2026 Open Championship: Dan Brown leads good English showings at Royal Birkdale, Tommy Fleetwood also off to a strong start.

154th Open Championship First Round Leaderboard:

-5 J Suber (USA); -4 D Brown (Eng), IM (Cor)

-3 T Detrey (Bell), R McIntyre (SCO), F Molinari (ITA), A Smalley (US), B DeChambeau (US), R Gerrard (US), MJ Daffue (SA), P Cuddy (US), C Young (US).

Full leaderboard

There’s still a good chance he’s ‘coming home’ this weekend.

England’s hopes of winning the World Cup were dashed on Wednesday, paving the way for the country’s top golfers to take center stage and lift the spirits of the Royal Birkdale crowd.

When Sir Nick Faldo won at Muirfield, no English player had won for 34 years. You have to go back to 1969 for the last English winner on English soil – Tony Jacklin at Royal Lytham and St Annes.

But go ahead Dan Brown.

The 31-year-old from Yorkshire shot his 154th Open Championship day of under 66 to sit behind another unknown player, American leader Jackson Suber, as he took advantage of early conditions on the Merseyside links.

“It’s only Thursday but hopefully I’m in the same position on the leaderboard come Sunday,” Brown said.

No golfer wins a tournament after 18 holes – or any other tournament – but they sure can knock themselves out of the tournament.

Local hero Tommy Fleetwood from nearby Southport did just that when Birkdale last hosted the Open in 2017 in a six-round opener.

Determined to make amends this year, Fleetwood sold to a solid one-under 69, meaning he has plenty to build on over the next three days.