The European Tour leaderboard is live from the Scottish Open at Royal Aberdeen on Saturday with a group of three players six under in the lead and this comes ahead of the British Open and the tournament had Rory McIlroy in the lead over Phil Mickelson and a number of other players heading into the weekend after the first round and McIlroy is looking to get into shape leading into the Open Championship.
McIlroy had the clubhouse lead after he finished his first round and he is seven under with a score of 64 and that put him ahead of Kristoffer Broberg and Ricardo Gonzalez, while names like Luke Donald and Mickelson were close behind in the top 10 as well. Darren Clarke and Paul Casey along with Nicolas Colaserts are also in the mix and this tournament is one of the tune-ups for the upcoming major championship at Royal Liverpool. Tiger Woods returned for the Quicken Loans tournament from his injury to prepare for the Open Championship and now he will be in that lineup next after missing the cut last week.
Mickelson had some struggles in the first round of the tournament and now he is looking to get in shape ahead of the British Open, as he is the defending champion of that tournament. Mickelson won at Muirfield last year and that was a very tough tournament and now he is looking to win again and he dealt with some very harsh conditions. The weather had some wind and rain on Thursday and he is looking to get ready for Royal Liverpool, which is coming up and before winning that tourney last year, he had only two top-10 finishes in the tournament and now has the chance to add another championship to his mantle, which would give him six.
McIlroy looks to be getting back into top form at the Scottish Open, as he has the early lead in the tournament and now it's the fourth time this year that he has opened a tournament at seven under or more. McIlroy knows he needs to keep it up to stay in things over the weekend and he said that this has been an excellent warm-up for him as he prepares for the British Open next week.
McIlroy set the course record at Royal Aberdeen and he is looking like a number one player again after losing that rank to Tiger Woods last year. Adam Scott has the number one now and if McIlroy keeps playing this way, he could be back into the mix once again. McIlroy had a dreadful year last year and he has been much better now, already winning on tour despite dealing with a high profile breakup with Carolina Wozniacki. Mickelson and McIlroy know what's at stake here and they are looking to get into top form heading into the British Open.
Check here for the European Tour leaderboard from the Scottish Open.