Phil Mickelson finished his first round at The Open with a remarkable 8-under 63, ending Thursday with a three-shot lead on second-place Patrick Reed and Martin Kaymer. It was an incredible round for Mickelson, and it somehow should’ve been even one stroke better than it was. But golf is a cruel game sometimes.
British Open tee times 2016: Pairings for Friday’s second round
The 145th Open rolls on at Royal Troon.
Mickelson’s defense of his lead will start Friday at 8:25 a.m. local time in Scotland, which is 3:25 on the East Coast in the United States. Watching Mickelson’s second round will put significant stress on your sleep schedule, but it might just turn out to be worth it. The left-hander missed the cut at June’s U.S. Open and hasn’t won a major since his 2013 Open comeback, but his play was at a tremendous level on Thursday. He’s got just 54 holes to go, and he’ll play the next 18 in the same grouping as Thursday, with fellow veterans Lee Westwood and Ernie Els.
Elsewhere at Troon, a few groupings have multiple early contenders. Reed will tee off with 1-under Branden Grace and Byeong Hun An at a more watchable 8:04 a.m. ET. Kaymer is playing with Russell Knox and favorite Dustin Johnson, whose first-round even par tied him for 51st. (Johnson’s got a lot of work to do, already eight shots off the lead.) There’s also a veteran group including Steve Stricker (4-under) and Vijay Singh (2-under), teeing off at 9:15 a.m.
Mickelson has pretty well claimed his place as the weekend’s top storyline, though, at least for now. A three-stroke lead isn’t anywhere near insurmountable, of course, but at age 46 and without a major in three years, it had started to look as if Mickelson might never win another one. All it takes is 72 great holes to change that, and Mickelson now has 18 of those in the books. But the group immediately pursuing him is a skilled one. Reed, Kaymer and Justin Thomas are all ranked 52nd or better in the world, and the lowest of those, Kaymer, has more talent than that. They won’t be easy to stave off.
It’s a 156-player field, and the 70 best scores and ties will make the cut at the end of Friday. The first of the day’s 52 groups tees off at 1:35 a.m., and the last will be on the course at 11:16 a.m.. It’ll be a fun day at Troon.
Tee Time Players
1:35 a.m. - Greg Chalmers, Kristoffer Broberg, Clement Sordet
1:46 a.m. - David Howell, Seung Yul Noh, Tony Finau
1:57 a.m. - Jordan Niebrugge, Nick Cullen, Robert Streb
2:08 a.m. - Ben Curtis, Stefano Mazzoli, John Daly
2:19 a.m. - Francesco Molinari, Kevin Kisner, K.T. Kim
2:30 a.m. - Todd Hamilton, Justin Leonard, Mark Calcavecchia
2:41 a.m. - Soren Kjeldsen, Lasse Jensen, Bill Haas
2:52 a.m. - Paul Casey, Charl Schwartzel, Kevin Na
3:03 a.m. - Emiliano Grillo, Joost Luiten, Charley Hoffman
3:14 a.m. - Graeme McDowell, Matt Kuchar, Andrew Johnston
3:25 a.m. - Phil Mickelson, Lee Westwood, Ernie Els
3:36 a.m. - Satoshi Kodaira, James Hahn, Andy Sullivan
3:47 a.m. - Ryan Moore, Bernd Wiesberger, Tommy Fleetwood
4:03 a.m. - Dustin Johnson, Martin Kaymer, Russell Knox
4:14 a.m. - Zach Johnson, Adam Scott , Henrik Stenson
4:25 a.m. - Chris Wood, Yusaku Miyazato, Mark O'Meara
4:36 a.m. - Miguel Angel Jimenez, Jason Dufner, Marc Warren
4:47 a.m. - Anirban Lahiri, Sergio Garcia, Keegan Bradley
4:58 a.m. - Webb Simpson, Yuta Ikeda, Thomas Pieters
5:09 a.m. - Rafa Cabrera-Bello, J.B. Holmes, Brandon Stone
5:20 a.m. - Marco Dawson, Matthew Southgate, Yosuke Tsukada
5:31 a.m. - Jack Senior, James Heath, Brian Gay
5:42 a.m. - Jim Herman, Fabian Gomez, Anthony Wall
5:53 a.m. - Paul Howard, Daniel Summerhays, Colt Knost
6:04 a.m. - Oskar Arvidsson, Harold Varner III, Tyrrell Hatton
6:15 a.m. - Ryan Evans, Callum Shinkwin, Zander Lombard
6:36 a.m. - Colin Montgomerie, Marc Leishman, Luke Donald
6:47 a.m. - Steven Alker, Marcus Fraser, Sang-hee Lee
6:58 a.m. - Jeunghun Wang, Jon Rahm, Ryan Palmer
7:09 a.m. - Sandy Lyle, Scott Gregory, David Duval
7:20 a.m. - Richie Ramsay, Danny Lee, Harris English
7:31 a.m. - Alex Noren, Steven Bowditch, Kevin Chappell
7:42 a.m. - Darren Clarke, Thorbjorn Olesen, Jim Furyk
7:53 a.m. - Justin Thomas, David Lingmerth, Kiradech Aphibarnrat
8:04 a.m. - Branden Grace, Patrick Reed, Byeong Hun An
8:15 a.m. - Paul Lawrie, Brandt Snedeker, Thongchai Jaidee
8:26 a.m. - Padraig Harrington, Louis Oosthuizen, Jamie Donaldson
8:37 a.m. - Scott Piercy, Paul Dunne, Jamie Lovemark
8:48 a.m. - Victor Dubuisson, Jimmy Walker, Scott Hend
9:04 a.m. - Jordan Spieth, Justin Rose, Shane Lowry
9:15 a.m. - Ross Fisher, Steve Stricker, Vijay Singh
9:26 a.m. - Danny Willett, Rickie Fowler, Jason Day
9:37 a.m. - Rory McIlroy, Hideki Matsuyama, Bubba Watson
9:48 a.m. - Gary Woodland, James Morrison, Soo-min Lee
9:59 a.m. - Smylie Kaufman, Chris Kirk, George Coetzee
10:10 a.m. - Billy Horschel, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Hideto Tanihara
10:21 a.m. - Matteo Manassero, Shugo Imahira, Russell Henley
10:32 a.m. - Kodai Ichihara, Robert Rock, William McGirt
10:43 a.m. - Brendan Steele, Richard Sterne, Matt Jones
10:54 a.m. - Patton Kizzire, Nicolas Colsaerts, Rod Pampling
11:05 a.m. - Dave Coupland, Nathan Holman, Phachara Khongwatmai
11:16 a.m. - Scott Fernandez, Rikard Karlberg, Haydn Porteous
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Royal Troon’s Postage Stamp Hole
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