Darren Clarke will get his Open Championship defence underway at 9.09am at Royal Lytham & St Annes on Thursday in the company of 2002 winner Ernie Els and former Masters Champion Zach Johnson.
The defending champion is among the morning starters, teeing off just ahead of World Number Three Lee Westwood, reigning Masters Champion Bubba Watson and Japan’s Yoshinori Fujimoto.
The 141st Open Championship will begin at 6.19am when England’s Barry Lane, now competing on the Senior Tour, hits the opening tee shot. The 52 year old fomer Ryder Cup player came through qualifying and, in a field of 157 because of all the different exempt players, he will play in a two-ball with American James Driscoll. They will be followed by another two-ball of Richard Finch and Garth Mulroy before the draw progresses to the normal three-ball format.
Jeev Milkha Singh, winner of the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open at Castle Stuart yesterday, has an early start time of 7.14am on Thursday alongside Spain’s Alejandro Cañizares and Australian Greg Chalmers.
World Number One Luke Donald will not tee off until the afternoon, taking to the Lancashire Links at 2.43pm alongside Phil Mickelson and Geoff Ogilvy, and both Rory McIlroy and Padraig Harrington are afternoon starters as well.
World Number Two McIlroy is with 2010 champion Louis Oosthuizen and reigning US PGA Champion Keegan Bradley at 2.21pm, followed by 2007 and 2008 Open Champion Harrington alongside young American Rickie Fowler and European Amateur Champion Manuel Trappel.
The Austrian is one of only two amateurs in the field. Northern Ireland's Alan Dunbar, who won the British title last month at Royal Troon, is the other and he partners Australian Adam Scott and American Matt Kuchar at 8.42am.
Five-time champion Tom Watson, the 62-year-old who last year saw England's Tom Lewis shoot an opening 65 that was the lowest round ever by an amateur in the championship, is this time playing with Germany's Martin Kaymer and Japanese star Ryo Ishikawa.
It is only three years ago that Watson nearly rewrote the record books. He lost in a play-off to Stewart Cink at Turnberry - scene of his 1977 victory - when winning would have made him the oldest major champion by an amazing 11 years.
Race to Dubai leader Justin Rose has been paired with Tiger Woods for the first two rounds for the fourth time in the Championship – they were also partners at Muirfield in 2002, Carnoustie in 2007 and St Andrews two years ago – with Sergio Garcia completing the three-ball. They tee off at 9.42am in the first round on Thursday and then 2.43pm on Friday.
The first time Woods and Rose were paired ten years ago produced scenes rarely witnessed before at the Championship. Woods had just won The Masters and US Open and so was seeking the third leg of an unprecedented Grand Slam of all four majors. Virtually every camera at Muirfield was trained on him as he started.
Rose, fourth as a 17-year-old amateur in 1998, had just won his first two European Tour titles and he out-scored the American 68-70 in the first round.
OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP DRAW
