Scottie Scheffler was the pre-tournament favorite entering the 2025 Open Championship, but Rory McIlroy was the big story as he looked to put the heartbreak from 2019 in the past and capture the Claret Jug in his home country of Northern Ireland. After two days of play, Scheffler has made quite the statement as the world No. 1 fired a second round 64 on Friday to jump into the lead alone at 10 under and shift the conversation to his continued ascent up the all-time ranks.<\/p>\n
Scheffler will play in the final pairing on Saturday alongside Matt Fitzpatrick, who is one back at 9 under; they’ll tee off at 10:35 a.m. ET.<\/p>\n
Going into Moving Day at Royal Portrush, the rest of the field knows it will take something special to knock Scheffler off the top spot on the leaderboard. The penultimate group will feature the 2023 Open champion Brian Harman and Haotong Li teeing off at 10:25 a.m., as they begin the day at 8 under, two behind Scheffler but three clear of the group at T5 behind them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While many of the top stars are making the weekend, the biggest perceived threats to Scheffler coming into the week are seven or more shots off the pace. At least one of them will need to try and match Scheffler’s 64 on Saturday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
McIlroy leads that group at 3 under, and he’ll begin his pursuit playing alongside Jordan Smith at 9:30 a.m. Ludvig \u00c5berg and Justin Rose are back at 2 under and will tee off together at 9:00 a.m., while reigning Open champion Xander Schauffele will go off two games before them at 8:40 a.m.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Justin Thomas and Tommy Fleetwood will make up one of the marquee groups of the morning, as they are 1 under and will look to find some good mojo in the 8:05 a.m. tee time. Jordan Spieth and Viktor Hovland (7 a.m.) and Jon Rahm and Shane Lowry (6:30 a.m.) are back at even par and will also hope for some calm early conditions on Saturday to help them make a move.\u00a0<\/p>\n