Cameron Percy produced a brilliant birdie blitz around the turn to take a one-shot lead after day one of the ISPS HANDA Senior Open, while Paul McGinley is best of the Irish trio at two-under.
The Dubliner is back on familiar territory having led Team Europe to a famous Ryder Cup victory at Gleneagles in 2014, and he got off to an ideal start carding three birdies in his first five holes.
A sticky patch in the middle third of the round saw him drop shots on six, seven and 11, before a double bogey on the 12th threatened to derail him altogether. His response was impressive, however, and he clawed his way back to level-par with back-to-back birdies on 13 and 14 before adding two more on 16 and 18 to shoot a two-under 70 and end the day tied for 23rd.
“My Christmas card [scorecard] is like a Christmas tree with different colours on it. A lot of good golf in there. I played well,” McGinley said.
“The golf course is suiting me because I can chase it and there’s a bit of run in the fairways, and course management was pretty good. And I really enjoyed it.
“I love coming up to this place. Obviously it’s got good memories for me and good vibes.
“You go around the hotel and you see the photographs, and you see all the images and the memories. And the team room I was in last night, having a look around that, just for nostalgic reasons. Obviously great memories. It was a great week that turned out wonderfully well.”
Defending champion Pádraig Harrington shot a level-par 72 that featured three birdies – including one on the last – and three bogeys, while Darren Clarke, winner of the event in 2022 when it was last staged at Gleneagles, needed two birdies in his final five holes to get back to one-over and lie tied for 64th.
“Obviously not my best day but you know, it’s that sort of golf course out there,” Harrington said. “You can feel — get a bit cautious and intimidated. There’s lots of trouble. Look, I’m a long way back at the moment, but there are 54 holes, so. If I free up a little bit, maybe I’ll catch up.”
Australian Percy teed off in the favourable early conditions and made the most of the calm winds, recording four birdies in a row from the ninth in a 67 that got him to seven-under.
Frenchman Lionel Alexandre was his nearest rival after a bogey-free 64, one shot ahead of four-time Major champion Ernie Els, 2018 winner of this event Miguel Ángel Jiménez and American duo Tom Penrice Jr and Pat Perez.
Percy has yet to claim a senior win since turning 50 in May 2024, but he has made all 81 of his cuts on the Champions Tour and in 2025 finished in the top ten at this event, the Senior PGA Championship and the U.S. Senior Open.
That suggests a win may not be far away and he was happy with his performance on the King’s Course after enjoying some success with his preparations.
Percy started well with birdies on the second and third but really came to life with those four birdies in a row that sent him flying up the leaderboard.
He dropped his only shot of the day on the 13th but picked it back up on the driveable par-four next before adding a closing gain on the last.
“I drove it really good but you have to here,” Percy said. “I didn’t hit in the rough once and so that was really nice. Seemed to have really good numbers, and I stopped pretty close to the hole and made a couple putts. The par fives, I drove on in two and the short par four I drove, and that helped.
“Sunningdale was incredible last year. And then I just love playing links golf over here. It’s brilliant. Yeah, any time I can come over here and play golf, I’m very happy.
“I’ve never been here before. But I found something late yesterday. The last four holes I hit it really nicely, and did it again today. Hopefully I’ll keep doing that and I’ll be okay.”
Alexandre made his first birdie of the day on the seventh and they came at regular intervals after that as he added gains on the ninth, tenth, 12th, 14th and 18th.
Perez was also bogey-free in his first Senior Open since turning 50 in March, while Jiménez and Els both dropped single shots in their rounds.
Penrice Jr turned in a one-over 35 with a double-bogey on the sixth but made four birdies from the tenth before eagling the 14th to catapult himself up the leaderboard.
American duo Jerry Kelly and Taggart Ridings, Italian Emanuele Canonica, Swede Johan Edfors and Australian Michael Wright were at four under, one clear of two-time Major champion Zach Johnson and fellow Ryder Cuppers Boo Weekley and David Howell.
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