The Open Championship released its first and second round tee times on Monday, and the R&A ensured golf’s two biggest stars were in two marquee groups.
Reigning Golfer of the Year champion Scottie Scheffler will play alongside two-time US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau and Tyrrell Hatton in the first two rounds at Royal Birkdale.
Rory McIlroy, six-time major champion and world number 2, was associated with a few former major winners: Xander Schauffele, who won the PGA Championship and the 2024 Open Championship, and the Englishman Matt Fitzpatrick, winner of the 2022 US Open.
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Rory McIlroy leads one of the star groups at the 154th Open Championship at Royal Birkdale in Southport, England. (Warren Petit/Getty Images)
Talk about loading up two bands with huge names. The R&A also decided to split the groups between the morning and afternoon waves, ensuring that Scheffler and McIlroy would be on the course at different times.
Scheffler, the world No.1, enters the week looking to defend the Claret Jug following his dominant victory at Royal Portrush last year. He will be joined by DeChambeau, one of the biggest draws in the game. The interesting subplot here is the current form for both players. Scheffler missed the cut at the Scottish Open last week, breaking a streak of 78 consecutive cuts.
DeChambeau has struggled in majors in 2026, missing the cut at the Masters, the PGA Championship and the US Open. He had never missed the cut in three consecutive major tournaments before this year. Questions are starting to be asked about whether he is still in the conversation as one of the best golfers on the planet, and his performance at Royal Birkdale will be put under the microscope. Add in the pressure of playing with Scheffler, and you have a recipe for one of the most intriguing major pairings of the entire year.
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The trio of Scheffler, DeChambeau and Hatton will tee off at 9:58 a.m. local time (4:58 a.m. ET) on Thursday before moving to an afternoon start on Friday.
Don’t sleep on the Thursday afternoon wave.
Scottie Scheffler leads one of the star groups at the 154th Open Championship at Royal Birkdale in Southport, England. (Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)
McIlroy, who completed the career Grand Slam at the 2025 Masters, will begin his quest for a second Open Championship alongside major champions Schauffele and Fitzpatrick.
McIlroy finished tied for 7th at the Scottish Open and is in good form this week. He has been successful in all 10 events he has competed in this season, including a Masters victory and four top-10 finishes.
Although McIlroy has won the Masters two years in a row, he has not won any of the other three majors since 2014, when he won both the Open and the PGA Championship. As a Northern Ireland native, McIlroy surely wants to add at least one more Claret Jug to his trophy case.
Playing alongside Fitzpatrick, who is tied for the PGA Tour lead with three wins in 2026, adds pressure on McIlroy. While the crowd seems to support McIlroy, Fitzpatrick gives the group a home country angle as Englishmen.
This trio is scheduled to start at 3:15 p.m. local time (10:15 a.m. ET) on Thursday.
They’re not the only notable couples at Royal Birkdale, either.
Chris Gotterup, who is tied with Fitzpatrick for the PGA Tour lead with three wins in 2026, will tee off with Sam Burns and Adam Scott in one of the afternoon’s most intriguing groups. Five-time major champion Brooks Koepka also gets a major draw alongside former Open champion Shane Lowry and reigning PGA Championship winner Aaron Rai.
Chris Gotterup is one of two three-time winners on the PGA Tour in 2026, along with Matt Fitzpatrick. (Joe Robbins/Sportswire Icon via Getty Images)
Jon Rahm, Tommy Fleetwood and Jordan Spieth make up another loaded trio, while Justin Thomas, Alex Noren and Jason Day bring plenty of experience to the group just before Scheffler’s start time. Cameron Young, Wyndham Clark and Ludvig Aberg give the late wave another strong group, with Clark fresh off his second US Open title.
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Royal Birkdale is hosting the Open for the first time since Jordan Spieth’s dramatic victory in 2017, and with favorable weather expected for the early rounds, fans should get an immediate glimpse of many of the tournament’s favorites.
Some of the highlight start times of the first round include:
Morning wave:
- 9:47 a.m. local (4:47 a.m. ET): Justin Thomas, Alex Noren, Jason Day
- 9:58 a.m. local (4:58 a.m. ET): Scottie Scheffler, Tyrrell Hatton, Bryson DeChambeau
- 10:09 a.m. local (5:09 a.m. ET): Jordan Spieth, Tommy Fleetwood, Jon Rahm
Afternoon wave:
- 2:31 p.m. local (9:31 a.m. ET): Chris Gotterup, Sam Burns, Adam Scott
- 2:53 p.m. local (9:53 a.m. ET): Shane Lowry, Aaron Rai, Brooks Koepka
- 3:04 p.m. local (10:04 a.m. ET): Cameron Young, Wyndham Clark, Ludvig Aberg
- 3:15 p.m. local (10:15 a.m. ET): Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, Matt Fitzpatrick
Full list of first and second round start times (Thursday/Friday, all times ET):
1h35 / 6h41: Matthew Baldwin, Thomas Detry, James Nicholas
1h46 / 6h52: Michael Kim, Daniel Hillier, Andy Sullivan
1:57 / 7:03: Ryan Fox, Andrew Novak, Matthew Jordan
2:08 / 7:14: Henrik Stenson, Max Homa, Joe Dean
2:19 / 7:25: Robert MacIntyre, Rickie Fowler, Alex Fitzpatrick
2:30 a.m. / 7:36 a.m.: David Duval, Martin Couvrera, Matthew Southgate
2:41 / 7:47: Sungjae Im, Dan Brown, Fifa Laopakdee (a)
2:52 / 7:58: Gary Woodland, Jake Knapp, Jordan Smith
3:03 / 8:09: Francesco Molinari, Tom McKibbin, Lev Grinberg (a)
3:14 a.m. / 8:20 a.m.: Hennie du Plessis, José Luis Ballester Barrio, Dan Bradbury
3:25 / 8:31: Angel Ayora, Victor Perez, Mateo Pulcini (a)
3:36 / 8:42: Stewart Cink, Scott Vincent, Joakim Lagergren
3:47 / 8:53: Michael Thorbjornsen, Kota Kaneko, Travis Smyth
4:03 / 9:09: Alex Smalley, Sam Stevens, Ryo Hisatsune
4:14 a.m. / 9:20 a.m.: Akshay Bhatia, Harris English, Rasmus Højgaard
4:25 a.m. / 9:31 a.m.: Ben Griffin, Hideki Matsuyama, Min Woo Lee
4:36 / 9:42: Russell Henley, Justin Rose, Viktor Hovland
4:47 / 9:53: Justin Thomas, Alex Noren, Jason Day
4:58 a.m. / 10:04 a.m.: Scottie Scheffler, Tyrrell Hatton, Bryson DeChambeau
5:09 a.m. / 10:15 a.m.: Jordan Spieth, Tommy Fleetwood, Jon Rahm
5:20 a.m. / 10:26 a.m.: Brian Harman, Si Woo Kim, Nick Taylor
5:31 a.m. / 10:37 a.m.: Ryan Gerard, Maverick McNealy, David Puig
5:42 a.m. / 10:48 a.m.: Kazuma Kobori, Tom Sloman, David Howard (a)
5:53 a.m. / 10:59 a.m.: Antoine Rozner, Ren Yonezawa, Caleb Surratt
6:04 a.m. / 11:10 a.m.: MJ Daffue, Frédéric Lacroix, Jack McDonald
6:15 a.m. / 11:21 a.m.: Jeongwoo Ham, Ryutaro Nagano, Alejandro de Castro Piera (a)
6:41 / 1:35: John Parry, Eric Cole, Tiger Christensen
6:52 / 1:46: Eugenio Chacarra, Matt Wallace, Max Greyserman
7:03 / 1:57: Michael Brennan, Sahith Theegala, Laurie Canter
7:14 / 2:08: Cameron Smith, Keith Mitchell, Stuart Grehan (a)
7:25 a.m. / 2:19 a.m.: Sepp Straka, Joaquin Niemann, Kurt Kitayama
7:36 a.m. / 2:30 a.m.: Sami Valimaki, Shaun Norris, Jackson Suber
7:47 a.m. / 2:41 a.m.: Darren Clarke, Adrien Saddier, Bernd Wiesberger
7:58 / 2:52: Keegan Bradley, Corey Conners, Casey Jarvis
8:09 / 3:03: Matt McCarty, Harry Hall, Haotong Li
8:20 a.m. / 3:14 a.m.: Padraig Harrington, Marco Penge, Michael Hollick
8:31 / 3:25: Tom Kim, Billy Horschel, Mason Howell (a)
8:42 a.m. / 3:36 a.m.: Johnny Keefer, Pierceson Coody, Keita Nakajima
8:53 / 3:47: Louis Oosthuizen, Jesper Svensson, Jack Buchanan (a)
9:09 a.m. / 4:03 a.m.: Bud Cauley, Jayden Schaper, Lucas Herbert
9:20 a.m. / 4:14 a.m.: Kristoffer Reitan, Patrick Reed, JT Poston
9:31 a.m. / 4:25 a.m.: Chris Gotterup, Sam Burns, Adam Scott
9:42 a.m. / 4:36 a.m.: Collin Morikawa, JJ Spaun, Nicolai Højgaard
9:53 / 4:47: Shane Lowry, Aaron Rai, Brooks Koepka
10:04 / 4:58: Cameron Young, Wyndham Clark, Ludvig Aberg
10:15 a.m. / 5:09 a.m.: Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, Matt Fitzpatrick
10:26 a.m. / 5:20 a.m.: Jacob Bridgeman, Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, Tim Wiedemeyer (a)
10:37 a.m. / 5:31 a.m.: Patrick Cantlay, Daniel Berger, Nicolas Echavarria
10:48 a.m. / 5:42 a.m.: Peter Uihlein, Alistair Docherty, Francesco Laporta
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10:59 a.m. / 5:53 a.m.: Cameron John, Austen Truslow, Samuel Bairstow
11:10 a.m. / 6:04 a.m.: Naoyuki Kataoka, Marcus Plunkett, Baard Bjoernevik Skogen
11:21 a.m. / 6:15 a.m.: Kazuki Higa, Jiho Yang, Nevill Ruiter (a)
