Open Championship: early final-round images

Some early images from the final round of the 143rd Open Championship at Royal Liverpool, including Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Jason Dufner

Some early images from the final round of the 143rd Open Championship at Royal Liverpool, including Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Jason Dufner

Huge galleries made their way round the famous links at Royal Liverpool as round four of the 143rd Open Championship got underway this morning.

With the weather forecast good, and predicted to get ever better, golf fans flocked to Hoylake to see some of the world's best players in action.

The marquee morning pairing featured crowd favourite and 14-time major champion Tiger Woods and 2013 PGA Champion Jason Dufner.

Defending champion Phil Mickelson was also out early following a third-round 71.

Louis Oosthuizen - who made a great start to the Open Championship - made his way to the first green as Japan's Koumei Oda completed a joint best-of-day 67.

Nick Bonfield
Features Editor

Nick Bonfield joined Golf Monthly in 2012 after graduating from Exeter University and earning an NCTJ-accredited journalism diploma from News Associates in Wimbledon. He is responsible for managing production of the magazine, sub-editing, writing, commissioning and coordinating all features across print and online. Most of his online work is opinion-based and typically centres around the Majors and significant events in the global golfing calendar. Nick has been an avid golf fan since the age of ten and became obsessed with the professional game after watching Mike Weir and Shaun Micheel win The Masters and PGA Championship respectively in 2003. In his time with Golf Monthly, he's interviewed the likes of Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose, Jose Maria Olazabal, Henrik Stenson, Padraig Harrington, Lee Westwood and Billy Horschel and has ghost-written columns for Westwood, Wayne Riley, Matthew Southgate, Chris Wood and Eddie Pepperell. Nick is a 12-handicap golfer and his favourite courses include Old Head, Sunningdale New, Penha Longha, Valderrama and Bearwood Lakes. If you have a feature pitch for Nick, please email nick.bonfield@futurenet.com with 'Pitch' in the subject line. Nick is currently playing: Driver: TaylorMade M1 Fairway wood: TaylorMade RBZ Stage 2 Hybrid: Ping Crossover Irons (4-9): Nike Vapor Speed Wedges: Cleveland CBX Full Face, 56˚, Titleist Vokey SM4, 60˚ Putter: testing in progress! Ball: TaylorMade TP5x