m. ET.

Follow Joe on Twitter, @JTansey90. Statistics obtained from PGATour.com and TheOpen.com.