Honesty always has been in Scottie Scheffler’s bag, as the headlines before the start of The Open underscored, and he was wringing truth once more Thursday after firing a 3-under par at Royal Portrush.

Scheffler’s rainy round of 68 was among the morning-wave best in Northern Ireland thanks to a composed finish despite hitting only three fairways.

“I actually thought I drove it pretty good. I don’t know what you guys are seeing. When it’s raining sideways, it’s actually, believe it or not, not that easy to get the ball in the fairway. Thank you guys all for pointing that out,” Scheffler said at the end of Thursday’s 18.

Scheffler credited his putting with keeping him on the first page of the leaderboard after failing to gain strokes on the greens in the Scottish Open last week. Scheffler was a touch testy when pressed for what made his short stick more magical on Thursday than it was last week.

“Different greens, different surface. These greens, it’s just different,” Scheffler said. “I don’t know how you want me to elaborate on that.”

Wayward tee shots were to blame for Scheffler’s bogeys on Thursday on a pair of par 4s at No. 9 and No. 11.

He closed with a collective five on the par-3 16th and the par-4 17th plus a clutch putt to par No. 18 and said the greens at Portrush were “definitely smoother” than the surface in Scotland.

“Putting is one of those deals where, especially when there’s a little bit of activity on the greens, you can hit a lot of good putts that don’t go in,” Scheffler said. “I’m trying to do my best to be perfect every week, but some weeks the putts just aren’t going in, and did a good job battling last week to finish top 10.”

Scheffler stuck to his guns when asked Thursday to revisit much-discussed comments about how meaningful and gratifying victories can be relative to the amount of time, effort and sacrifice it takes to take home a trophy.

“I think I try to be as honest as I can with y’all, with the stuff that I’m willing to kind of say. At times I feel like maybe I should be a little less honest. Maybe I shouldn’t have said the stuff I said yesterday because now I’m going to get asked about it more,” he said. “But really it’s just a matter of perspective, and I’ve had some players come up to me and say that they feel and think the same things. If anybody has disagreed with me, they haven’t said it to my face yet, so I don’t know what the reaction would be. But overall just glad to be out playing golf and competing again.”

–Field Level Media

Jon Rahm downplayed a terse interaction with a fan during the first round of The Open Championship on Thursday.

The Spaniard was playing the par-4 10th hole at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland when he sent his approach shot into the right rough. He immediately turned to a spectator who had made a whistling noise during Rahm’s backswing.

“Really? Whistling? Right, great time,” Rahm said. “Right on my backswing. Very smart, whoever it was.”

Rahm would go on to bogey the hole along with the following one. The LIV Golf star did manage a birdie on the 14th and finished with a 1-under 70. After the round, he credited the noise made by the fan as unfortunate timing and his ensuing reaction to frustration.

“I mean, if I were to paint a picture, you have the hardest tee shot on the course, raining, into the wind off the left, it’s enough,” Rahm told reporters. “I know they’re not doing it on purpose. It just seemed like somebody trying to get a hold of someone for whatever it is. It was bad timing.

“I think I just used the moment to let out any tension I had in me. Really that’s not — it is what it is. To be honest, it probably didn’t affect as much as I made it sound like. It was a bad swing as well. Just a difficult hole.

“I mean, it’s frustrating, but it is what it is. It’s an everyday thing in golf.”

Rahm, 30, is coming off a runner-up finish at LIV’s event in Andalucia, Spain, last week. His best previous finish at The Open was a tie for second two years ago, and Rahm tied for seventh at the U.S. Open last month following a T8 at the PGA Championship and a T14 at the Masters.

The two-time major champion is seeking to complete a third leg of the career Grand Slam this week. He has wins at the Masters Tournament and the U.S. Open to his credit.

“There’s just a few things that would make this one so special. Not only getting to three majors, being the second Spanish player (along with) Seve (Ballesteros) to win an Open and being the only one to three different majors, that would be — yeah, makes it very, very special, on top of everything that already is.”

–Field Level Media

Harris English and England’s Matt Fitzpatrick joined Denmark’s Jacob Skov Olesen, China’s Haotong Li and South Africa’s Christiaan Bezuidenhout with 4-under-par 67s to share the first-round lead of the Open Championship on Thursday at Portrush, Northern Ireland.

Scores were bunched together up and down the leaderboard as dealing with the elements became part of the challenge at Royal Portrush Golf Club. Golfers battled wind gusts and, for those playing in the middle of the day, rain that was bothersome at times.

“Wind is something that obviously makes links golf challenging, but the rain adds a whole new element to it, especially when you’re hitting the tee balls,” said World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who’s one stroke back after shooting 68.

English reached 5 under for the solo lead with his seventh birdie of the round before a bogey on No. 14 and pars the rest of the way.

“That’s why I come over and play the Scottish (Open) is to get used to links golf,” English said afterward. “I played really well last week. I didn’t have the Sunday that I wanted, but I felt like my game was sharp and I did what I needed to do to get ready for this week.”

Thailand’s Sadom Kaewkanjana and Englishmen Matthew Jordan and Tyrrell Hatton matched Scheffler with 68s.

There are 10 golfers at 2-under 69, including Danish twin brothers Nicolai and Rasmus Hojgaard, Lee Westwood of England, 2023 Open champ Brian Harman, Rickie Fowler and England’s Justin Rose. Lucas Glover, aided by an eagle on the second hole, reached 4 under through seven holes before a couple of bogeys on the back nine left him at 2 under as well.

Phil Mickelson, the tournament’s 2013 champion, stood at 2 under at the round’s midway mark before finishing with a 1-under 70. He provided an early thrill by holing a shot from the bunker for a par on the third hole.

“I didn’t make a ton of long ones, but I made a lot of short ones and a lot of good up-and-downs and lag putting,” Mickelson said. “You find that going back on past experience, you don’t have to press it. You don’t have to force it.”

Other scores of interest included Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy, Ireland’s Shane Lowry and Spain’s Sergio Garcia at 70.

“It was a tough enough day, especially either chopping out of the rough or out of the fairway bunkers most of the time,” McIlroy said. “So to shoot under par was a good effort.”

McIlroy is trying to win his second Open in front of his home-country fans, and Lowry was the champion the last time the major was held here in 2019.

Fitzpatrick pulled even with the leaders with a chip-in on the par-3 16th hole. His attempt from well below the hole hit the pin and dropped in.

“A bit of luck obviously. Sometimes you need that,” he said. “Obviously, it just came out a little bit harder than I anticipated and on the perfect line.”

Earlier, Fitzpatrick posted an eagle on the par-5 second hole.

“Felt like I did everything well,” Fitzpatrick said. “Just drove it well, approach play was good and chipped and putted well. It was just an all-around good day.”

Olesen, who turned pro last year and has two prior starts in PGA Tour events, used an eagle on the par-5 12th hole to move into the lead. His second bogey of the round on the final hole cost him the midday solo lead.

Li had a bogey-free round with a pair of birdies on each side.

“I’ve been playing quite solid the whole year so far until the last couple weeks, so hopefully keep the momentum and have some good results come in,” Li said.

Bezuidenhout has been making adjustments with mechanics, and some of those are working out so far this week.

“I’ve been going through some swing changes and stuff,” he said. “It’s nice to see that paying off.”

Scheffler notched birdies on Nos. 16 and 17 for a strong closing stretch. Two of his five birdies in the round came on par-3s.

Chris Gotterup, who was coming off the weekend’s victory in the Genesis Scottish Open, shot 72. He went 2 under through 12 holes before three consecutive bogeys on Nos. 13-15.

U.S. Open champion J.J. Spaun, Dustin Johnson, Patrick Cantlay and Australian Jason Day shot 2-over 73. Brooks Koepka and Collin Morikawa struggled to rounds of 4-over 75, and Bryson DeChambeau shot a 7-over 78 without a birdie. DeChambeau was tied for 144th at day’s end.

–Field Level Media