The Open 2025 live: Latest leaderboard and scores with Rory McIlroy out early in second round at Royal Portrush – UK Times

It’s tough out there early on, Fowler has dropped one and moves back to -1 overall after three holes.

While Zach Johnson and Sergio Garcia, both +1 today and E overall, have work to do if they want to sprint up the leaderboard before the late starters get underway. Amateur Ethan Fang is -2 today though, and +2 overall, an impressive start from the American.

Though Adam Scott will be disappointed with his +2 through three start, he’s +3 overall and in danger of missing the weekend after contending for the US Open earlier this summer.

Leaderboard: -4: English, Bezuidenhout, Olesen JS, Li, Fitzpatrick; -3: Jordan, Scheffler, Kaewkanjana, Hatton

Small chance of drizzly showers at times, before scattered showers develop.

Wind: S or SE 10-13 gust 14-18 mph, becoming S or SW 8-12 gust 12-16 mph

Scattered showers around the area, small chance of becoming heavy at times

Wind: S or SW 8-12 gust 12-16 mph, soon changing W. Perhaps variable 3-5 mph for a time, then changing to N or NW 5-10 gust 10-15 mph by 1800hrs

See the full forecast for Friday evening and the weekend below:

Daniel Hillier and Marc Leishman are both in the red this morning and one-under for their second rounds. The former is back to -1 overall and has shot up 12 places to T-20, while the latter, now with LIV Golf, has leaped 27 spots to T-43 and is +1 overall.

Rickie Fowler is among the very early starters this morning, with the American level through one after posting a two-under-par round of 69 yesterday.

Fowler’s best finish in the Open Championship is tied-second in 2014, when he was two strokes behind Rory McIlroy at Royal Liverpool. He also holds a T-5 from 2011 and T-6 in 2019.

Leaderboard: -4: English, Bezuidenhout, Olesen JS, Li, Fitzpatrick; -3: Jordan, Scheffler, Kaewkanjana, Hatton

“It’s just a matter of perspective, and I’ve had some players come up to me and say that they feel and think the same things,” the American said.

“If anybody has disagreed with me, they haven’t said it to my face yet, so I don’t know what the reaction would be.

“I think I try to be as honest as I can with you, with the stuff that I’m willing to kind of say,” the 29-year-old said.

“At times I feel like maybe I should be a little less honest. Maybe I shouldn’t have said the stuff I said because now I’m going to get asked about it more.”

“It feels like you work your whole life to celebrate winning a tournament for a few minutes – it only lasts a few minutes, that euphoric feeling,” said the 29-year-old. “To win the Byron Nelson Championship at home [in Texas], I literally worked my entire life to become good at golf, to have an opportunity to win that tournament. And you win it, get to celebrate, hug my family, my sisters are there, it’s such an amazing moment. And it’s like: ‘OK, now, what are we going to eat for dinner?’ Life goes on.

“What’s the point? Why do I want to win this tournament so bad? That’s something that I wrestle with on a daily basis. Showing up at the Masters every year, it’s like: why do I want to win this golf tournament so badly? Why do I want to win the Open Championship so badly? I don’t know. Because if I win, it’s going to be awesome for two minutes. Then we’re going to get to the next week and it’s: ‘Hey, you won two majors this year, how important is it for you to win the FedExCup play-offs?’ And we’re back here again.”

“Obviously I felt like The Players was a pretty low point,” said Fitzpatrick of missing the cut at Sawgrass in March.

“That’s the lowest I’ve felt in my career. Statistically it could be the worst run that I’ve played as well. I just didn’t feel good or know where it was going.

“It was really bad and even Valero, kind of a couple of weeks later, I couldn’t find the face with the ball. It was just not good.

“Today I just felt like I did everything well. Just drove it well, approach play was good and chipped and putted well. It was just an all-around good day.”

“I feel the support of an entire country out there, which is a wonderful position to be in, but at the same time, you don’t want to let them down so there’s that little bit of added pressure,” McIlroy said.

“I felt like I dealt with it really well today. I certainly dealt with it better than I did six years ago.

“I was just happy to get off to a good start and get myself into the tournament.

“I’m surprised four under is leading. I thought someone might have gone out there and shot six or seven (under) today.

“Only three back with 54 holes to go, I’m really happy with where I am.”

06:35 Stewart Cink (USA), Marc Leishman (Aus), Matteo Manassero (Ita)

06:46 (a) Connor Graham, Francesco Molinari (Ita), Jesper Svensson (Swe)

07:08 (a) Ethan Fang (USA), Rickie Fowler (USA), Adam Scott (Aus)

08:25 Daniel Berger (USA), Keegan Bradley (USA), Sung-Jae Im (Kor)

08:36 Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa), Rasmus Hoejgaard (Den), Romain Langasque (Fra)

08:47 Harry Hall, Aaron Rai, Sahith Theegala (USA)

09:25 Brian Harman (USA), Maverick McNealy (USA), Joaquin Niemann (Chi)

09:36 Tyrrell Hatton, Russell Henley (USA), Min-Woo Lee (Aus)

09:47 Bryson DeChambeau (USA), Robert MacIntyre, Justin Rose

09:58 Ludvig Aaberg (Swe), Viktor Hovland (Nor), Jordan Spieth (USA)

10:09 Tommy Fleetwood, Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas (USA)

“Yeah, I think that’s the highlight of the day, bogey-free for sure. Doesn’t take much on a links course, one little kind of bounce, one bunker, one something, you can kind of easily rack up a bogey.

“Yeah, I felt like the golf course was — felt a bit scorable in the middle part of my round. I felt like the weather was kind of favourable at that point. It was quite warm. It was windy without being too windy.

“I don’t know if it was because it was 9:00 at night, but the last couple hours just felt like getting it into the house. It got a bit blustery, definitely got a bit trickier coming in, so happy to keep my concentration and get it in.”