Tiger Woods will start his sixth Open at St Andrews late on Thursday as the highlight of the first round draw for the 150th championship.
The three-time champion – twice on the Old Course – has been paired with US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick and rising US star Max Homa for the first two rounds.
The surprise is that Woods is as late as 3pm – closer to the US TV network’s preference.
The group will start at 10am in Friday’s second round.
As revealed yesterday, 1999 Open champion Paul Lawrie has the honour of hitting the first ball of the 150th Open.
He is joined in the 6.35am slot by former US Open champion Webb Simpson.
The third member of the group is the former Scottish Open champion Min Woo Lee of Australia.
The first hit on Friday will be by the 1989 champion Mark Calcavecchia.
Lawrie and the American performed the same role as “honorary starters” 12 years ago at St Andrews.
The key pairings of Thursday’s morning wave include defending champion Collin Morikawa, 2014 winner and championship favourite Rory McIlroy and newly crowned Scottish Open champion Xander Schauffele at just before 10am.
‘Graveyard’ tee times
The group following is also primetime stuff, with 2019 champion Shane Lowry, PGA champion Justin Thomas and European Ryder Cup player Viktor Hovland.
The players committed to the rebel LIV Golf Tour have not, as some mischievously suggested, been given the ‘graveyard’ tee times.
In fact, a succession of them will play at a favourable early-morning part of the draw on Thursday.
Phil Mickelson, Open champion nine years ago at Muirfield, plays at 7.30am – although he has often said he prefers an afternoon tee time on the first day at the Open.
His partners are fellow American Kurt Kitayama and Australia’s Lucas Herbert.
Patrick Reed (7.41am), Bryson DeChambeau (7.52am) and Brooks Koepka (8.03am) follow in the next three groups.
DeChambeau is playing with the original big bomber, 1995 Open champion John Daly.
Bob has early morning draw on Thursday
Scotland’s big hope, Robert MacIntyre, also has an early-morning draw, at 8.25am. Bob plays with the USA’s Cameron Young and KH Lee of Korea.
Scotland’s third competitor, Aberdeen’s David Law, starts at 2.15pm on Thursday. His partners are Japan’s Shugo Imahira and Australian Jason Scrivener.
The afternoon wave of big starters on Thursday begins at 1.15pm. LIV defector Dustin Johnson plays then with Australian duo Adam Scott and Mark Leishman.
Leishman was in the three-way play-off in the last Open at St Andrews, in 2015.
World No 1 and Masters winner Scottie Scheffler is in the next group at 1.26pm. He plays with England’s Tyrrell Hatton and the Chilean star Joaquin Niemann.
As well as Woods and Fitzpatrick, Jordan Spieth has a late first round time, at 3.10pm, with World No 3 Jon Rahm and American Harold Varner III.
A full list of the first round tee time is available here.
