British Open 2014 tee times: Pairings for Saturday’s 3rd round

The tee times at the British Open will look a little different than usual on Saturday. For the first time in the history of the Open, players will go off in split tees while also playing in groups of three.

The British Open had been the only major to not use split tees. With extended daylight during the summer in England, every player has always begun his round off the first tee with tee times stretching from the early morning to the late afternoon. The strong threat of thunderstorms is the catalyst for the change as the R&A is opting for split tees in an attempt to speed up the round.

The change isn’t likely to have a major impact on the players, other than on which hole they begin the day and the size of playing groups. The leaders will still go off No. 1, and the players on the bottom half of the leaderboard will play off the 10th tee. Rory McIlroy will join Dustin Johnson and Francesco Molinari in the final pairing of the day with a scheduled tee time of 6:01 a.m. ET. McIlroy shot his second straight 66 on Friday and holds a four-stroke lead at 12-under. With weather delays a possibility, whether he actually tees off at 6:01 a.m. remains to be seen. Weather is always a factor at the Open Championship, but the possible addition of thunder and lightning is harder to manage than rain and wind.

With a loaded leaderboard chasing McIlroy, the afternoon groups will not be short on notable names or pairings. Rickie Fowler and Sergio Garcia will play together, joined by Ryan Moore. The three are set for the second-to-last tee time. Charl Schwartzel, George Coetzee and Louis Oosthuizen will go off one group earlier, scheduled for 5:39 a.m. Jim Furyk, Jimmy Walker, Adam Scott and Justin Rose are among the other names who will tee off No. 1.

Tiger Woods will tee off at the same time as McIlroy, the difference is he’ll go off No. 10, playing with the bottom of the leaderboard. Woods nearly missed the cut after he carded a triple bogey on No. 17. He rebounded with a birdie on his final hole on Friday to make the cut right on the number. He will be joined by another notable player, Jordan Spieth, and Rhein Gibson in his pairing. Some thought the 20-year-old Spieth had a good chance to contend this weekend. Five bogeys in the second round derailed those chances, and he’ll begin the third round 14 shots off the lead.

With tee times moving up to combat the weather, television coverage was also shifted. ESPN’s broadcast was scheduled to begin at 7 a.m., but will instead start two hours earlier at 5 a.m. If there are no delays, half the players will be early into their third rounds when the broadcast begins.

Here is a complete look at the third-round tee sheet. All times Eastern: