British Open 2014 tee times for Thursday and Friday: Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson on opposite sides of draw

It’s now officially Open Championship week, and the R&A has already posted the tee sheet for the first two days at Royal Liverpool. The season’s third major is the first major for most casual golf fans, because it’s the first time Tiger Woods will tee it up with a chance to cut into that deficit to Jack Nicklaus’ 18 major championships. Woods has just one start, and two competitive rounds, since his late March back surgery so it’s hard to know what to expect from the game’s top draw. He could be gone by Friday afternoon, or near the bottom of the tee sheet on Sunday morning with a chance to win.

All the majors are unique and have their identities, but the Open Championship is way out there on its own as a test unlike any other most of these players will face all season. One thing that makes it so unique is the constant and rapid changes in the weather. The wind and rain can dramatically come up at a moment’s notice, and all the elements can come into play. More than any other tournament, at the British Open, your chance to win might be determined by the luck of where you fall in the draw on the tee sheet the first two days. We see this happen all the time at this event -- a player sneaks through before the weather changes on Thursday afternoon, then gets out late Friday after a wind and rain storm that day has cleared (or vice versa). Some of these players may play an entirely different course on the same day.

Tiger’s been the beneficiary and victim of such luck of the draw at the Open Championship. This year, he’ll go morning-afternoon in the first two rounds, playing alongside Angel Cabrera and Henrik Stenson. He’ll be out at 4:04 a.m. ET (9:04 local in Hoylake) for the first round and then 9:05 a.m. ET (2:05 p.m. local) on Friday afternoon.

As these majors so often do, the R&A put Phil Mickelson on the opposite side of the draw from Woods and he’ll go out with the same tee time as Tiger, just on different days. The defending champion golfer of the year Mickelson will play with Masters champ Bubba Watson and Ernie Els in the first two rounds. Here are some of the marquee groups for the opening two days at Hoylake (all times ET):

One advantage the Open does have is that the amount of daylight in the U.K. this time of year allows the R&A to send every group off No. 1 tee. They’re not jamming 156 players into groups of three off two tees in two waves. All 52 groups roll off the first tee with even a little bit of cushion because it stays light so late. The first tee time is at 6:25 a.m. local and the last group won’t tee off until after 4 p.m. local. It makes for an extremely long couple days but the course is played in the order it was originally setup.

Here’s the full tee sheet for Thursday’s first round (all times ET):