The 146th Open Championship will tee off Thursday morning at Royal Birkdale in England. It’ll be The Open’s 10th trip to Birkdale, and a field of more than 150 players will vie for the Claret Jug. World No. 1 Dustin Johnson is the narrow favorite, trailed by Jordan Spieth and Jon Rahm. Just about all of the world’s best are in the field.
2017 British Open tee times: Pairings for Thursday’s first round
It’s an early morning at Royal Birkdale.
Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images
The Golf Channel will broadcast the action from 1:30 a.m.-4 p.m. ET. There’s talent spread throughout the tee sheet, with some of the world’s best players teeing off both before and after most viewers on the American East Coast will be awake.
The Open hasn’t visited Birkdale since 2008, when Irishman Padraig Harrington won by four strokes over second-place finisher Ian Poulter. Harrington’s winning score that year was 3 strokes over par, an indication of how brutally challenging Birkdale can be. It’s not a long course at 7,156 yards, but it’s got deep bunkers and, often, lots of wind.
Defending the Claret Jug is world No. 7 Henrik Stenson, who won it last year at Royal Troon. Stenson is without a win in 2017, but he’s got five top-10s in his 13 starts. Last year, Stenson and Phil Mickelson ran away from the rest of the field and had a Sunday duel that ended with Stenson triumphing at 20-under.
This year’s major winners, U.S. Open winner Brooks Koepka and Masters champion Sergio Garcia, tee off at 5:09 a.m. and 8:04 a.m. ET, respectively. The majority of the field’s most notable players will be on the course at times when American audiences can watch them without straining their sleep schedules too much.
Thursday British Open tee times
Here’s the full tee sheet for the first round. All times are Eastern:
- 1:35 a.m.: Mark O’Meara, Chris Wood, Ryan Moore
- 1:46 a.m.: Phachara Khongwatmai, a-Maverick McNealy, Stuart Manley
- 1:57 a.m.: Stewart Cink, Sandy Lyle, Jeunghun Wang
- 2:08 a.m.: Paul Broadhurst, Thongchai Jaidee, Roberto Castro
- 2:19 a.m.: Tom Lehman, Ben An, Darren Fichardt
- 2:30 a.m.: Soren Kjeldsen, Billy Horschel, Danny Willett
- 2:41 a.m.: Matthew Fitzpatrick, Steve Stricker, Emiliano Grillo
- 2:52 a.m.: Jason Dufner, Branden Grace, Bryson DeChambeau
- 3:03 a.m.: Alex Noren, Russell Knox, Ian Poulter
- 3:14 a.m.: David Duval, Prayad Marksaeng, K.T. Kim
- 3:25 a.m.: Younghan Song, David Horsey, Dylan Frittelli
- 3:36 a.m.: Mike Lorenzo-Vera, Charles Howell III, Shiv Kapur
- 3:47 a.m.: Russell Henley, Fabrizio Zanotti, Peter Uihlein
- 4:03 a.m.: Alexander Levy, Brendan Steele, Webb Simpson
- 4:14 a.m.: Wesley Bryan, Anirban Lahiri, a-Alfie Plant
- 4:25 a.m.: Darren Clarke, Gary Woodland, a-Harry Ellis
- 4:36 a.m.: Padraig Harrington, Pat Perez, Thomas Pieters
- 4:47 a.m.: Henrik Stenson, Si Woo Kim, Jordan Spieth
- 4:58 a.m.: Louis Oosthuizen, Justin Rose, Justin Thomas
- 5:09 a.m.: Brooks Koepka, Hideki Matsuyama, Tommy Fleetwood
- 5:20 a.m.: J.B. Holmes, Brandt Snedeker, Shane Lowry
- 5:31 a.m.: Richard Bland, Shaun Norris, a-Luca Cianchetti
- 5:42 a.m.: Yi Keun Chang, Chan Kim, Mark Foster
- 5:53 a.m.: Sung-Hoon Kang, Tony Finau, Matthieu Pavon
- 6:04 a.m.: Alexander Bjork, Joe Dean, Robert Streb
- 6:15 a.m.: Robert Dinwiddie, Julian Suri, Adam Hodkinson
- 6:36 a.m.: Andrew Johnston, Adam Hadwin, Todd Hamilton
- 6:47 a.m.: John Daly, Adam Bland, a-Connor Syme
- 6:58 a.m.: William McGirt, Toby Tree, Jamie Lovemark
- 7:09 a.m.: Matthew Griffin, Austin Connelly, Matthew Southgate
- 7:20 a.m.: Cameron Smith, Bill Haas, Callum Shinkwin
- 7:31 a.m.: Michael Hendry, Brian Harman, Martin Laird
- 7:42 a.m.: Ernie Els, Ross Fisher, Bernd Wiesberger
- 7:53 a.m.: Tyrrell Hatton, Martin Kaymer, Aaron Baddeley
- 8:04 a.m.: Zach Johnson, Jason Day, Sergio Garcia
- 8:15 a.m.: Andy Sullivan, Joost Luiten, David Lipsky
- 8:26 a.m.: Rickie Fowler, Adam Scott, Paul Casey
- 8:37 a.m.: Matt Kuchar, Richie Ramsay, Ryan Fox
- 8:48 a.m.: Kevin Kisner, Charley Hoffman, David Drysdale
- 9:04 a.m.: Jimmy Walker, Hideto Tanihara, Thorbjorn Olesen
- 9:15 a.m.: Jhonattan Vegas, Brandon Stone, Sean O’Hair
- 9:26 a.m.: Daniel Berger, Pablo Larrazabal, Yuta Ikeda
- 9:37 a.m.: Paul Lawrie, Kevin Chappell, Yusaku Miyazato
- 9:48 a.m.: Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson, Charl Schwartzel
- 9:59 a.m.: Jon Rahm, Patrick Reed, Lee Westwood
- 10:10 a.m.: Phil Mickelson, Francesco Molinari, Marc Leishman
- 10:21 a.m. Scott Hend, Rafa Cabrera Bello, Bubba Watson
- 10:32 a.m. Paul Waring, Kyle Stanley, Kevin Na
- 10:43 a.m. Giwhan Kim, Xander Schauffele, Andrew Dodt
- 10:54 a.m. Haotong Li, Kent Bulle, Haydn McCullen
- 11:05 a.m. Jbe’ Kruger, Nick McCarthy, Ashley Hall
- 11:16 a.m. Ryan McCarthy, Laurie Canter, Sebastian Munoz
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