Bookmark this play if Rory McIlroy is in the mix this weekend for the claret jug. McIlroy overcame a shaky driver to turn in a one-under 70 Thursday at Royal Portrush and opened his second round with a birdie.

The season-ending event at East Lake doles out what the PGA Tour calls "bonus money" and is not counted towards a player's official earnings on the money list.

Royal Portrush showed its teeth on Thursday as the 2025 Open Championship field got the full links golf experience. The weather shifted and changed throughout the first round to create challenging scoring conditions, and some handled it better than the rest as the first 18 holes concluded in Northern Ireland.

Golf fans will never (ever) be able to hit a golf ball like Rory McIlroy, but they can at least try to practice chipping like the five-time major champ this week. Well, the way he practiced long (long) before he was ever even a one-time major champ.

The "Golden Bear" and 18-time major winner won the first of his three Opens and completed the first of his three career grand slams along the southeastern Scottish coast in 1966, then called the par-71 layout "the best golf course in Britain."

How many golfers make the cut at The Open Championship? Here's what to know about the cut line rules for the British Open.

Scottie Scheffler finishes first round at three-under-par. Harris English and Christiaan Bezuidenhout rise to the top of the Open Championship leader board.

Fickle weather and funny bounces are classic features of links golf and it makes the British Open a test of the mind as much as anything else.