After a year’s enforced absence, the world’s oldest golf tournament is this morning back as the 149th Open starts at Royal St. George’s.
The 2020 edition of The Open was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, meaning the Major has not been played since Shane Lowry’s epic win in 2019.
Up to 32,000 fans will be allowed in each day this year after discussions with the government and public health authorities, and plenty saw England’s Richard Bland hit the opening tee shot under clear skies and plenty of sunshine on Thursday.
In-form Jon Rahm is the favourite to add the Claret Jug to his US Open title from earlier this summer, with the likes of Brooks Koepka, Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas heading the usual strong American challenge and Rory McIlroy once again bidding to end his long major drought.
Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama is among the most high-profile absentees, having had to withdraw from the tournament after contracting coronavirus.
The Open round one tee times
(Gbr & Irl unless stated, all times BST, (a) denotes amateurs)
06:35 Marcus Armitage, Richard Bland, Andy Sullivan
06:46 Justin Harding (Rsa), Chan Kim (USA), Haotong Li (Chn)
06:57 Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa), (a) Abel Gallegos (Arg), Michael Lorenzo-Vera (Fra)
07:08 Richard Mansell, Alexander Noren (Swe), J. C. Ritchie (Rsa)
07:19 Dean Burmester (Rsa), (a) Laird Shepherd, Danny Willett
07:30 Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa), Sam Horsfield, Min-Woo Lee (Aus)
07:41 Viktor Hovland (Nor), Ryan Palmer (USA), Thomas Detry (Bel)
07:52 Abraham Ancer (Mex), Paul Casey, Ian Poulter
08:03 Garrick Higgo (Rsa), Brooks Koepka (USA), Jason Kokrak (USA)
08:14 Daniel Berger (USA), Joel Dahmen (USA), Joaquin Niemann (Chi)
08:25 Darren Clarke, (a) Joe Long, Bernd Wiesberger (Aut)
08:36 Marcus Kinhult (Swe), Chris Kirk (USA), Jack Senior
08:47 Talor Gooch (USA), Chengtsung Pan (Tai), Jonathan Thomson
09:03 Ernie Els (Rsa), (a) Cole Hammer (USA), Gary Woodland (USA)
09:14 Sam Burns (USA), Jorge Campillo (Spa), Lucas Herbert (Aus)
09:25 Bryson DeChambeau (USA), Branden Grace (Rsa), Jordan Spieth (USA)
09:36 Brian Harman (USA), Mackenzie Hughes (Can), Dylan Frittelli (Rsa)
09:47 Guido Migliozzi (Ita), Victor Perez (Fra), Kevin Streelman (USA)
09:58 Shane Lowry, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa), Jon Rahm (Spa)
10:09 Stewart Cink (USA), Martin Kaymer (Ger), Lee Westwood
10:20 Dustin Johnson (USA), Justin Rose, Will Zalatoris (USA)
10:31 Sergio Garcia (Spa), (a) Yuxin Lin (Chn), Scottie Scheffler (USA)
10:42 Harris English (USA), Chez Reavie (USA), Erik van Rooyen (Rsa)
10:53 Byeong-Hun An (Kor), Lucas Glover (USA), Brandt Snedeker (USA)
11:04 Takumi Kanaya (Jpn), Marcel Schneider (Ger), Cameron Tringale (USA)
11:15 Lanto Griffin (USA), Rikuya Hoshino (Jpn), Connor Worsdall
11:36 Daniel Croft, Aaron Rai, Paul Waring
11:47 (a) Christoffer Bring (Den), Jazz Janewattananond (Tha), Daniel van Tonder (Rsa)
11:58 (a) Matthias Schmid (Ger), Brendan Steele (USA), Harold Varner III (USA)
12:09 Jaco Ahlers (Rsa), Troy Merritt (USA), Adam Long (USA)
12:20 Jason Day (Aus), Joost Luiten (Ned), Johannes Veerman (USA)
12:31 John Catlin (USA), Romain Langasque (Fra), Aaron Pike (Aus)
12:42 Sam Forgan, Padraig Harrington, Brad Kennedy (Aus)
12:53 Tony Finau (USA), Adam Hadwin (Can), Billy Horschel (USA)
13:04 Patrick Cantlay (USA), Matthew Fitzpatrick, Ryan Fox (Nzl)
13:15 Marc Leishman (Aus), Francesco Molinari (Ita), Matt Wallace
13:26 Corey Conners (Can), Collin Morikawa (USA), Sebastian Munoz (Col)
13:37 (a) Sam Bairstow, Keith Mitchell (USA), Jason Scrivener (Aus)
13:48 Emiliano Grillo (Arg), Benjamin Hebert (Fra), Charley Hoffman (USA)
14:04 Keegan Bradley (USA), Rafael Cabrera (Spa), Richard T. Lee (Can)
14:15 Carlos Ortiz (Mex), Matthias Schwab (Aut), Brendon Todd (USA)
14:26 Russell Henley (USA), Shaun Norris (Rsa), Webb Simpson (USA)
14:37 Daniel Hillier (Nzl), Matt Jones (Aus), Marcel Siem (Ger)
14:48 Tyrrell Hatton, Kevin Kisner (USA), Phil Mickelson (USA)
14:59 Rickie Fowler (USA), Robert MacIntyre, Xander Schauffele (USA)
15:10 Tommy Fleetwood, Adam Scott (Aus), Justin Thomas (USA)
15:21 Rory McIlroy, Patrick Reed (USA), Cameron Smith (Aus)
15:32 Max Homa (USA), Matt Kuchar (USA), Henrik Stenson (Swe)
15:43 Ben Hutchinson, Ryosuke Kinoshita (Jpn), Antoine Rozner (Fra)
15:54 Kurt Kitayama (USA), Deyen Lawson (Aus), Poom Saksansin (Tha)
16:05 Ricardo Celia (Col), Yuki Inamori (Jpn), Jimmy Walker (USA)
16:16 Rikard Karlberg (Swe), Ryutaro Nagano (Jpn), Nicholas Poppleton
How to watch The Open
TV channel: All the action will be broadcast live on Sky Sports Golf and Main Event channels from 6.30am BST on Friday and Saturday, 9am BST on Saturday and 8am BST on Sunday.
