Bryson DeChambeau ranked first in driving distance during Round 1 of the 2026 Open, signing for a 3-under 67. Francesco Molinari ranked 150th and inked the same score. Tyrrell Hatton was second to DeChambeau with a 68, while Collin Morikawa was one behind Molinari in driving distance and tied the Englishman’s tally.

Royal Birkdale proved on Thursday what many already knew: There’s no one right answer to solve the riddle provided by the course. Players have their full bags at their disposal, and while some found answers, others will continue to search for them over the next 54 holes. That is the beauty of Royal Birkdale and this championship: The choose-your-own-adventure nature that unfolded on Thursday.

Some, like overnight leader Jackson Suber, penciled in their circles correctly, while others, like Rory McIlroy, will have to manufacture a way to claw back into this championship.

McIlroy employed an aggressive approach like that of DeChambeau and Hatton, albeit without the sterling grade. The six-time major champion signed for 2-over 72 that put him eight strokes adrift alongside Matt Fitzpatrick (+2) and Xander Schauffele (+1). The three of them came in around the same score but with vastly different approaches.

For example, here is how they attacked the par-4 9th: McIlroy (fresh off another booming drive and a missed short putt) punished his tee shot and drove the par 4, while Schauffele and Fitzpatrick laid back. McIlroy and Schauffele made birdie, while Fitzpatrick made par.

Something similar occurred to end their inward nine. Schauffele took iron off the tee, Fitzpatrick a fairway wood and McIlroy a driver — again, fresh off a bogey.

“I drove the ball incredibly well,” McIlroy said. “I took the golf course on off the tee. Obviously, with the positions that I put myself in off the tee, I feel like I obviously should have shot a better score. Played the hard holes well. Birdied 13, 15 and 18 on the back.”

McIlroy made birdie, Fitzpatrick made par, and Schauffele stumbled in the form of a double bogey. This tug-and-pull, give-and-take style of chess match occurred throughout the entire round across every grouping.

DeChambeau hit driver on No. 2 and made birdie, Scottie Scheffler laid back and carded the same score. They both went for the green on the par-4 5th, while others chose the conservative route and put birdies on their scorecard courtesy of a wedge approach. There was no one best way; yes, distance is always an advantage, but a sharp mind is the equalizer.

Scheffler, who signed for an opening 68 and is right in the thick of it, felt as if the trio of himself, DeChambeau and Hatton employed three different strategies. Sometimes they would even look at each other’s papers for help. The world No. 1 missed only one fairway and led the field in driving accuracy.

Here’s what Robert MacIntyre had to say: “It was a test of kind of discipline and almost acceptance when I probably took the shot, a club off the tee, which then left a fairly long shot in on some of them, but my job was to get it on the fairway, stay out of these pot bunkers. I think I chased one a little bit too close on 16, which got level with the bunkers, but other than that, I feel I was very, very cautious off the tee. But the way I’ve been playing, approach play has been really good. It was kind of the priority, get it on the short stuff and stay out of these pot bunkers.”

MacIntyre shot — you guessed it — a 67, ranking outside the top 125 in driving distance. 

It is not often that professional golfers are afforded so many options, especially off the tee. The effect has been the exposure of apt decision making tailored to one’s personal game. It’s a skill every bit as much as iron play or putting, even if it doesn’t show up in the stat sheet.

It’s why this leaderboard has a little bit of everything — debutants, past champions and the cream of the crop — and it’s why who owns their game the best by week’s end will be the one owning the Claret Jug for the next calendar year.

They all count the same

The beauty of golf is that a 350-yard drive counts all the same as a tap-in putt, and no one knew that better Thursday than McIlroy. The six-time major champion started to run into some trouble on the green around the turn as he missed three putts from inside 5 feet from Nos. 7-10.

This came as he started to employ a more aggressive approach off the tee, trying to drive the green on the short par-4 5th and succeeding on the par-4 9th, leading to a birdie. McIlroy more than offset his advantage over the field with the driver in hand with his lack of sharpness with the putter, where he ranked 146th on the day.

McIlroy had drives of 352 yards (No. 6), 372 yards (No. 8) and 389 yards (No. 9) yet pissed puts from 3 feet, 11 inches (No. 7); 3 feet, 8 inches (No. 8); and 4 feet, 1 inch (No. 10).

“I feel like I missed a couple early on that looked like they were going to break one way and they actually went another way, and then when you get the next one, you’re over it, and it’s just very hard to trust that the ball is going to do what you think it’s going to do,” McIlroy said. “Then you maybe don’t make quite as committed of a stroke. 

“It seems like when it gets like that on a day like today, you just keep leaving yourself four-footers. I left one to pretty much tap-in range on 9 to make a birdie. Then I missed three four-footers in the space of four holes, and that’s to get out of that and stay committed to what you’re trying to do on the greens.”

A cheeky jab

Is it fair that three straight missed cuts in major championships make you the punching bag of taking heads? Probably not, but that was the case for DeChambeau entering The Open with six-time major champion Nick Faldo imploring the two-time U.S. Open champion to find some semblance of strategy, especially on a links golf course.

DeChambeau responded in more ways than one Thursday as he signed for a 67 and one of his best Open rounds to date (relative to strokes gained), while also voicing a not-so-subtle way of refuting the three-time Open champion’s claim.

“I think you’ve got to be a lot more strategic out on the golf course,” DeChambeau said. “I feel like I did a really good job today of being incredibly strategic and focused super hard on placing it in the right places. Besides 18, I placed the ball in some good areas. I just need to hit more fairways. Other than that, I feel like my strategy was nice today.”

Burnt-out conditions

How dry is it at Royal Birkdale? So dry that a reporter asked Dan Brown whether he had been approached about his smoking of cigarettes while on the golf course. Brown is no stranger to The Open as he was the first-round leader in 2024 and finished inside the top 10 at Royal Troon, and it turns out he is no stranger to cigarettes, either.

Brown noted that he averages seven or eight a round and has been careful discarding the butts. The Englishman smokes as a way to manage stress and noted that his play would go sideways come Sunday if it came to the point where he was not allowed. So far, so good for Brown as he opened with a 66, sits one off the lead and is the top Englishman on this leaderboard.

No experience, no problem

World No. 28 Ryan Gerard is the highest-ranked player making his debut, and Suber is the highest-placed player on this leaderboard (1st) while making his! Throw in Alex Smalley, who was 5 under when he stepped to the tee on the par-4 18th and Pierceson Coody, who is rooming with Suber this week and is right there. 

This crop of debutants is making its presence known early.

There was plenty to glean from their post-round interviews, like this being Suber’s first time playing links golf (ever) and first time in Europe (ever), but I found this from Gerard on taking what he learned in practice and applying it in competition particularly worthwhile. 

“I think you learn that the ball wants to almost accelerate into some of these sand traps and these bunkers, and avoiding them at all costs seems to be very important,” he said. “But the turf specifically, I felt really comfortable with my ball-striking. I went from hitting more stock high shots to hitting more kind of just standard … you feel like you just put it a hair back in your stance and kind of hit a normal 7-iron and it comes out 5, 10 feet lower than a stock one. We found out probably on Monday that the consistency of the strike is a lot more repeatable when you put it a hair back in your stance and let the ball do what it wants to do. 

“Obviously, when you have to hit it high, you have to hit it high. But like I was saying, there’s not a lot of friction between the golf ball and the ground, especially like I was in a crosswalk where a million people have trampled it, and you’re kind of guessing how low and how hot it’s going to come out at times. The proper thing is just make sure you’re hitting it with as good a contact as possible, and just whatever shot you’re going to play, you really commit to it because if you get stuck between guessing whether it’s going to come out one way or not and you try and judge between the two, that’s when it’s going to get up in the wind and end up in a bad spot.”

On the other hand

Padraig Harrington went back-to-back with his win at Royal Birkdale in 2008, but it nearly did not happen because of none other than Greg Norman. Age 53 at the time, the Australian led through three rounds before a bogey on No. 10 in the final round sent him in the wrong direction, unable to recover.

Nearly 20 years later, can another older player prove his worth again?

It won’t be Justin Rose who opened with a disappointing 75 or even Harrington who signed for an 80, but what about a couple of other Europeans in Molinari and Henrik Stenson? Both of the former Champion Golfers of the Year were impressive in Round 1 with the Italian signing for a 67 and the Swede one worse at 68.

“I’ve been around long enough to know this is a long way to go,” Molinari said. “I was telling myself, actually, it might not be exactly right, but I remember the last few years always starting quite well, like the first two, three holes here at The Open, and then ending up either missing the cut or not having a great week. I just told myself maybe this time it’s going to be better if I bogey the 1st instead of birdieing it.”

What was trending towards a perfect game …

With perfect conditions, it looked like Jon Rahm was going to throw a perfect game, which is unheard of an Open. The two-time major champion had his scoring clubs in order and hit his first 13 greens in regulation. If not for some sharp-cut holes and some ruder-than-rude lip-outs, Rahm would have taken it deep early.

He ultimately missed three of his last five greens and signed for a 69, but in those first three hours or so, Rahm had it on a rope and looked much more like the man from the PGA Championship than last month’s U.S. Open.

Already home

Let’s call a spade a spade: It’s been a tough 24 hours for England. Kicking away a late lead to Argentina in the semifinals of the World Cup led to what was mostly a meh day from their top hopes in The Open. Brown finds his name in prime position, but the likes of Rose, Fitzpatrick and Aaron Rai are all over par.

Tommy Fleetwood was trending in that direction in the morning as he hit only four greens in regulation in his first 12 holes, but he righted the ship late to flip the +/- next to his name to 1 under. The hometown kid has been riding the support all week and credited it with keeping him in the fight when he faced immediate adversity.

“I said to Fino, after I’d hit my tee shot, like first tees don’t bother me that much,” Fleetwood said. “I’m always all right on the first tee, but I was nervous today just with the excitement and stuff. But they’ve been great. Whether I play well or not, that’s the thing, and that’s what I’m very aware of. I don’t want to miss out on the experience. It’s been amazing so far, and the crowds are amazing. It’s really cool to play in front of everyone.”

Any wave advantage?

One of the many aspects of The Open to appreciate is that everyone plays the golf course as intended — meaning all 156 men tee off on No. 1. As such, the golf is stretched from morning to evening with wave advantages often materializing and having a say in who wins the championship ultimately.

Thursday morning, Royal Birkdale played to a perfect average of 71.00, or exactly one over par, whereas the afternoon was about 0.70 strokes more difficult, at nearly two over. Those in the afternoon will have an opportunity to rectify the situation tomorrow with fresher greens and calmer conditions than their counterparts were treated to in Round 1.