British Open 2017: Live updates, scores, leaderboard, highlights and more from Royal Birkdale

The 146th Open Championship is underway at Royal Birkdale in Northwest England.

It’s the 10th time the tournament’s been held at Birkdale. Its last trip there was in 2008, when Padraig Harrington won by three shots over Ian Poulter. The course was challenging that year, with Harrington’s winning score coming in at 3-over par through 72 holes. Nobody other than the Irishman did better than plus-7 that year.

The defending champion is Swedish star Henrik Stenson, whose Claret Jug win last year marked his first major win. At 11/1, world No. 1 Dustin Johnson was oddsmakers’ favorite to win, a year after he claimed his first (and still only) major in the U.S. Open at Oakmont. Jordan Spieth and Jon Rahm are next at 12/1, followed by Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose, Rickie Fowler, and Masters champion Sergio Garcia at 15/1. The defending champion, Stenson, is something of a long shot (but not so much so) at 25/1.

3:56 a.m. ET

It appears Birkdale will be a vexing test, just as it was nine years ago. Rain and wind blanketed the course on Thursday morning, as the first players in the field teed off just after 6:30 a.m. local time (1:30 a.m. ET). Golf Channel reported winds were moving in from the West at 16 miles per hour, with gusts of 18 miles per hour.

A little moisture isn’t the worst thing on a tight links course with narrow fairways, but the weather, while improving a bit as the morning got older, was far from ideal. The first few groups on the course struggled badly.

It’ll be a long day of golf. The Open doesn’t use a split-tees system, so all 156 players in the field tee off from No. 1 in a succession that lasts all day. The last group wasn’t slated to leave the first tee until 11:16 a.m. ET, about 10 hours after the championship got underway with Ryan Moore, Mark O’Meara, and Chris Wood’s group.

The leaderboard at GolfChannel.com is always updating.

Golf Channel has the live TV broadcast and streaming until the action ends.

Here is Mark O’Meara hitting the very first shot of the entire championship out of bounds. It was a sign that things would be difficult early in the morning.