British Open scores 2014: Rory McIlroy leads, Tiger Woods, Adam Scott near top of leaderboard

It was just one round, but if Thursday is any indication, the British Open leaderboard could be a star-studded affair this year.

With fairly lackluster play from the biggest stars, the story following the first round of the U.S. Open in June was the course. That couldn't be further from the case at Royal Liverpool where more than half-a-dozen of the biggest names in golf are either at or near the top of the leaderboard following the first round. That includes first-round leader Rory McIlroy and yes, Tiger Woods is in the mix too.

When the day began, Woods was the biggest story. He was playing in his first major championship in 11 months and just his second event since having back surgery in March. There were questions about his his physical health, his golf form and even whether he still had the game to compete for major championships. He still has a long way to go to quiet all of those concerns, but he took a very strong first step to doing so on Thursday.

The British Open

Tiger returns with strong opening round

Mark Sandritter

For just the second time in his career, Tiger Woods started a major championship with two straight bogeys. But 14-time major winner turned it on through the back nine and is in great position after his first major round of the year.

The British Open

Tiger returns with strong opening round

Woods opened his round with back-to-back bogeys and looked anything but sharp. He hit a poor approach, a poor chip and putted poorly on his way to a 2-over through two beginning. A few more bogeys and Woods might have dug himself a hole he couldn't get out of. He rebounded, however, before that could happen and reeled off six pars and a birdie to make the turn at 1-over.

The back nine at Hoylake has more birdie opportunities and Woods took full advantage. With a suddenly hot putter and a stronger short game, Woods ripped off three straight birdies from No. 11 to No. 13 and moves to 2-under. Even after giving a shot back on the very difficult No. 14, Woods added two more birdies at No. 15 and No. 16. Although he missed a chance to pickup another shot at the par-5 18th, his 3-under round of 69 was more than solid. It was a strong step toward regaining his previous form and good enough to have him in contention heading into Friday. He'll open the second round tied for 10th place.

Woods and the rest of the field will be looking up at Rory McIlroy when the second round begins. McIlroy doesn't have the best history of success at the British Open, but you'd never know it from the way he played Thursday. He arguably hits the ball as high as anyone in the world, a trait that often isn't to his advantage in the Open. With more receptive greens and calm wind on Thursday, McIlroy used his ball flight to his advantage and attacked pins (GIF via Adam Sarson)

He was aggressive off the tee and still managed to hit 9-of-14 fairways. By finding fairways and bombing the ball an average of 340.5 yards off the tee, McIlroy often put himself in position to attack. He hit 14-of-18 greens in regulation, finished with 27 putts and didn't drop a shot all day. McIlroy has started well in an Open before only to falter and will need to get over his weird Friday issues, which he said earlier this week are in his head.. Still, his opening round was about as good as it gets and has him in prime position at 6-under.

Like so often happens, the course became more difficult as the day went along. While red numbers were plentiful at times during the morning wave, the afternoon wave had a tougher go of it.

15 of the 18 players who shot -3/better went out early Thursday. Adam Scott (-4) out early tomorrow, is T1st in R2 @PGATOUR scoring avg.

— Justin Ray (@JustinRayGC) July 17, 2014

That doesn't mean low scores weren't still out there. Adam Scott played in the afternoon and managed a 4-under round of 68. Maybe the best sign of the day for Scott was his steady putter. He rolled in multiple long putts, including a very long, breaking putt for eagle at No. 5. Few players are better from tee-to-green than Scott. His putting will sometimes let him down, but if he rolls it the rest of the week like he did on Thursday, he should be the favorite to win the Claret Jug. Scott, Woods and McIlroy are joined by a handful of other big names near the top of the leaderboard. That includes Jim Furyk at 4-under, Sergio Garcia at 4-under, Rickie Fowler at 3-under, Jason Dufner at 2-under and Jordan Spieth at 1-under.

Defending British Open champion Phil Mickelson didn't get his championship defense off to a great start. He battled through the tough afternoon conditions and struggled to make birdies. He still had a chance to come in at even with a birdie on No. 18, but his second shot found the internal out of bounds to the right.

He did an excellent job to scramble for a bogey and finish at 2-over.

Like Mickelson, Bubba Watson had some issues playing in the afternoon. He made the turn at 1-under, only to run into serious trouble on the back nine. Although the back includes three of the four easiest holes on the course, you'd never know it from the way Watson played it. The reigning Masters champion carded a triple bogey on No. 11 and followed it up with back-to-back bogeys on No. 12 and No. 13. He capped the round with a final bogey at No. 18 to shoot a 42 on the back nine and finish with a 4-over 76.

Here's where the field stands after 18 holes at Royal Liverpool:

Place	Player	Score	1st Round
1	Rory McIlroy	-6	66
2	Matteo Manassero	-5	67
T3	Edoardo Molinari	-4	68
T3	Brooks Koepka	-4	68
T3	Francesco Molinari	-4	68
T3	Jim Furyk	-4	68
T3	Sergio Garcia	-4	68
T3	Adam Scott	-4	68
T3	Shane Lowry	-4	68
T10	Robert Karlsson	-3	69
T10	Marc Leishman	-3	69
T10	Koumei Oda	-3	69
T10	Rickie Fowler	-3	69
T10	Hideki Matsuyama	-3	69
T10	Jimmy Walker	-3	69
T10	Yoshinobu Tsukada	-3	69
T10	Tiger Woods	-3	69
T10	Boo Weekley	-3	69
T19	Jason Dufner	-2	70
T19	Freddie Jacobson	-2	70
T19	Ashley Chesters	-2	70
T19	Ryan Moore	-2	70
T19	Mikko Ilonen	-2	70
T19	Thomas Bjorn	-2	70
T19	Louis Oosthuizen	-2	70
T19	Stephen Gallacher	-2	70
T19	David Hearn	-2	70
T19	Kristoffer Broberg	-2	70
T19	Hiroshi Iwata	-2	70
T19	Bill Haas	-2	70
T19	George Coetzee	-2	70
T19	Rafael Cabrera Bello	-2	70
T33	John Senden	-1	71
T33	Lee Westwood	-1	71
T33	Chris Kirk	-1	71
T33	Stewart Cink	-1	71
T33	Charl Schwartzel	-1	71
T33	Hunter Mahan	-1	71
T33	Dawie Van Der Walt	-1	71
T33	Matt Jones	-1	71
T33	Erik Compton	-1	71
T33	Ben Martin	-1	71
T33	Branden Grace	-1	71
T33	Jordan Spieth	-1	71
T33	Dustin Johnson	-1	71
T33	Marc Warren	-1	71
T33	Graham Delaet	-1	71
T33	Zach Johnson	-1	71
T49	Oliver Fisher	E	72
T49	Justin Rose	E	72
T49	Kevin Streelman	E	72
T49	David Howell	E	72
T49	Bernd Wiesberger	E	72
T49	Hyung-Sung Kim	E	72
T49	Kiradech Aphibarnrat	E	72
T49	Darren Clarke	E	72
T49	Harris English	E	72
T49	Rhein Gibson	E	72
T49	Brian Harman	E	72
T49	Henrik Stenson	E	72
T49	K.J. Choi	E	72
T49	Thongchai Jaidee	E	72
T49	Nick Watney	E	72
T49	Yusaku Miyazato	E	72
T49	Byeong-Hun An	E	72
T66	Rhys Enoch	1	73
T66	Keegan Bradley	1	73
T66	Martin Kaymer	1	73
T66	Shawn Stefani	1	73
T66	Tom Watson	1	73
T66	Luke Donald	1	73
T66	Ian Poulter	1	73
T66	Oscar Floren	1	73
T66	Jamie McLeary	1	73
T66	Brendon Todd	1	73
T66	Jason Day	1	73
T66	Kevin Stadler	1	73
T66	David Duval	1	73
T66	Matt Kuchar	1	73
T66	Billy Horschel	1	73
T66	Chris Rodgers	1	73
T66	Richard Sterne	1	73
T66	Billy Hurley III	1	73
T84	Tommy Fleetwood	2	74
T84	Gonzalo Fdez-Castano	2	74
T84	Phil Mickelson	2	74
T84	Brandt Snedeker	2	74
T84	J.B. Holmes	2	74
T84	Charley Hoffman	2	74
T84	Cheng Tsung Pan	2	74
T84	Roberto Castro	2	74
T84	Cameron Tringale	2	74
T84	Justin Leonard	2	74
T84	Ben Curtis	2	74
T84	Paul Casey	2	74
T84	Padraig Harrington	2	74
T84	Graeme McDowell	2	74
T84	Victor Dubuisson	2	74
T84	Ryan Palmer	2	74
T84	Victor Riu	2	74
T84	Brendan Steele	2	74
T84	Danny Willett	2	74
T84	Ryo Ishikawa	2	74
T84	Ross Fisher	2	74
T105	Paul Dunne	3	75
T105	Gregory Bourdy	3	75
T105	Russell Henley	3	75
T105	Gary Woodland	3	75
T105	Jonas Blixt	3	75
T105	Miguel Jimenez	3	75
T105	Michael Hoey	3	75
T105	Chris Wood	3	75
T105	Anirban Lahiri	3	75
T105	Thorbjorn Olesen	3	75
T105	Matt Every	3	75
T105	Brett Rumford	3	75
T105	Hyung-Tae Kim	3	75
T105	Y.E. Yang	3	75
T105	D.A. Points	3	75
T105	Tyrrell Hatton	3	75
T105	Pablo Larrazabal	3	75
T105	Scott Stallings	3	75
T105	A-Shun Wu	3	75
T124	Matthew Baldwin	4	76
T124	Bubba Watson	4	76
T124	Webb Simpson	4	76
T124	Angel Cabrera	4	76
T124	Nick Faldo	4	76
T124	Juvic Pagunsan	4	76
T124	Paul McKechnie	4	76
T124	Tomohiro Kondo	4	76
T124	Kevin Na	4	76
T124	George McNeill	4	76
T134	Jin Jeong	5	77
T134	John Daly	5	77
T134	Peter Uihlein	5	77
T134	Todd Hamilton	5	77
T134	Justin Walters	5	77
T134	Scott Jamieson	5	77
T140	Brendon de Jonge	6	78
T140	Dong-Kyu Jang	6	78
T140	Masanori Kobayashi	6	78
T140	Patrick Reed	6	78
T140	John Singleton	6	78
T145	Chesson Hadley	7	79
T145	Chris Stroud	7	79
T145	Mark Wiebe	7	79
T145	Jamie Donaldson	7	79
T145	Paul Lawrie	7	79
T145	Bradley Neil	7	79
T145	Ernie Els	7	79
152	Matthew Southgate	8	80
T153	Joost Luiten	9	81
T153	Chris Hanson	9	81
155	Sandy Lyle	10	82
156	Bryden Macpherson	18	90

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