It’s a week that has been 68 years in the making. For just the second time in the history of the Open Championship, the R&A is holding the event outside England and Scotland, returning to Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland after previously playing it here in 1951. Save for “local” natives Rory McIlroy, Graeme McDowell and Darren Clarke, the famed Dunluce Links presents a mystery to most of the 156-player field, setting up some interesting practice rounds early in the week as competitors try to become acclimated with the place before scores start to count on Thursday.
A relative unknown, England’s Max Faulkner, was the winner when The Open was here previously. Recent venues holding Majors for the first time or returning to the Major spotlight after a long spell away, however, have seen players near the top of the Official World Golf Ranking coming away the winners. What type of winner we’ll get come early Monday morning only adds to the mystery of the championship.
RELATED: An opening for The Open at Royal Portrush
Meanwhile, it seems fitting that the R&A would choose one of Northern Ireland’s own to hit the opening shot of the 148th Open, with Clarke, the 2011 champion, being picked to do the honours. Here are the threesomes in their entirety for the opening two rounds at Portrush.
RELATED: Why this Open is not technically a British Open
Thursday/Friday tee-times
All times local (eastern Australia is nine hours ahead, making the first tee-time 3:35pm, AEST).
All players starting on the first tee.
6:35 am/11:36 am
Darren CLARKE
James SUGRUE (a)
Charley HOFFMAN
6:46 am/11:47 am
Emiliano GRILLO
Sung KANG
Thomas THURLOWAY (a)
6:57 am/11:58 am
Andy SULLIVAN
Christiaan BEZUIDENHOUT
Alexander LEVY
7:08 am/12:09 pm
Chan KIM
Zander LOMBARD
Brandon WU (a)
7:19 am/12:20 pm
Richard STERNE
Romain LANGASQUE
Matthias SCHMID (a)
7:30 am/12:31 pm
Padraig HARRINGTON
Matthew FITZPATRICK
Andrew PUTNAM
7:41 am/12:42 pm
Bubba WATSON
Eddie PEPPERELL
Rafa CABRERA-BELLO
7:52 am/12:53 pm
Phil MICKELSON
Shane LOWRY
Branden GRACE
8:03 am/1:04 pm
Alex NOREN
Mike LORENZO-VERA
Sam LOCKE
8:14 am/1:15 pm
Webb SIMPSON
Sergio GARCIA
C.T. PAN
8:25 am/1:26 pm
Ryan PALMER
Andrea PAVAN
Dylan FRITTELLI
8:36 am/1:37 pm
Kyle STANLEY
Robert MACINTYRE
Andrew JOHNSTON
8:47 am/1:48 pm
Mikko KORHONEN
Oliver WILSON
Curtis KNIPES (a)
9:03 am/2:04 pm
Ian POULTER
Sungjae IM
Kiradech APHIBARNRAT
9:14 am/2:15 pm
Henrik STENSON
Xander SCHAUFFELE
Graeme McDOWELL
9:25 am/2:26 pm
Haotong LI
Russell KNOX
Bernd WIESBERGER
9:36 am/2:37 pm
Jason KOKRAK
Connor SYME
Austin CONNELLY
9:47 am/2:48 pm
Zach JOHNSON
David DUVAL
Corey CONNERS
9:58 am/2:59 pm
Francesco MOLINARI
Bryson DECHAMBEAU
Adam SCOTT
10:09 am/3:10 pm
Rory McILROY
Gary WOODLAND
Paul CASEY
10:20 am/3:21 pm
Rickie FOWLER
Kevin KISNER
Hideki MATSUYAMA
10:31 am/3:32 pm
Jim FURYK
Si-Woo KIM
Jimmy WALKER
10:42 am/3:43 pm
Luke LIST
Alexander BJORK
Paul WARING
10:53 am/3:54 pm
Shugo IMAHIRA
Nate LASHLEY
Benjamin HEBERT
11:04 am/4:05 pm
Mikumu HORIKAWA
Callum SHINKWIN
Garrick PORTEOUS
11:15 am/4:16 pm
Prom MEESAWAT
Matthew BALDWIN
Jack SENIOR
11:36 am/6:35 am
Tom LEHMAN
Joaquin NIEMANN
Miguel Angel JIMENEZ
11:47 am/6:46 am
Byeong Hun AN
Jorge CAMPILLO
Chris WOOD
11:58 am/6:57 am
Joel DAHMEN
Adri ARNAUS
Dimitrios PAPADATOS
12:09 pm/7:08 am
Stewart CINK
Rory SABBATINI
Innchoon HWANG
12:20 pm/7:19 am
Erik VAN ROOYEN
Kurt KITAYAMA
Jake MCLEOD
12:31 pm/7:30 am
Ryan FOX
Shaun NORRIS
Dongkyu JANG
12:42 pm/7:41 am
Tyrrell HATTON
Keith MITCHELL
Thomas PIETERS
12:53 pm/7:52 am
Justin THOMAS
Tommy FLEETWOOD
Thorbjorn OLESEN
1:04 pm/8:03 am
Brooks KOEPKA
Louis OOSTHUIZEN
Shubhankar SHARMA
1:15 pm/8:14 am
Billy HORSCHEL
Jazz JANEWATTANANOND
Aaron WISE
1:26 pm/8:25 am
Jordan SPIETH
Marc LEISHMAN
Danny WILLETT
1:37 pm/8:36 am
Cameron SMITH
Adam HADWIN
David LIPSKY
1:48 pm/8:47 am
Paul LAWRIE
Chez REAVIE
Justin HARDING
2:04 pm/9:03 am
Takumi KANAYA (a)
Tom LEWIS
Brandon STONE
2:15 pm/9:14 am
Lucas GLOVER
Joost LUITEN
Nino BERTASIO
2:26 pm/9:25 am
Ernie ELS
J.B. HOLMES
Abraham ANCER
2:37 pm/9:36 am
Brandt SNEDEKER
Lee WESTWOOD
Brian HARMAN
2:48 pm/9:47 am
Justin ROSE
Tony FINAU
Lucas BJERREGAARD
2:59 pm/9:58 am
Dustin JOHNSON
Jason DAY
Keegan BRADLEY
3:10 pm/10:09 am
Tiger WOODS
Matt WALLACE
Patrick REED
3:21 pm/10:20 am
Jon RAHM
Patrick CANTLAY
Matt KUCHAR
3:32 pm/10:31 am
Kevin STREELMAN
Doc REDMAN
Robert ROCK
3:43 pm/10:42 am
Adrian OTAEGUI
Yuta IKEDA
Isidro BENITEZ
3:54 pm/10:53 am
Patton KIZZIRE
Sang Hyun PARK
Yuki INAMORI
4:05 pm/11:04 am
Yoshinori FUJIMOTO
Doyeob MUN
Andrew WILSON
4:16 pm/11:15 am
Gunn CHAROENKUL
Yosuke ASAJI
Ashton TURNER
