Brooks Koepka recovers well from his dropped shot on the ninth with a good par save on 10.

Tiger Woods stops the bleeding at least with a par at the ninth but turning in four over is far from ideal with this back nine to come - even though so far it's been playing a touch easier than the front side.

Patrick Cantlay has been solid enough, but not as solid as Xander Schauffele who has found it all rather too easy so far with a bogey-free front nine containing two birdies.

He's been called "boring" but in his golf that's mainly because he's never really in any trouble.

Shane Lowry gives himself another look at a birdie try on the eighth - and he makes it!

Lowry joins Justin Thomas on three under par at the top of the leaderboard.

Matt Fitzpatrick gets in on the birdie action as well, after starting with seven straight pars.

We've seen a whole host of big names toil today at Royal Troon, and 2021 Open winner Collin Morikawa isn't finding things any easier.

After an opening bogey the American reeled off six pars in a row to ease his way into the championship, but has dropped another shot on the eighth.

The positive is that everyone's finding it tough and he's only six shots off Justin Thomas' clubhouse lead.

Jordan Spieth sprays a tee shot pure Jordan Spieth style miles wide left on the seventh, but again in trademark style his recovery shot from 76 yards ends up nine feet from the hole.

I sometimes think Spieth prefers a shot out of the rough, uneven stance, having to bump it and run it than have a clean lie in the fairway.

Either way, he's box office.

Tiger Woods rolled in this brilliant birdie putt on the third hole today, but since then has dropped five shots in five holes and is now right up against it.

Image source, PA Media

Yeeees, Shane!

The 2019 champion is enjoying his day at Troon, holing for birdie on seven from about 12 feet.

Brooks Koepka can't find the cup for par from 10 feet and drops a shot on the ninth, leaving him two behind leader Justin Thomas.

No birdies on Hideki Matsuyama's card yet as he makes in the turn in 38, one shot fewer than Wyndham Clark.

Peter Scrivener
BBC Sport at Royal Troon

A late cry of “fore right” down the side of the 16th. Barely a moment for anyone to take cover as a ball clatters into an umbrella.

Everyone waits to see whose ball it is. Over strides Ryan Fox. His ball has ended up in a decent spot and he wastes no time in floating a high shot over the bunker onto the green.

A smattering of applause and on he, and those following this group, strides.

Dan Rapaport
American golf journalist on BBC Radio 5 Live

Tiger's not moving easily and it’s been sloppy. I have watched him play the Postage Stamp twice in practice and both times combined he hit it to about six feet, but in competition blows one way over.

You can’t simulate tournament pressure.

After a slow start, Brooks Koepka has excelled on the remainder of the front nine.

Here's one of his four successive birdies...

Image source, Getty Images

With all the drama of Woods missing wide and Cantlay holing out from the sand, Xander Schauffele made the Postage Stamp look easy with a nice wedge into the green followed by a solid putt for birdie.

The US PGA Championship winner looks like challenging in a major yet again...

Tiger's in all kinds of trouble again after a wild tee shot on the Postage Stamp, missing the green and also the bunker he's so far wide.

He does play a lovely chip to get back on the green with a chance of saving par, but he can't do it and another shot goes.

Patrick Cantlay did find the sand off the tee, but he showed everyone how it's done by holing out from that dastardly sand trap next to the eighth green.

Bunker, bunkers, bunkers! Jordan Spieth finds the sand off the tee on the fifth, and like we've seen plenty of times today it's so tough to get out if you try and be too cute.

Spieth leaves the ball in the trap and that costs him a shot - as Ken explains just why you need to stay out of the sand...

Pars all round for this group on the long sixth hole.

Matt Fitzpatrick found the bunker with his tee shot and makes a good up-and-down from 90 yards to save par.

Tiger Woods had just hit reverse at the wrong time here, with a short five-foot putt missed on the sixth to drop yet another shot, when he looked pretty much in control of that hole.

That's his worst mistake yet.

I said a few minutes ago that Brooks Koepka's run of birdies was coming to an end - and it has, but this par will feel as good as a birdie for the big American.

His escape from the sand came to rest a couple of inches away from the cup, and he'll surely take great confidence from how he's striking the ball at the moment.

Hideki Matsuyama and Wyndham Clark plonked their tee shots in the same greenside bunker at Koepka, and while Matsuyama made par, Clark carded a double bogey.

The final group of round one tee off at Royal Troon, which means we've probably got another five hours or so of play today.

England's Sam Horsfield is joined in the group by Aguri Iwasaki and Jeung-Hun Wang.

With so many big names out there, there's still plenty of time for the top of the leaderboard to change.

Brooks Koepka's run of birdies looks like ending now - he's in a bunker on the Postage Stamp.

Ken Brown takes a look at what makes the short eighth hole so difficult...

Image source, Getty Images

Rory McIlroy, speaking after his seven-over 78 on day one of The Open:

"A difficult day. I felt like I did OK for the first part of the round and missed the green at the Postage Stamp and left it in there and made a double.

"But still I felt like I was in reasonable enough shape being a couple over through nine. Thinking I could get those couple of shots back, try to shoot even par something like that. And then hitting the ball out of bounds on 11... making a double there. Even though the wind on the back nine was helping, it was a lot off the left, I was surprised by how difficult I felt the back nine played.

"I thought we were going to get it a little bit easier than we did. The course was playing tough. The conditions are very difficult in a wind that we haven’t seen so far this week. I guess that can happen... you play your practice rounds, you have your strategy that you think is going to help you get round the golf course but then when you get a wind that you haven’t played in, it starts to present different options, you start to think about hitting a few clubs that you haven’t hit in practice.

"Just one of those days where I didn’t adapt well enough to the conditions."

Are you already out of contention?

"All I need to focus on is tomorrow and try to make the cut. That’s all I can focus on."