Open Championship 2025 First-Round Leader Tips: Dave Tindall's three to back from 50/1 to 80/1

• 60/161.00 Justin Rose has an excellent FRL record in the majors

• 80/181.00 Harry Hall is a two-time FRL on the PGA Tour this season

• 50/151.00 Brooks Koepka is strong on the links and has the ideal caddie

• Bet £5 in our Birdie Bonus market and every first round birdie your selection scores=free bet

Weather forecast for Thursday

The official forecast shows a chance of rain all day with wind speeds pretty consistent - and somewhat testing - at between 12-15mph. 

Temperatures are in the 60s pretty much throughout but just a tad higher in the afternoon.

There's nothing leaping out in terms of a clear advantage and it can be a fool's errand to nail your colours to an Open forecast, especially a couple of days before the start.

First-round leader history

J.B. Holmes (2.26pm) was the first-round leader at Royal Portrush in 2019, the American's 66 edging out eventual winner Shane Lowry (7.52am) by a shot.

No less then 13 players were tied third after 68s. That bunch included Jon Rahm, Tommy Fleetwood, Tyrrell Hatton, Brooks Koepka, Robert MacIntyre, Ryan Fox, Sergio Garcia and Alex Noren.

Six went off in the morning and seven in the afternoon so there was no draw bias.

Looking at the last five Opens, there's been no overall advantage for either wave. Seven players have had a piece of the day one lead across those championships: three a.m starters and four p.m. starters.

Overall, history and the weather forecast don't point us in either direction. 

Justin Rose @ 60/161.00

Justin Rose should almost be an auto-bet in this market when it comes to to the majors.

Incredibly, he's a five-time first-round leader at Augusta and has also been in the top six after 18 holes on four other occasions at the US Masters.

In the Open Championship, Rose finished day one in the top five in two of his first four.

That's going back some, but in the last four he was 16th after day one here at Portrush, ninth following the first day at Royal St. George's and fourth on the closing Thursday leaderboard at Troon last year.

Rose, also a first-round leader in the 2019 US Open, ended last week's Scottish Open with a 63 and it's also worth remembering that he was fourth after 54 holes here six years ago so can clearly score at Portrush.

The 60/161.00 shot (1/5, 6 Places) is a 2.48pm starter alongside Robert MacIntyre and Bryson DeChambeau.

Harry Hall @ 80/181.00

Harry Hall has shot in the 60s in each of his last nine PGA Tour events. That's not a bad starting point to recommend a bet at 80/181.00.

The Englishman has turned those into a string of top 25s (eight in a row) and earlier this season he was the 18-hole leader at both the Sony Open and the Mexico Open - two events by the coast.

Hall grew up playing links golf in Cornwall and he's brushed up those skills by coming back to the UK to successfully come through Open qualifying and then posting 17th in the Scottish Open where he was second at halfway.

A superb short game (Hall is 3rd for SG: Putting and 8th for Scrambling on the PGA Tour) suggests he can thrive at Portrush and although it's a big ask for him to challenge for victory so soon in his majors career, leading after day one is far from beyond the realms.

He starts his bid at 1.48pm.

Brooks Koepka @ 50/151.00

I want a morning starter on board given that it's impossible to tell if the weather will favour one part of the draw and the player I can't ignore is Brooks Koepka.

It was a big story back in 2019 when punters gradually got wind that Koepka's caddie, Ricky Elliott, was a Portrush native. That local knowledge certainly helped as Koepka was third after round one and fourth at the finish.

Koepka has four Open top 10s while he has an impressive record of starting fast. He was the first-round leader at Royal Birkdale in 2017 and third after day one at both Hoylake and Portrush. His R1 positions in the last two Opens are 19th and 11th.

A two-time FRL at the US Masters, Koepka was third after the opening lap of last month's US Open.

Back the 9.47am starter at 50/151.00. 

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