McIlroy, Scheffler and Lowry Lead Star-Studded Field at Open Championship Return to Portrush
Players look to etch their names in history at final major of the season
Las Vegas - Veteran Rory McIlroy headlines the 2025 The Open Championship at Royal Portrush, aiming to add a second Claret Jug and complete a rare Masters–Open double not seen since Tiger Woods in 2005.
McIlroy, the reigning Masters champion and World No. 2, returns to Portrush where he missed the cut in 2019 but arrives in form with three victories this season. “With what happened in 2019, I feel like I’ve got something to prove here,” McIlroy has said previously, acknowledging the sting of his early exit six years ago. He has already claimed THE PLAYERS, Pebble Beach and the Masters in 2025, becoming just the sixth player to complete the career Grand Slam.
Portrush, hosting The Open for the third time, welcomes back another home hero in Shane Lowry, who captured the Claret Jug here in 2019 by six strokes. “That week was life-changing,” Lowry reflected earlier this season. “You can never replicate your first win at home but you can chase that feeling again.” The Irishman, now with three PGA TOUR titles, has posted strong results this year, including two runner-up finishes, and sits 17th in the FedExCup standings.
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler arrives seeking a fourth win in 2025, having already secured the PGA Championship and 12 top-10 finishes in 15 starts. He remains a model of consistency, having placed inside the top 25 in every event this season, and leads the FedExCup by 846 points over McIlroy. Scheffler is bidding to become the first to win the PGA and Open in the same year since Xander Schauffele’s 2024 feat.
Also returning is defending champion Schauffele, aiming to become the first back-to-back winner of The Open since Padraig Harrington in 2008. The World No. 3, a two-time major champion, has finished inside the top 28 in 14 consecutive majors and boasts the longest active made-cut streak on TOUR at 68 events.
Among others to watch are J.J. Spaun, this year’s U.S. Open winner making his Open debut, and Robert MacIntyre, who has fond memories of a T6 finish at Portrush in 2019 and arrives on the back of a runner-up at the U.S. Open. Justin Rose, twice runner-up at The Open and coming off a strong Masters this spring, returns for his 22nd appearance.
Royal Portrush, stretching 7,381 yards as a par 71, also features a field of 156 including 16 past Open champions and 29 of the top 30 in the FedExCup standings. Notably, Adam Scott makes his 97th consecutive major appearance, a streak second only to Jack Nicklaus.
The week also brings the final chance for players to secure a spot in the FedExCup Playoffs, with notable names such as Rickie Fowler and Adam Scott currently outside the top 70. In addition, last week’s Genesis Scottish Open champion Chris Gotterup qualified via the Open Qualifying Series, hoping to emulate McIlroy’s 2014 achievement of winning a TOUR event and a major in successive weeks.
The Open Championship remains golf’s most historic test, and as the world’s best descend upon Northern Ireland’s coast, the stage is set for another chapter to be written in the game’s grandest story.