The Open Championship 2021: Round 1 Leaderboard, Projected Cut Line, Friday Tee Times
Louis Oosthuizen leads The Open Championship after the first round at Royal St. George, but the tournament is all but over for this year's PGA Championship winner Phil Mickelson.
Oosthuizen, whose only major win came at The Open 11 years ago, carded a six-under par 64 on Thursday in Sandwich, in the south-east of England.
The South African's triumph at The Open in 2010 was only the second time he made the cut since turning professional six years earlier.
Oosthuizen has consistently been in contention ever since, but a major has continued to elude him and he has finished as runner-up six times, most recently at the PGA Championship in May and at the U.S. Open in June.
The South African, however, remains unfazed by his near-misses.
"I think in both [the U.S. Open and PGA Championship] I was beaten by better golf at the end there," he told reporters after his first round.
"You have to get over it quickly, otherwise it's going to hold you back to perform again. Once the week starts, I need to get that out of my mind and just focus on every shot."
Looking for his first major win since triumphing at The Open in 2017, Jordan Spieth finished a shot behind Oosthuizen at 5-under par along with Brian Harman.
"The path that I'm on and where I've been before in the game, I feel really good about my chances going forward," Spieth told The Guardian on Thursday.
"As good as they have been historically."
Another South African, Dylan Frittelli, is sitting a shot further adrift, along with Canada's Mackenzie Hughes, France's Benjamin Hebert, Stewart Cink and Webb Simpson.
Justin Rose, Danny Willett, Tommy Fleetwood, Andy Sullivan and Jack Senior gave English fans something to cheer about as they finished at -3, while world No. 1 Dustin Johnson finished at 2-under.
There was less positive news for Rory McIlroy, who finished at even par after his putting game deserted him at crucial junctures in the first round, while reigning U.S. Open champion and pre-tournament favourite Jon Rahm is a shot further adrift along with defending champion Shane Lowry and Bryson DeChambeau.
The latter had plenty to say about his Cobra driver.
"If I can hit it down the middle of the fairway that's great but, with the driver right now, the driver sucks," he complained.
"I'm living on the razor's edge like I've told people for a long time."
The manufacturer swiftly hit back.
"Everybody is bending over backwards. [...] Bryson knows it. It's just really, really painful when he says something that stupid," Cobra's tour operations manager, Ben Schomin told Golf Weekly.
Mickelson, meanwhile, is on track to miss the cut at The Open for the second consecutive tournament after carding a 10-over par 80, the joint-worst score of a horrific first round, which included eight bogeys and a double bogeys.
Here's all you need to know about the second round on Friday.
The Open Round 1 Leaderboard
- Louis Oosthuizen -6
- Jordan Spieth, Brian Harman -5
- Mackenzie Hughes, Dylan Frittelli, Stewart Cink, Benjamin Hebert, Webb Simpson -4
Round 2 Selected Tee Times (All Times ET)
- 2:52 a.m.—Tony Finau, Billy Horschel, Adam Hadwin
- 3:03 a.m.—Patrick Cantlay, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Ryan Fox
- 3:25 a.m.—Collin Morikawa, Corey Conners, Sebastian Munoz
- 4:25 a.m.—Webb Simpson, Russell Henley, Shaun Norris
- 4:47 a.m.—Phil Mickelson, Tyrrell Hatton, Kevin Kisner
- 4:58 a.m.—Xander Schauffele, Robert MacIntyre, Rickie Fowler
- 5:09 a.m.—Justin Thomas, Tommy Fleetwood, Adam Scott
- 5:20 a.m.—Rory McIlroy, Patrick Reed, Cameron Smith
- 7:53 a.m.—Paul Casey, Abraham Ancer, Ian Poulter
- 8:04 a.m.—Brooks Koepka, Jason Kokrak, Garrick Higgo
- 9:26 a.m.—Jordan Spieth, Bryson DeChambeau, Branden Grace
- 9:37 a.m.—Brian Harman, Mackenzie Hughes, Dylan Frittelli
- 9:59 a.m.—Shane Lowry, Jon Rahm, Louis Oosthuizen
- 10:21 a.m.—Dustin Johnson, Will Zalatoris, Justin Rose
Projected Cut Line
The top 70 players on the leaderboard after 36 holes automatically qualify for the final rounds at The Open, which has the joint-least severe cut rule of all the four majors.
The top 70 players and ties after the first round also qualify for the final two rounds at the PGA Championship, while only the top 60 players plus and the top 50 players plus ties progress to the final two rounds at the U.S. Open and The Masters respectively.
In practical terms, that means this year's 156-player field will be almost halved come the end of the second round on Friday evening.
The cut line is currently projected to be even par, with 73 players currently on track to make the cut at the of the end of the second round.
Several high profile players are in danger of missing the cut, including reigning U.S. Open champion Jon Rahm who is 1-over par as are Bryson DeChambeau and reigning Open champion Shane Lowry.
Justin Thomas is 2-over par, while Phil Mickelson, winner of the PGA Championship earlier this year, will almost certainly miss the cut after ending the first round at 10-over par.
