British Open TV schedule 2016: Coverage of Thursday’s first round at Royal Troon

Play at The Open tees off on Thursday, at Royal Troon in Scotland and you’ll be able to watch from the very first shot -- a first for a major championship.

For Americans, this will require the usual adaptation but should be a cool viewing event. Troon, in Scotland, is five hours ahead of the East Coast, and that means the tournament starts at 1:30 a.m. around those parts. That’s a good 2.5 hour expansion from the start time when ESPN telecast it. This is Golf Channel’s first foray into major championship golf and they’re going to do it big. You just need to be up early.

The Open is great because you can wake up to find it in full swing, or start your own personal tradition of plowing straight through the night. It’s not often we get major championship golf in the middle of the night, so embrace it. There’s a good case that this is golf’s best major. Middle-of-the-night golf is awesome, the weather is always unpredictable and the theatrics of an Open’s 18th-hole setup are always really hard to beat. Opens are fun, and there’s no reason to think this one will be any different. Troon is a historic venue with all the characteristics you would expect from an Open and a Scottish links test.

Dustin Johnson and Jason Day are co-favorites, and they’re also considered by many to be the two best players heading into the event. Johnson is coming off his first ever major win, a Sunday triumph at Oakmont in last month’s U.S. Open. Day is still the No. 1 player in the world, and he’s done little show he’s not worthy of that ranking all season. (Day started poorly at Oakmont, but he turned it on late and finished tied for eighth, then tied for third at the WGC-Bridgestone at the start of July.)

The Open was last played at Troon in 2004, so it’s a bit hard to say how the course will play this time around. But the most recent history suggests it will be a challenge and a tale of two nines. Get your birdies early because you will be punished coming into the clubhouse on the back nine. Troon played to a course average of 73 strokes in 2004, two strokes over its current par-71 setup and second-toughest among PGA TOUR courses that year (to the extent you’d consider Open rota courses PGA TOUR courses). Some of its 96 bunkers are absurdly deep, and it can be tough to get around.

As in any major, this year’s conditions at Troon should make for a tough test. The club moved after the 2012 Amateur Championship to make the course firmer and faster, although it’s been an extremely wet July that may render those changes unnoticeable. The links setup should allow for the usual enormous run-out drives, and players who hit fairways will be rewarded even more than usual. That’s more or less what the R&A strives for, and this year’s Open should be a good one.

Here’s a full television schedule for Thursday. All times are Eastern:

1:30 a.m.-4 p.m. -- Golf Channel

Marquee group stream

4:03 a.m. -- Jordan Spieth/ Justin Rose / Shane Lowry

9:15 a.m. -- Zach Johnson/ Adam Scott / Henrik Stenson

3 a.m.-1 p.m. -- Sirius XM PGA Tour Radio (Ch. 92/208)