00:00Hello, it's Martin Dempsey, the Scotsman Golf Correspondent here, coming to you from Royal Portrush at the end of a very long opening day in the 153rd Open Championship.
00:15The first group included two-time winner Padraig Harrington who had the opening shot. They were rounding five hours.
00:24However, by the time the later groups got finished, we were up to six hours.
00:31That was down to challenging conditions in the middle of the day, particularly when the rain was quite heavy.
00:40And thereafter, there was a spell where waterproofs were on and off.
00:45And that really led to what proved to be quite a painful afternoon for the later starters.
00:53Five players share the lead on four under par, 67.
00:59They include American Harris English.
01:02He came in late in the day, as well as the Dane, Jacob Skov-Oleson, who won the Amateur Championship at Ballyliffin not too far from here last year.
01:18Rory McIlroy, the centre of attention this week, he was three under par at one point in his round.
01:27He was hoping to sort of kick on from there. He had a bit of a wobble towards the end.
01:33In the middle of the round, sorry. Picked up a bit at the end. And given that he was all over the place really driving wise, hit two out of 14 fairways.
01:45A one under par, 70. It wasn't a bad day's work.
01:49Bob McIntyre, he was also three under par after eight holes. It was the same for him. A bit of a struggle on the back nine.
01:58He ended up signing for a level par, 71. Described that as a solid, solid effort.
02:04And he certainly made a good par save on 15 and then got down in two putts of long range at the 18th.
02:12So he'll certainly be looking to kick on tomorrow.
02:16To keep up to date with everything about the 153rd Open, log on to scotsman.com or buy the Scotsman.
