Adam Scott
The closest Adam Scott has come to winning a major was a second place finish at last year's Masters. Reuters

When and where: Coverage of Friday's play at Royal Lytham & St Annes gets underway at 4.30 a.m. ET on ESPN. A live stream will be available from 4 a.m. on ESPN3.

Notable Tee Times (ET):

4.20 a.m. Rory McIlroy continues his challenge alongside Louis Oosthuizen and Keegan Bradley

4.42 a.m. World No.1 Luke Donald begins day two at even par, with Phil Mickelson and Geoff Ogilvy

8.32 a.m. Paul Lawrie, tied for second, tees-off for his second round with Davis Love III and Tim Clark

8.43 a.m. Leader Adam Scott looks to stay in front as he starts round two with Matt Kuchar and amateur Alan Dunbar.

9.10 a.m. Zach Johnson and Ernie Els begin round two very much in contention, though the same cannot be said for playing partner Darren Clarke.

9.21 a.m. Lee Westwood and Bubba Watson tee-off with Yoshinori Fujimoto.

9.43 a.m. Tiger Woods begins round two alongside Sergio Garcia and Justin Rose.

Preview: The biggest surprise on the opening day of the 2012 Open Championship was that the torrid weather that is often such a feature of golf's oldest tournament and has been so predominant in this British summer failed to materialize.

Benign conditions in the morning allowed Adam Scott to shoot a course-record equaling score of 64. The Australian will head into Friday a shot clear of the field at 6-under-par. It was a fine way for Scott, who has yet to win a major, to celebrate turning 32 on Monday.

It's nice to just take advantage of the calm conditions today, Scott said, according to ESPN. It was very pleasing to go out and play some solid golf. It's something that I haven't done in the first round of the majors this year.

My goal at the start of the week was to play today like it was Sunday and there was no tomorrow. Now I have my work cut out for me the next couple of days to keep myself in position.

Former Open winner Paul Lawrie is finely placed just a shot back of Scott, alongside American Zach Johnson and Belgian Nicolas Colsaerts. Brandt Snedeker sits at 4-under, followed by a stunning collection of stars three shots off the lead. Major winners Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Ernie Els, Bubba Watson and Graeme McDowell all among the names to have set themselves up nicely on the opening day.

It was a good start, Woods said, according to The Open website. I hit the ball well all day but just lacked a bit of pace on the greens coming home. Every putt was right on line, they were dying off the front of the lip.

Although some rain arrived later in the day as the temperatures dropped, the conditions remained better than any of the competitors could have wished for. That only added to the frustrations of defending champion Darren Clarke along with challengers Lee Westwood and Phil Mickelson.

Westwood and Mickelson will feel they can still recover from a score of 73, but there is little hope for Clarke after carding a 76. The Northern Irishman later claiming that he was disgusted with himself.

While the calm elements were a blessing for the players, golfing purists will be hoping for more traditional links conditions on day two.