Saturday’s British Open tee times and schedule moved up, R&A to use 2-tee start for 1st time ever

The British Open is the only major that never has to send players off of split tees, a tradition upheld by the R&A thanks to the hours and hours of sunlight in the UK this time of year. Even when the field is at its full 156-man limit, players all go off the first tee in almost 10 hours of rolling tee times, from 6:30 am. local time to 4 p.m. The first two rounds are often the longest golf days of the year, and it’s a pretty nice tradition.

But the news out of Hoylake on Friday night is that the R&A will indeed send the smaller weekend field off two tees for the third round because of thunderstorms in the forecast.

UPDATE: Here’s the full tee sheet of threesomes going off both sides.

This is the first time in the 143-year history of the Open Championship that players will go off split tees, so what seems like a trivial change is probably causing a bit of backlash among the British purists. As a reference, last year the Saturday tee times went out in groups of two, running from 8:10 a.m. to 3:20 p.m. local in Muirfield.

Weather is always a factor at this championship, and part of what makes it so unique. The winds have to be at a level where your ball can’t stay still or stop and folks are getting blown over in order for the R&A to put the Open in a delay. But apparently the threat of hail and thunderstorms will push everything up to 9 a.m. local at Royal Liverpool, and 4 a.m. ET back in the United States. The storm is supposed to feature a lot of lightning and roll in around 2 a.m. overnight, perhaps lasting up until Noon.

Lee Westwood was just one several people who were a bit shocked by the move.

And here are some of the reactions to the announcement from the Open’s official twitter account above. Words like disgraceful, shame, and rolling in my grave are used.