Who is Steve Tiley?

There's an exciting star-packed leaderboard in round one, but who is Steve Tiley?

Fergus Bisset
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published

The early leaderboard is looking exciting what with young Rory blitzing his way round to stand alone at the top and "Long" John Daly playing in the carefree, cavalier style he's famous for to be tied second. Steve Tiley - a slightly less well-known Englishman is currently in that tie for second with Daly and I decided I should find out a little more about him. Here are five things I never knew about Steve Tiley:

- He's played in the Open before. He teed it up as an amateur at Royal Troon in 2004 where he missed the cut by two strokes.

- He qualified through local final qualifying at Scotscraig with rounds of 69 and 68. He came through a playoff against Gary Clark and Lloyd Saltman.

- His best finish this season is a tie for 17th at the Saint Omer Open.

- He's attached to Royal Cinque Ports Golf Club in his home county of Kent.

- His favourite TV programme is Only Fools and Horses.

So there we are.

There are impressive crowds out there today. I followed Rory McIlory over a few holes on the back nine and saw little more than the occasional glimpse of his floppy hair as he loped down the fairway until I decided to forge ahead and grab a space in the grandstand by the 15th green. The grandstand is the place to be for spectators. There's something like 21,000 seats to be had around the course so it's quite easy to find a spot and the queues to get in don't seem too bad.

I've just heard the forecast for tomorrow is for 35 mph winds. That'll make for some rather different results to those we're seeing today.

Fergus Bisset
Fergus Bisset
Contributing Editor

Fergus is Golf Monthly's resident expert on the history of the game and has written extensively on that subject. He has also worked with Golf Monthly to produce a podcast series. Called 18 Majors: The Golf History Show it offers new and in-depth perspectives on some of the most important moments in golf's long history. You can find all the details about it here.

He is a golf obsessive and 1-handicapper. Growing up in the North East of Scotland, golf runs through his veins and his passion for the sport was bolstered during his time at St Andrews university studying history. He went on to earn a post graduate diploma from the London School of Journalism. Fergus has worked for Golf Monthly since 2004 and has written two books on the game; "Great Golf Debates" together with Jezz Ellwood of Golf Monthly and the history section of "The Ultimate Golf Book" together with Neil Tappin , also of Golf Monthly.

Fergus once shanked a ball from just over Granny Clark's Wynd on the 18th of the Old Course that struck the St Andrews Golf Club and rebounded into the Valley of Sin, from where he saved par. Who says there's no golfing god?

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