The first round of the 154th Open Championship got underway when Matt Baldwin hit the opening tee shot. Baldwin, making his 300th start on the DP World Tour, lives five miles away from Royal Birkdale; this venue also happens to be his home course.
Baldwin has played in The Open Championship three other times, only making the cut in 2012 at Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club. Baldwin was one of the top amateur golfers in England growing up, even pairing with fellow Englishman Tommy Fleetwood in events.
Fleetwood said, “Matt was arguably the best player in England at the time, and he was my foursomes partner. Matt was somebody I looked up to a lot as a junior golfer, amateur golfer, very good golfer in the area. I’ve known him for a long time.”
Jackson Suber is the leader heading into the second round after a first round of 65 (-5) in his first Open Championship appearance. This season, Suber has been playing solid golf with three top-6 finishes or better in his last six starts. His best chance at a win came a month ago at the RBC Canadian Open when he entered the final round with a one-stroke lead. A final round of even par saw him slide down the leaderboard to finish T4, but the finish qualified him for The Open Championship. Just two weeks ago, he finished T6 at the John Deere Classic after shooting four rounds in the 60s.
Suber is looking to become the 11th player to win the Open Championship in their debut and first since Collin Morikawa did so in the 2021 Open Championship. If Suber goes on to win, he will earn his first PGA Tour victory as well. The last person to do that at a major was Matt Fitzpatrick at the 2022 U.S. Open.
In his run to win back-to-back Open Championships, Scottie Scheffler opened with a round of 68 (-2). Last week’s winner Tom Kim shot a round of even par in his quest to win two in a row.
All three major champion winners from this season shot over par rounds. 2026 U.S. Open winner Wyndham Clark shot 73 (+3), 2026 PGA Championship winner Aaron Rai shot 71 (+1) and 2026 Masters Champion winner Rory McIlroy shot 72 (+2) and will need to come from behind for a second major win this season.
Round two tee times start at 1:35am ET with John Parry, Eric Cole and Tiger Christensen in the first pairing.
