Brown leads English contingent at The Open as McIlroy struggles

The 154th Open Championship first-round leaderboard:

-5 J Suber (US), -4 D Brown (Eng), Im (Kor)

-3 T Detry (Bel), R MacIntyre (Sco), F Molinari (Ita), A Smalley (US), B DeChambeau (US), R Gerard (US), MJ Daffue (SA), P Coody (US), C Young (US)

Full leaderboard

English hopes for a first Open winner for 34 years were boosted with eight players under par after the first round - but Masters champion Rory McIlroy ended the day seven shots off the lead.

McIlroy endured a rollercoaster first round at Royal Birkdale which included six bogeys and four birdies in his two-over round of 72.

American Jackson Suber leads the way on five under par, one shot ahead of England's Dan Brown and South Korea's Im Sung-jae.

Sir Nick Faldo was the last English player to win The Open, at Muirfield in 1992. You have to go back to 1969 for the last English winner on English soil - Tony Jacklin at Royal Lytham & St Annes.

When England's hopes of winning the football World Cup were extinguished on Wednesday, it paved the way for the nation's top golfers to take centre stage and lift the mood of the Royal Birkdale crowd on Thursday.

Step forward Brown.

The 31-year-old from Yorkshire shot a four-under 66 early on day one of the 154th Open Championship, as he and Suber, took advantage of scoreable early conditions on the Merseyside links.

"It's only Thursday but hopefully I'm in a sort of similar area on the leaderboard come Sunday," Brown said.

No golfer wins the Open after 18 holes - or any other tournament for that matter - but they sure can put themselves out of contention.

Local hero Tommy Fleetwood, who hails from nearby Southport, did exactly that when Birkdale last hosted the Open in 2017 with an opening round of six over.

This year, Fleetwood was determined to make amends and scrapped to a solid one-under 69 which means he has plenty to build on over the next three days.

Six other Englishman - Jordan Smith, Matt Wallace, Laurie Canter, Alex Fitzpatrick, Matthew Southgate, Tyrrell Hatton - also shot under par in a strong showing from the home contingent.

But Matt Fitzpatrick, who was one of the pre-Open favourites, finished two over after a difficult evening in the tougher, windier conditions.

Northern Ireland's McIlroy played alongside his European Ryder Cup team-mate as the pair toiled late on a baking day, although he did finish positively with a birdie on the 18th.

Fitzpatrick and McIlroy must improve to ensure they make the weekend cut but they will go out early on Friday in more benign conditions, with stronger winds forecast to blow through the afternoon.

Suber, 26, had never even been to Europe before arriving for The Open and all of the previous 27 holes he had ever played on a links course came this week at Birkdale.

Scotland's Robert MacIntyre is two shots behind Suber and joined in a large pack on three under, which includes two-time major winner Bryson DeChambeau and Italian veteran Francesco Molinari, who won this title at Carnoustie in 2018.

Each time the Open returns to England, the history books are reopened to remind how long it has been since an English golfer lifted the Claret Jug on home soil.

You have to go all the way back in 1969. Tony Jacklin wowed the home fans at Royal Lytham and, since then, it has been 57 years of relative hurt.

Faldo has been an English winner - three times, of course - but all of his victories came in Scotland.

There is plenty of evidence to suggest an Englishman can finally buck the trend at Birkdale.

World number three Matt Fitzpatrick has been picked out by many people as the man who can, having won three times on the PGA Tour this year and finished in a tie for third place on the links at last week's Scottish Open.

Fleetwood has been backed by heads as well as hearts, with veteran Justin Rose and US PGA Championship winner Aaron Rai also seen as pre-tournament contenders.

What about 31-year-old Brown? There is often more talk about his colourful character than his game.

The son of a Yorkshire pig farmer, Brown smokes on the course - although is being extremely vigilant not to cause a fire-risk at Birkdale - and is covered in tattoos.

More recently, Brown has been showing on social media how much he has been enjoying playing on the US-based PGA Tour - and using his free time to swim in the South Carolina sea with a rubber ring and explore Dallas wearing a Stenson hat.

On the course, Brown has not been enjoying himself so much. He has missed the cut at each of his past four tournaments.

But he has returned to the Open with the confidence of knowing he has performed well before.

At Troon two years ago, Brown sensationally took the lead in fading light on day one and eventually finished in a tie for 10th place.

Asked what he had learned from that experience, he said: "Basically just the fact I feel like I can compete in a major and in an Open Championship.

"I feel like I'm a better player now to what I was back then two years ago. Let's see what happens."

There would not be a more popular winner at Birkdale this week than 35-year-old Fleetwood.

He is the kid who grew up playing at nearby Formby Hall, scampered over the fence a few times to get onto the course which he dreamed of playing, and still talks with the same accent as the thousands cheering him around on Thursday.

"Playing an Open at Birkdale is a dream," Fleetwood told BBC Sport.

"Stepping onto the first tee is a very special experience at an Open in Southport for me. I was pretty nervous, to be honest."

Thursday was all about Fleetwood staying composed amid the emotion and not blowing his chances after just 18 holes - like he did in 2017.

Backed by packed galleries on each hole, Fleetwood had to scrap and survive.

Sinking an early birdie on the fifth got the crowd going but starting the back half with bogeys on 10 and 12 threatened to deflate the mood.

Fleetwood looked slightly tentative with approaches, perhaps wary of Birkdale biting back and shattering his dreams.

When he did swing with more conviction - from the tee of the recently-constructed par-three 15th - it set up a birdie putt which he holed in front of the biggest gallery on the course.

The roar reverberated and Fleetwood flourished further. Another birdie on the 17th ensured he finished under par and within touching distance of the leaders.

"I scrambled really well. I felt like the crowd really helped me," said Fleetwood.

"They definitely carried me a little bit through that patch and 15 was a really cool moment. It was nice to get that great finish."

McIlroy has not been in prime form since retaining the Green Jacket at Augusta in April and said he had things to "rectify" in his game after finishing five shots behind South Korea's Tom Kim at last week's Scottish Open.

As he began his bid to win two majors in the same season for the first time since 2014, McIlroy lurched from the sublime off the tee to the ridiculous on the green.

The 37-year-old from Northern Ireland drove the ball superbly, but struggled on the greens which were a little bumpy given all the foot traffic that had gone before him.

McIlroy's birdie on the last left him seven shots off the lead - the same first-round deficit which he overturned on his way to winning the 2025 Masters and finally completing the career Grand Slam.

However, each of the past 26 Open champions have been within five shots of the lead after round one.

"[I'm] not too far away," said a bullish McIlroy afterwards.

"Hopefully we'll get the better conditions [on Thursday] and maybe the greens are a little bit smoother in the morning.

"Go out there and shoot a good one and get myself right back in it for the weekend."

McIlroy's travails with the putter started on the fourth when he was unable to get up and down on the par three, then two-putted from inside four feet at the seventh to leave him two over.

He missed a three-footer at the eighth for birdie, but finally holed a birdie putt on the par-four ninth after driving the green to finish one over at the turn.

Back-to-back bogeys at the start of the back nine pushed him further down the leaderboard before he dropped a 24-footer at the 13th.

Ultimately, McIlroy finishing 148th in the putting strokes gained statistics - with only eight players worse in the field - illustrated where it had gone wrong.

"I just made too many stupid mistakes. But every time I made a stupid mistake, thankfully I made a birdie to sort of keep myself in it."