How did Rory McIlroy perform in Round 1 of The Open Championship 2025?

Rory McIlroy is back in Northern Ireland to play The Open Championship 2025. McIlroy, 36, played Round 1 of the prestigious Major on Thursday, in hopes of bettering his chances to emerge victorious on Sunday. While it remains to be seen where McIlroy will finish, he began Round 1 quite decently.

After the opening round of the last Major of the year, Rory McIlroy found himself tied for 20th position. When it came to the first nine holes, McIlroy performed well. While he scored a bogey on the par-5 hole 1, the Northern Irishman followed it up with three birdies on the front nine.

These birdies in question were scored on par-5 hole 2, par-4 hole 5, and par-5 hole 7. On the other hand, the back nine is where Rory McIlroy suffered heavily. The back nine at the Royal Portrush witnessed McIlroy score two birdies and three bogeys.

While the birdies were scored on the par-4 hole 10 and par-4 hole 17, the bogeys came on the par-4 hole 11, par-5 hole 12, and par-4 hole 14. If one reflects on the total, then Rory McIlroy shot 70. It will be interesting to see how he performs in Round 2 of The Open.

What time will Rory McIlroy tee off in Round 2 of The Open?

In Round 2 of The Open 2025, Rory McIlroy will tee off at 05:09 AM EST. The 2025 Masters winner will be paired with Justin Thomas and Tommy Fleetwood. Here is a detailed look at the tee times and pairings for Round 1 of The Open:

01:35 am: Stewart Cink, Matteo Manassero, Marc Leishman
01:46 am: Francesco Molinari, Jesper Svensson, Connor Graham (a)
01:57 am: Zach Johnson, Daniel Hillier, Daniel Brown
02:08 am: Adam Scott, Rickie Fowler, Ethan Fang (a)
02:19 am: Laurie Canter, Elvis Smylie, Sergio Garcia
02:30 am: Andrew Novak, Matthieu Pavon, Matt Wallace
02:41 am: Davis Thompson, Dean Burmester, Rikuya Hoshino
02:52 am: Si Woo Kim, Shugo Imahira, Sebastian Cave (a)
03:03 am: Michael Kim, Bud Cauley, John Parry
03:14 am: Matt McCarty, Shaun Norris, Angel Hidalgo
03:25 am: Keegan Bradley, Sungjae Im, Daniel Berger
03:36 am: Rasmus Højgaard, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Romain Langasque
03:47 am: Aaron Rai, Sahith Theegala, Harry Hall
04:03 am: Justin Leonard, Thriston Lawrence, Antoine Rozner
04:14 am: J.T. Poston, Chris Kirk, Carlos Ortiz
04:25 am: Brian Harman, Maverick McNealy, Joaquín Niemann
04:36 am: Russell Henley, Tyrrell Hatton, Min Woo Lee
04:47 am: Robert MacIntyre, Bryson DeChambeau, Justin Rose
04:58 am: Jordan Spieth, Ludvig Åberg, Viktor Hovland
05:09 am: Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Tommy Fleetwood
05:20 am: Harris English, Nick Taylor, Tony Finau
05:31 am: Lucas Glover, Jhonattan Vegas, Tom Kim
05:42 am: Brian Campbell, John Catlin, Frazer Jones (a)
05:53 am: Nathan Kimsey, Jason Kokrak, Cameron Adam (a)
06:04 am: Daniel Young, Curtis Luck, Curtis Knipes
06:15 am: Young-han Song, George Bloor, OJ Farrell
06:26 am: Padraig Harrington, Nicolai Højgaard, Tom McKibbin
06:47 am: Louis Oosthuizen, Guido Migliozzi, K.J. Choi
06:58 am: Cameron Smith, Marco Penge, Justin Hastings (a)
06:09 am: Jason Day, Taylor Pendrith, Jacob Skov Olesen
07:20 am: Phil Mickelson, Daniel van Tonder, Ryan Peake
07:31 am: Max Greyserman, Byeong Hun An, Niklas Norgaard
07:42 am: Jordan Smith, Haotong Li, Dustin Johnson
07:53 am: Darren Clarke, Davis Riley, Lucas Herbert
08:04 am: Kevin Yu, Julien Guerrier, Mikiya Akutsu
08:15 am: Thomas Detry, Chris Gotterup, Lee Westwood
08:26 am: Patrick Cantlay, Cameron Young, Mackenzie Hughes
08:37 am: Thorbjørn Olesen, Matthew Jordan, Filip Jakubcik (a)
08:48 am: Henrik Stenson, Stephan Jaeger, Sebastian Soderberg
09:04 am: Kristoffer Reitan, Martin Couvra, Adrien Saddier
09:15 am: Takumi Kanaya, Justin Walters, Bryan Newman (a)
09:26 am: Hideki Matsuyama, Ryan Fox, Matt Fitzpatrick
09:37 am: Sepp Straka, Ben Griffin, Akshay Bhatia
09:48 am: Sam Burns, Aldrich Potgieter, Brooks Koepka
09:59 am: Xander Schauffele, J.J. Spaun, Jon Rahm
10:10 am: Shane Lowry, Collin Morikawa, Scottie Scheffler
10:21 am: Corey Conners, Wyndham Clark, Tom Hoge
10:32 am: Denny McCarthy, Nico Echavarria, Patrick Reed
10:43 am: Matthias Schmid, Ryggs Johnston, Richard Teder (a)
10:54 am: Dylan Naidoo, Darren Fichardt, John Axelsen
11:05 am: Justin Suh, Oliver Lindell, Jesper Sandborg
11:16 am: Sadom Kaewkanjana, Riki Kawamoto, Sampson Zheng

About the author

Varun is a Golf and MLB journalist for Sportskeeda with over 4 years of work experience in his bag. He has a Master’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communication, and has worked for many sites, including EssentiallySports, FanSided, Khel Now, Get Football, and a few others.

Varun is a fan of golfer Scottie Scheffler due to the latter’s mindset, and he admires Aaron Judge and his ability to keep being consistent. As a purist golf fan, he would love to compete at the Masters if given the opportunity, but is also happy with LIV Golf driving more eyeballs towards the sport. If he gets the chance to play for an MLB team, he would love to play for the New York Yankees.

Varun’s mantra for writing factually correct feature articles is thorough verification. Another key element in his writing is staying updated with both sports through the official websites of pro wrestling and Golf. He has had the privilege of interviewing MMA legend Greg Jackson in his career so far.

Varun likes to spend his free time reading or writing poetry and fiction. He also plans to learn and play golf in his spare time.

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Edited by Varun Anand Bhat