Golf fans have been left slightly bemused at television coverage of The Open after the background colours displayed on the leaderboard have been changed. Daniel Brown led the field at the end of the opening day after going round in six under-par, with Rory McIlroy struggling down in 129th on seven over.
The best golfers in the world have descended on Royal Troon in South Ayrshire for the 152nd Open.
And the likes of Shane Lowry, Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele will be aiming to be in the mix for silverware come Sunday.
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Television cameras from across the world are covering the event, with Sky Sports showing live coverage in the UK and the BBC putting out a highlights package. And the leaderboard colour scheme proved to be one of the talking points on the opening day.
Usually, an eagle will be displayed with a yellow background, with a birdie lending itself to a red colour scheme. Bogeys will be light blue, while pars don’t have a colour assigned to them.
However, this year the coverage has featured a black background for a bogey and a blue background for a par.
The tweak was noticed by former Ryder Cup star Ross Fisher, who posted on X: “Great watching coverage of @TheOpen. Only criticism is the scorecards! Maybe it’s me but I’m struggling with the colour of blue for pars. Why? Birdies red, pars grey, bogeys and worse blue.”
And veteran Sky Sports Golf commentator Ewen Murray then added his voice to the debate as he replied: “I’m with you on that Ross.”
Meanwhile, @MMcEwanGolf said on X: “We need a legally-enforceable international standard on the colour scheme of golf leaderboards. We can't just be using blue whenever we fancy it.”
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Golf fan @BigAshy1872 penned: “@SkySportsGolf please please please can you sort out the colour of your graphics for the @TheOpen coverage. Blue has never been used for a par ever and its incredibly grating. Sort it out!”
And @jayrsee added: “What on earth are Sky doing with the colours on score cards. Since when was blue a par? Bogey is grey. When showing McIlroy’s card though, the colours changed and blue was not a par. Scoreboard shows under par as yellow. Very annoying.”
The opening round threw up plenty of surprises, with world No. 2 McIlroy enduring a miserable day on the links course following his disappointment at the US Open last month. US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau went round in five over-par, with Jon Rahm finishing the day two over. Elsewhere, Lowry was one shot behind the leader, with Justin Thomas ending the day in third position after posting a score of three under-par.
Play resumed at 6.35am on Friday morning as Ewen Ferguson and Marcel Siem teed off together.
