Tiger Woods is on the tee at 15:10 BST today.

You may have noticed he found the local accent a touch tricky this week in his news conference. Hit play if you missed it.

John Haughey
BBC Sport NI at Royal Portrush

The local hero is being applauded onto every tee. Northern Ireland has come out in force to cheer on one of its own at this ungodly hour. Thankfully the weather is holding for the punters and the players so far.

Image source, .

"When you get invited to play golf at Portrush - the venue for this week's 148th Open Championship - you drop everything. It's generally regarded as one of the best 20 courses in the world."

Those are the words of BBC presenter Dan Walker, who recently played this famous course and went to the trouble of documenting his round for you.

Thankfully Dan is a better player than me, so he was able to bring things to life rather than simply battle for survival.

Read his full account here.

12:53 Justin Thomas (US), Tommy Fleetwood (Eng), Thorbjorn Olesen (Den)

13:04 Louis Oosthuizen (SA), Brooks Koepka (US), Shubhankar Sharma (Ind)

13:26 Jordan Spieth (US), Marc Leishman (Aus), Danny Willett (Eng)

14:48 Justin Rose (Eng), Tony Finau (US), Lucas Bjerregaard (Den)

14:59 Dustin Johnson (US), Jason Day (Aus), Keegan Bradley (US)

15:10 Tiger Woods (US), Matt Wallace (Eng), Patrick Reed (US)

15:21 Patrick Cantlay (US), Jon Rahm (Spa), Matt Kuchar (US)

Darren Clarke walks to the fourth tee, swinging his club in his hand with some glee as he leads The Open on two under.

His stunning tee shot on the third left him a tap in birdie and the Northern Irishman looks right at home now.

Charley Hoffman gets himself out of a sticky spot with a chip and lengthy putt to save par. That my friends is the epitome of a cracking up and down.

07:30 Matthew Fitzpatrick (Eng), Padraig Harrington (Irl), Andrew Putnam (US)

07:52 P Mickelson (US), S Lowry (Ire), Branden Grace (SA)

08:14 Webb Simpson (US), Sergio Garcia (Spa), Cheng-Tsung Pan (Tpe)

09:14 Henrik Stenson (Swe), Xander Schauffele (US), Graeme McDowell (NI)

09:58 Bryson DeChambeau (US), Francesco Molinari (Ita), Adam Scott (Aus)

10:09 Gary Woodland (US), Rory McIlroy (NI), Paul Casey (Eng)

10:20 Rickie Fowler (US), Kevin Kisner (US), Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn)

Snookered89: Brooks Koepka has to be favourite for me for two reasons. Firstly his record this year in majors. Then his caddie who knows the course so well. Gonna be difficult to stop I suspect. In my heart though I want Westwood to win.

Who wins The Open? Tweet us at #bbcgolf.

Andy Sullivan went to bed probably thinking 'nice and steady tomorrow, nice and steady'.

The Englishman blasted out of bounds on the first and is +2 after the opening hole.

On the plus side, he has loads of time to put things right.

Alex Bysouth
BBC Sport at Royal Portrush

Image source, PA

What a month for Irish amateur James Sugrue, who won the Amateur Championship in June to secure qualification for The Open, as well as The Masters and US Open next year.

The 22-year-old’s first taste of major golf is to head out alongside a former champion in Darren Clarke and enjoy the huge crowds following him.

Sugrue nearly didn’t make it to the first tee today though, having to take two courses of antibiotics after an insect bite he suffered in Sweden last week got infected and saw his calf swell by about four inches.

Now he’s knocking birdies on the world’s biggest stage...

James Sugrue - the Irish amateur - makes birdie on the par-five second and joins Darren Clarke in the early lead. They move on to the third, a par-three.

Sugrue finds the green as the flag flaps around in the wind. Clarke tees it up, 175 yards, lovely sound to it and what a shot... it rolls to within a foot. Stop it Darren, put this kind of technology away.

Charley Hoffman, what have you got? Ooof, that's ugly, right and in trouble.

Alex Bysouth
BBC Sport at Royal Portrush

Image source, BBC Sport

That chap with the huge entourage on the practice range is Japanese world number 327 Yosuke Asaji, who had five of his team crowded around the tee watching closely as he put the finishing touches on his swing on Wednesday.

Not sure if they were there to critique or take snaps for his Instagram...

The guy in the next bay with just one onlooker? Only 15-time major champion Tiger Woods.

Darren Clarke is in the sand on two, South Korea's Sung Kang arrows one in close on one, while on the first tee, Andy Sullivan has a nervous look on his face, a VERY nervous look on his face - I think his tee shot is out of bounds.

Reload Andy my boy, reload.

You can always rely on BBC Radio 5 Live's Conor McNamara to come up with something artistic.

If ever there was a day for it, today is that day.

You can listen to Conor and the team from 9am on 5 Live. There will be a live feed of their commentary at the top of this live page so you can listen at your desk or while you're on the move.

John Haughey
BBC Sport NI at Royal Portrush

Darren Clarke is beaming from ear to ear as he walks to the second tee after holing that birdie putt on the first. What a fairytale start for the 2011 champion.

Image source, PA Media

Word on the street Alex is that Darren Clarke spends a lot of his time here, in the Bahamas.

Wherever he gets that lovely tan, it's doing the trick because I can tell you Mr Clarke leads The Open as he drains a 15 footer for birdie on one. The putt was in all the way, the golfing equivalent of the tide lapping against your feet.

Image source, Getty Images

Alex Bysouth
BBC Sport at Royal Portrush

There was a roar loud enough to wake any slightly sleepy member of the crowd up when Darren Clarke strutted down the steps to the first tee, another when he whipped out his driver and an even louder cry as the 2011 champion cracked his opening shot down the fairway.

But the loudest of the lot came when the bronzed and bearded home favourite rolled in for birdie - if Portrush had a roof...

Clarke has a house next to Royal Portrush, though I’m not sure he picked up that tan during the couple of days of sunshine in Northern Ireland earlier this week.

Alex Bysouth
BBC Sport at Royal Portrush

Image source, Getty Images

After heavy rain yesterday, the clouds have cleared and it’s an absolute beaut of a morning for a round of golf on the Causeway Coast - or for watching it, for that matter.

The ropes skirting the opening fairway are thronged two or three deep in places.

It takes something special to bring such a big crowd out this early, something like bringing The Open back to Northern Ireland for the first time in 68 years and getting a former champion and home favourite to hit the opening tee shot...

Image source, Getty Images

Sometimes we spend an age at BBC Sport deciding on a good question to ask our loyal readers so you can 'get involved'. Sometimes we need only a few seconds, like today.

Who will win The Open? You have 156 players to pick from, so send us a name and a reason why to #bbcgolf.

As you roll out of your bed, stagger down your stairs, or, perhaps, if you're on your commute or the school run, men are teeing a little white ball up, their dreams still alive in a week where the plains in Northern Ireland will smash them to pieces time and again.

Take your medicine, drop some shots, accept your punishment and keep moving forward.

Darren Clarke - Northern Ireland's own - will start this championship and with a whisk of the driver and a call of "left, left", his ball duly moves left to sit in the fairway.

We are off and running ladies and gents. American Charley Hoffman and Irish amateur James Sugrue follow him up the fairway.

We're off and running. Try not to burn your toast.

Image source, .

Go on gents, kiss the jug!

That beautiful, shining piece of sporting silverware. That iconic, shining piece of joy.

And speaking of joy, who's game for four days of a major championship?

Jump on my back my friends, let me carry you through this field of dreams.