The Open 2014 first round live | Scott Murray

Round one updates from the Open Championship at Hoylake
Tiger Woods returns to venue of his 2006 triumph
Official Open leader board
A story that happened up the road at Formby
And feel free to email scott.murray@theguardian.com

8.25am BST

Australian golf is pretty damn strong at present. World number one Adam Scott and regular major contender Jason Day are two of the favourites here this week. Might be an idea to keep track of what Marc Leishman gets up to, as well. Not least because the in-form Aussie, who has been plodding along nicely on the PGA Tour, has opened here with birdies at 3 and 5, and is the early joint leader at -2. He's alongside the South African Dawie van der Walt, who registered the first eagle of the week at 5, and Edoardo Molinari. No David Howell mentioned there, you'll note. And that's because a double bogey at 7 has done for him; he's back where he started, at level par. A lot of movement on the leader board already, and we've hardly started; a sense that this could be a fairly entertaining day of golf!

8.17am BST

Here's a player who registers a full 11 out of ten on the Jiménez-Dufner-Daly-o-meter. Kiradech Aphibarnrat. The big man lives his life. He's exactly the sort of player the average punter loves to see do well. The sort who looks like he's just jumped the rope to join in. Well, not so much jumped the rope as awkwardly put one leg over it, got in a tangle, then decided to hold it up and squeeze underneath instead. Who needs athleticism? Not me, we've got athletics for that. Anyway, our hero, a go-for-broke gambling type, is already up today: birdie at 3 and he's -1. Might be worth keeping an eye on the big Thai. Last year, on his Open debut at Muirfield, he shot a first-round one-over 72. Then followed it up with an 85. He's not the sort that'll die wondering.

8.02am BST

David Howell's best performance at an Open came at Royal Birkdale in 2008. Padraig Harrington romped clear of the field to win that title - MBM hack slips away to dream awhile about that fairway wood creamed into 17 for eagle - but Howell must always wonder what could have been. His final round 67 was the best of the day, but it had followed a third-round 78, and an opening-day 76. A bit more consistency and ... well, that's the point of tournament golf, I suppose. He's started brilliantly here, though. A third birdie on the bounce, this time at 5, and he's -2, now through 6. He's joined on that mark by Edoardo Molinari, who has opened birdie-birdie. Hey, it doesn't count for much at this stage, but it's always nice to get an early leader board in. Here's the first of what we hope is a rollercoaster four days. Note the two former champions just out on the course with a pair of pars:

-2: Howell (6), E Molinari (2)
-1: van der Walt (5), Leishman (4), Jacobson (1), Chesters (1)
E: Wood (4), Lahiri (3), Aphibarnrat (2), Grace (1), Leonard (1), Lawrie (1)

7.51am BST

Before the action begins in earnest, time to pause, light a candle and remember one of the greats. Seve Ballesteros. We'll always miss him, and never quite get over it. It's still hard to process that he's gone. Anyway, now is not the time to get maudlin. The three-time Open champion played his last ever Open here at Hoylake, his last rounds of 74 and 77 not enough to escape the cut, but he'd contributed more than enough to the story of this great tournament by then. He features today in our fashion desk's gallery of golf through the ages. You don't need me to tell you that he's the sharpest dressed and most handsome man in it. But I wonder how he'd have reacted upon being told that his clobber was "a little next season Louis Vuitton"? The response would have been delicious, wouldn't it.

7.39am BST

Matt Jones of Australia was one of the early season form horses, after his win at the Shell Houston Open. But he's not been able to keep it going, a top-20 spot at the Players apart, missing the cut at the Masters and the US Open. He's not started well in the third major of the year, either: double bogeys at 2 and 3, and he's currently bottom of an 18-man pile at +4. Up the other end of the nascent leader board: Howell is joined at -1 by Brooks Koepka and Edoardo Molinari, who have both birdied that tricky opening hole.

7.28am BST

A famous son of Liverpool writes. "How manicured is Hoylake?" wonders Guardian MBM regular and voice of Granadaland, Gary Naylor, who I'm assuming never washed behind his ears and was therefore never allowed to roam free on the famous old links with mashie niblick in hand. "Five Live is playing a trailer that makes it sound like the course is set up like Augusta - ie a country house garden that looks good on telly - but isn't the whole point of a links, this one more than most, that it's simply carved out of wild coastal terrain?" Well, some links are more rugged than others, as Morrissey might have once sung had he grown up listening to the dulcet tones of Henry Longhurst rather than the more angular New York Dolls. Hoylake used to be a racecourse back in the day, so with some fairly flat fairways it doesn't punish players with random bounces like some other glorious nightmares. It undulates a wee bit more as it weaves its way through the sand dunes. Mind you, having said all that, it's not exactly offering much so far. Of the dozen players out on the course early doors, only three are level par, and only one other is under par. That's no longer Chris Wood, who handed back his opening-hole birdie with bogey on the 2nd. David Howell is your man: he's bounced back from that opening-hole bogey with back-to-back birdies at 3 and 4. He's -1, the only man in red figures.

7.09am BST

The first birdie of the 143rd Open Championship has been recorded by Chris Wood. The big man's got a fine Open pedigree already at the age of 26: he won the Silver Medal as top amateur in 2008 at Royal Birkdale, coming fifth overall, and bettered that a year later at Turnberry having turned pro, ending the championship tied for third and a shot away from making a play-off alongside Stewart Cink and Tom Wats... I'm sorry, I still can't talk about that Open, it's too raw. Oh Tom! Oh Tom. Stewart bloody Cink. I ask you. Anyway, I digress. Wood's got off to a flyer with birdie at 1; he's -1 and therefore top of a very young and not very substantial leader board. Down the other end of it, seeing we're going along this route, is Wood's playing partner Bernd Wiesberger of Austria, who has opened with an unfortunate double-bogey six and is already propping up an (admittedly light) field at +2. At least there's plenty of time to regroup.

6.58am BST

David Howell had the honour of taking the first shot at the 2014 Open. Much good it's done him; he's opened with the first bogey of the week on the long par four. One of his playing partners, the 2001 champion David Duval, had this tournament's first chance of birdie, on the green in regulation facing a 20-footer, but he couldn't make it and had to settle for par. Settle for par! There won't be a player in the field who'd not snatch the R&A's hand off if they allowed them to start at the 2nd tee with a "4" already filled in on their card. It's a proper test, this opening hole, and here's Royal Liverpool's head pro John Heggarty explaining why, in our guide to the crucial Hoylake holes.

6.50am BST

It's going to be a beautiful day. We'd be in for a beautiful day if the wind had its dander up and the rain was spearing in from the River Dee and the Irish Sea, for the 143rd Open Championship is under way! The heavens could throw anything at us, you'd not get us down from this high. But as it happens it looks like being a belter on the Wirral today. Sun from dawn to dusk, chance of rain forecast as slim. Maybe a little wind picking up late afternoon, but nothing too hectic. A links course can show its teeth even under benign conditions, of course, but Hoylake probably does need a little wind to defend it. So there could be some low scores today. We'll see. It's on!

6.00am BST

Roberto De Vicenzo is principally remembered these days for the administrative mistake that cost him a play-off place at the 1968 Masters, and the resulting self-deprecating shrug of "What a stupid I am!" But there are much nicer quotes, and this is a much happier story.

For years I came over trying so hard to win. This year, I simply came back to see my friends.

I had many peoples with me.

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