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Thursday rundown: Takeaways from Round 1 at The Open

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The Open has returned for the 150th playing of the historic event, seven long years since St. Andrews last saw major championship golf.

TheScore will be providing takeaways for all the action throughout the opening round on Thursday, as the final major of the year gets underway.

False start for Tiger

It's hard to envision a worse start to the 150th Open Championship than the one Tiger Woods had on Thursday. He striped his drive off the first tee only to find it resting in a sand-filled divot. Woods couldn't carry the water in front of the green and watched his ball bound into the burn - the first player in the field to do so.

Woods compounded that error, badly missing a three-footer for bogey to head to the second tee already 11 shots off the lead. He would scatter two more bogeys and a double over the next seven holes before a birdie at No. 9 saw him post 5-over 41 for the outward stretch.

The 15-time major champion stopped the bleeding but was unable to make up any ground on the closing stretch before signing for a 6-over 78. Woods entered the week with a 74.9 scoring average on the year in nine rounds - including his two rounds last week at the J.P. McManus Pro-Am in Ireland - and that will only increase after Thursday's performance.

Woods playing major championship golf at all is a wonder at this point, but if he can't contend at St. Andrews, it's tough to envision him excelling on any course going forward.

Cameron Young untouchable

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Young is in the midst of a fantastic rookie season on the PGA TOUR, and for the second time in three major events, he's shown he's up for the test.

Young, who finished third in May's PGA Championship after holding the lead late on Sunday, played flawless golf at the Old Course, making eight birdies with no bogeys to finish with a sizzling 64 for the lead. His approach game was particularly strong on Thursday, with seven of his eight birdies coming on putts of less than 10 feet.

The Wake Forest alum has been solid all year, with only 15 players ahead of him on TOUR in strokes gained: total. He became just the 10th player since 2005 to hit all 18 greens in regulation at an Open Championship played at St. Andrews. That's a stat that bodes well for him to back up Thursday's round with more strong play on Friday afternoon.

Rory's opening-round heater continues

After years of struggling with opening-round scoring in majors, Rory McIlroy has set himself up for success for the third straight event. The four-time major champion showed off his brilliant all-around game with seven birdies on the Old Course en route to a 6-under 66.

His 16th round of 66 or better in a major championship moves him one ahead of Jordan Spieth for the most by any player since 2007. In his last 11 rounds of major championship golf, McIlroy has been inside the top 10 a whopping 10 times, as well as in the top five after seven of those rounds.

McIlroy famously missed out on the chance to defend his Open Championship at St. Andrews in 2015 after injuring his ankle playing soccer with his friends. His only other professional appearance in an Open at the Old Course saw him finish third as a 21-year-old in 2010 after opening with an outrageous 9-under 63.

While his 66 wasn't quite that low, it appears the 12-year absence of Open Championship golf at St. Andrews didn't hurt the 33-year-old whatsoever.

LIV-ely group in contention

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Greg Norman may have been asked to stay away from The Open, but there's still a strong LIV Golf presence at St. Andrews through 18 holes. Dustin Johnson, Lee Westwood, and Talor Gooch are all in a group tied for fourth at 4-under, while Bryson DeChambeau and Ian Poulter sit at 3-under.

Johnson's no stranger to a top-10 place on an Open Championship leaderboard, as the 38-year-old has finished inside that spot in four of his 12 previous starts in the event. He's shaping up to be the LIV member that's best equipped to make a run at the Claret Jug as the tournament continues.

It wasn't all good for the LIV bunch on Thursday, however, as several fans made their feelings known to Poulter before his opening tee shot. A smattering of boos was heard during the Englishman's introduction, which he followed by snap-hooking his drive mere feet from the out-of-bounds marker. Poulter would recover to post 3-under, buoyed by an outrageous 160-foot putt for eagle on the ninth.

Scottie once again in the mix

Despite holding the No. 1 spot in the OWGR and the green jacket as Masters champion, Scottie Scheffler admitted this week that he doesn't necessarily feel like he's viewed as the top threat at a tournament.

"I guess it's good. I guess I am No. 1 in the rankings," Scheffler said Wednesday. "I'm not sure if I'm necessarily perceived that way by you all or whoever it is, but that's not stuff that I really ever think about. For me, I'm just trying to go out and play good golf."

Scheffler took a big step towards making it even more impossible to overlook him, as his 4-under 68 puts him in a tie for fourth after 18 holes. His score also matched the lowest of the afternoon wave when conditions were significantly worse than the morning action.

If Scheffler can narrow the gap with a morning tee time on Friday, he will be in prime position to become just the fifth ever player to win five events, including the Masters and Open Championship, in the same season.

Is major Brooks a thing of the past?

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It's probably a safe bet that Brooks Koepka won't be adding more hardware this week to his already-brimming trophy case.

The four-time major champion was unable to take advantage of prime scoring conditions on Thursday, struggling to a 1-over 73 that left him tied for 79th after the morning wave. That left him a whopping nine shots back of the leader Young - not a good place considering the history of The Open at St. Andrews.

In the last six years, there's been no better major championship player than Koepka. During that span, the 32-year-old has claimed four trophies and eight other top-10 finishes, including three runner-ups. Outside of a missed cut in the 2021 Masters just weeks after undergoing knee surgery, Kopeka's worst finish in a major entering this year since 2016 was a tie for 39th at the 2018 Open Championship.

After missing the cut at the Masters in April, Koepka finished 55th in both the PGA Championship and the U.S. Open - his worst finishes in majors since 2014. It appears another poor finish is likely for one of the newest members of LIV Golf, as the major mystique around Koepka continues to fade.

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