Can you play golf with a tie? Justin Thomas says you can...

Image source, Getty Images

It might be the first day of The Open, but we're already witnessing some cracking (!?) clobber both from the professionals and the fans, who seem to have made the inevitable trip to Liverpool's Cavern Club while in the area.

Justin Thomas, meanwhile, has opted for the unconventional tie look - perhaps he's got to shoot straight off to a christening following his round?

So we want you to drag out those old pictures of you in your greatest golfing attire, either playing or spectating... tweet us using #bbcgolf

Let's add some colour to this bleak Birkdale afternoon!

Image source, PA

Here's ESPN journalist Jason Sobel making some early comparisons, with Brooks Koepka taking a share of the lead on day one.

Could the American become the seventh player to win the US Open and The Open in the same year?

Co-leader Brooks Koepka dragged his tee-shot out left on the par-three 14th. So far left he escaped the sand traps.

He knocks on and it's heading for a hole... the ball circling the lip and drops in! Unfortunately it is the drainage cup on the edge of the green.

Koepka stares in disbelief for a few seconds, before getting on with things and canning his 15-foot putt.

Now he can laugh. He does.

Sergio Garcia is looking to balance his book after bogey on one. He starts an iron right and draws it in to have an outside look at birdie on two. Sends the put, packed with pace, wide.

Paul Casey has a much shorter look on the first for a birdie and red numbers. This is maybe 10ft... drops.

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Ged Scott
BBC Sport at Royal Birkdale

Ian Poulter, runner-up here in the 2008 Open, admits he only used his driver four times on his way to an opening-round three-under 67.

"There's no right or wrong way to play links golf," said the 41-year-old Ryder Cup star. "It's all about keeping out of the traps and it worked for me."

Poulter, who has dropped out of the world top 50 following injury, had to come through qualifying to get here, being watched by an unexpectedly large gallery of several thousand followers as he qualified on his home course at Woburn.

"I've been surprised by the amount of people who have come up to me and said 'well done' for not just qualifying, but actually turning up to play in Final Qualifying," he added.

"But I always planned to do that. If you have a chance to play in the best golf competition in the world then you should it. It's quite simple."

Us average club golfers take great pleasure in the pros doing something that we often do ourselves. Don't we? Or is that just me?

Justin Rose plants his feet in that bunker on 14, looking to scoop out onto the bank above him and roll up to the pin. He scoops it out, but it doesn't clear the bank.. and dribbles back down to his feet.

Take two... much better. He keeps his cool to convert a testing seven-foot putt for a bogey.

The first hole is claiming a few shots right now. In the last 20 minutes Sergio Garcia, Zach Johnson and Martin Kaymer have all dropped here. What then have Rickie Fowler, Adam Scott and Paul Casey got to offer as they get ready to roll.

Casey just about escapes the rough, Scott is in it after a slight hook.

Image source, Reuters

Carin Koch
Former European Solheim Cup captain on BBC Radio 5 live

Since the first hole I have been watching Brooks Koepka's body language. He's very relaxed, chatting and smiling, and at the same time he looks very confident.

Image source, Reuters

Birdie. Birdie. Birdie. Brooks Koepka has a cut of the lead as St George has been elbowed out of the way by Uncle Sam.

The American joins compatriot Jordan Spieth on four under, drilling a putt from close range into the centre of the can.

"I don't believe it," mutters Justin Rose in his best Victor Meldrew impression.

He's eating sand on the par-three 14th after pushing his tee shot left.

Image source, Reuters

Zach Johnson pulls a par putt on the first green, that ball was never threatening.

Sergio Garcia has made a dog's dinner of this hole. He drove into the rough, chipped into more rough and then found the green. The result is around six feet for bogey... in.

Jason Day makes a sensible par in his slam dunk trainers.

Image source, Reuters

Tom Fordyce
Chief sports writer at Royal Birkdale

In his preppy grey cap, black sleeveless gilet and white trousers, Jordan Spieth looks like a fund manager at his weekend retreat in the Hamptons.

But he's handling the less glamorous surroundings of a British seaside town with a restrained equanimity, one of very few players out in the morning to get through the front nine without dropping a shot.

Justin Rose on 13... birdie putt. He eases down the ball down the gentle slope, but it swings from right to left, creeping past the lip of the hole. The Englishman can't believe it.

Up ahead is Jordan Spieth... he's got to his ball on the 14th green and is lining up a birdie putt of his own. Nailed it.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, .

Andrew Johnston you big joint of beef you. What a shot young man. From off the sixth green 'Beef' clips a chip and after a couple of bounces it wedges in the hole tight to the pin.

A shot back, he takes his cap of an bows cheekily to the roars.

Ged Scott
BBC Sport at Royal Birkdale

In cricket terms, they always used to say a strong Yorkshire meant a strong England.

Not quite sure how that pans out in golfing terms at Royal Birkdale this week. But there's certainly a strong Yorkshire presence across the Pennines in West Lancashire.

Quite apart from Sheffield's two European Tour players, Matt Fitzpatrick and 2016 Masters champion Danny Willett, three of the qualifiers, Adam Hodkinson, Nick McCarthy and Joe Dean are all from the same part of South Yorkshire.

Willett, nursing a sore back and the prospect of becoming a father for the second time later this year, bookended his round with birdies at both the second and the second last in signing for a one-over 71.

Fitzpatrick, playing in the next group, was two shots better off after a one-under 69. "It's always nice to finish in red numbers," he told BBC Sheffield. "Especially on days like this. The wind strength on some holes was making you change two or three clubs in your selection.

-3 Poulter (after 18),Spieth (13), Koepka (12)

-2 Manley (after 18), Noren (after 18)

-1 Rose (11), Fitzpatrick (after 18), Henley (16), Stenson (12),

E Stricker (after 18), Lowry (8), Plant (a) (13), Grace (after 18)

Selected others:

+1 Danny Willett (after 18), +2 Oosthuizen (11), +3 Harrington (13), +3 Dufner (after 18)

Full leaderboard available here.

Jay Townsend
BBC Radio 5 live golf expert

Jordan Spieth is not going to wow anybody with his ball striking, that being said he has an extremely high golf IQ - very rarely does he hit poor shots.