Key events
Opening pars for Justin Leonard, Todd Hamilton and Jack McDonald. But the two erstwhile champions find pot bunkers on 2, while McDonald flies the green. It’s going to be a long day; chances are we’ll love it more than quite a few members of the field. Still, for what it’s worth – and that is next to the square root of absolutely nothing at all – here’s the first leaderboard of the week.
E: Leonard (1), Hamilton (1), McDonald (1)
The weather forecast. It’s Scotland, it’s the Open, it’s changeable. There are outbreaks of rain and drizzle expected throughout the day, and there’s a fresh breeze. The wind’s against on the front nine, but it should help coming home along the more testing back nine, so there’s a good chance of a score in the mid-60s for anyone who keeps it straight. Avoid those pot bunkers, now!
Here we go, then … and the 1997 champion Justin Leonard cracks the opening tee shot of this year’s Open down the middle. He could sell that for cash money to the leaders on Sunday afternoon. The 2004 winner Todd Hamilton follows him down there. And finally, making it three fine strokes, 31-year-old Jack McDonald of nearby Kilmarnock, making his Open debut. The nerves will have been jangling, so everyone strides off wearing a relieved smile.
Preamble
It’s the 152nd Open Championship, and the tenth to be contested on the famous Ayrshire links of Royal Troon. The ninth saw Henrik Stenson hold off Phil Mickelson in what is generally considered to be, with the honourable exception of 1977’s legendary duel in the sun between Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus at Turnberry, the finest mano-a-mano affair in the Open’s long and illustrious history. No pressure, then, everyone!
Here are today’s tee times (Britain and Ireland unless stated, all times local, a denotes amateur). Brian Harman begins the defence of his title just before 10am, by which time the recently crowned Scottish Open champion Bob MacIntyre will already be out on the course, high on life, as will Ludvig Åberg, Jon Rahm and the newly loveable Bryson DeChambeau. Rory McIlroy will be along soon after, but we’ll have to wait until the afternoon for the world number one Scottie Scheffler and Tiger. Anyway, pick your favourite out of this lot, pour yourself a strong cup of tea, kick back for the next four days of golfing bliss and ENJOY. It’s on!
0635 Todd Hamilton (USA), Justin Leonard (USA), Jack McDonald
0646 Tom McKibbin, (a) Calum Scott, Alexander Noren (Swe)
0657 Michael Hendry (Nzl), Vincent Norrman (Swe), Jesper Svensson (Swe)
0708 Daniel Hillier (Nzl), Ryosuke Kinoshita (Jpn), Young-Han Song (Kor)
0719 Abraham Ancer (Mex), Ryo Hisatsune (Jpn), Min-Woo Lee (Aus)
0730 Nicolai Hoejgaard (Den), Keita Nakajima (Jpn), Adam Scott (Aus)
0741 Francesco Molinari (Ita), Justin Rose, (a) Jasper Stubbs (Aus)
0752 Sung-Jae Im (Kor), Matthew Southgate, Justin Thomas (USA)
0803 Laurie Canter, Nick Taylor (Can), Matt Wallace
0814 Matteo Manassero (Ita), Shubhankar Sharma (Ind), Sebastian Soederberg (Swe)
0825 Austin Eckroat (USA), Zach Johnson (USA), Thorbjoern Olesen (Den)
0836 John Daly (USA), (a) Santiago de la Fuente (Mex), Aaron Rai
0847 Stewart Cink (USA), (a) Dominic Clemons, Chris Kirk (USA)
0903 Stephan Jaeger (Ger), Joaquin Niemann (Chi), Adam Schenk (USA)
0914 Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa), Lucas Glover (USA), Adam Hadwin (Can)
0925 Tony Finau (USA), Russell Henley (USA), Matthieu Pavon (Fra)
0936 Tommy Fleetwood, Robert MacIntyre, Jon Rahm (Spa)
0947 Ludvig Åberg (Swe), Bryson DeChambeau (USA), Joo-Hyung Kim (Kor)
0958 Brian Harman (USA), Viktor Hovland (Nor), Sahith Theegala (USA)
1009 Tyrrell Hatton, Max Homa (USA), Rory McIlroy
1020 Keegan Bradley (USA), (a) Gordon Sargent (USA), Will Zalatoris (USA)
1031 Alexander Bjoerk (Swe), Harris English (USA), Maverick McNealy (USA)
1042 Sean Crocker (USA), Guido Migliozzi (Ita), (a) Tommy Morrison (USA)
1053 John Catlin (USA), Gun-Taek Koh (Kor), David Puig (Spa)
1104 Daniel Bradbury, Thriston Lawrence (Rsa), Elvis Smylie (Aus)
1115 Ignacio Elvira (Spa), Darren Fichardt (Rsa), Min-Kyu Kim (Kor)
1126 Mason Andersen (USA), Sam Hutsby, Masahiro Kawamura (Jpn)
1147 Ewen Ferguson, Marcel Siem (Ger)
1158 Yuto Katsuragawa (Jpn), Romain Langasque (Fra), Chengtsung Pan (Tai)
1209 Angel Hidalgo (Spa), Rikuya Hoshino (Jpn), Richard Mansell
1220 Jorge Campillo (Spa), Corey Conners (Can), Ryan Fox (Nzl)
1231 Ernie Els (Rsa), (a) Altin van der Merwe (Rsa), Gary Woodland (USA)
1242 Rasmus Hoejgaard (Den), (a) Jacob Olesen (Den), Henrik Stenson (Swe)
1253 Billy Horschel (USA), Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa), Victor Perez (Fra)
1304 Jordan Smith, Sepp Straka (Aut), Brendon Todd (USA)
1315 Denny McCarthy (USA), Adrian Meronk (Pol), Taylor Moore (USA)
1326 Byeong-Hun An (Kor), Jason Day (Aus), Rickie Fowler (USA)
1337 Alex Cejka (Ger), Eric Cole (USA), Kurt Kitayama (USA)
1348 Dean Burmester (Rsa), Darren Clarke, J. T. Poston (USA)
1404 Dustin Johnson (USA), Joost Luiten (Ned), Phil Mickelson (USA)
1415 Padraig Harrington, Matthew Jordan, Davis Thompson (USA)
1426 Wyndham Clark (USA), Brooks Koepka (USA), Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn)
1437 Patrick Cantlay (USA), Xander Schauffele (USA), Tiger Woods (USA)
1448 Sam Burns (USA), Si-Woo Kim (Kor), Collin Morikawa (USA)
1459 Matthew Fitzpatrick, Shane Lowry, Cameron Smith (Aus)
1510 Scottie Scheffler (USA), Jordan Spieth (USA), Cameron Young (USA)
1521 Akshay Bhatia (USA), Tom Hoge (USA), Sami Valimaki (Fin)
1532 Ben Griffin (USA), Emiliano Grillo (Arg), Mackenzie Hughes (Can)
1543 Joseph Dean, Andy Ogletree (USA), Yannik Paul (Ger)
1554 Charlie Lindh (Swe), (a) Luis Masaveu (Spa), Ryan van Velzen (Rsa)
1605 Kazuma Kobori (Nzl), (a) Jaime Montojo (Spa), (a) Liam Nolan
1616 Denwit Boriboonsub (Tha), Daniel Brown, (a) Matthew Dodd-Berry
1627 Sam Horsfield, Aguri Iwasaki (Jpn), Jeung-Hun Wang (Kor)
