Good afternoon from Sandwich! The tee times for the first two rounds of the Open Championship have just been published, and I must say, well done, R&A! There are several intriguing threesomes! I love the mix of nationalities, age and personalities, along with a few marquee groups for TV.
My favorites are highlighted in bold (but I may have missed some — long story, but I’ve had an…errr…interesting morning). I’m looking most forward to watching Rickie Fowler, Rory McIlroy and Errnie Els, who is sure going to feel old — I mean, are they trying to remind Ernie of his age?!
And too bad Bubba Watson wasn’t paired with at least one Frenchman…
Without further ado, here they are:
1 06:30 Jerry KELLY Nathan GREEN Danny WILLETT
2 06:41 Thongchai JAIDEE Mark CALCAVECCHIA Graeme STORM
3 06:52 Gregory HAVRET Charley HOFFMAN Markus BRIER
4 07:03 Todd HAMILTON Simon KHAN Prayad MARKSAENG
5 07:14 Rhys DAVIES Fredrik JACOBSON Mark O’MEARA
6 07:25 Vijay SINGH Simon DYSON Gary WOODLAND
7 07:36 KT KIM Ryan MOORE Alvaro QUIROS
8 07:47 Bo VAN PELT KJ CHOI Martin LAIRD
9 07:58 Stephen GALLACHER Bill HAAS Hiroyuki FUJITA
10 08:09 Geoff OGILVY Peter UIHLEIN Miguel Angel JIMENEZ
11 08:20 Francesco MOLINARI Tetsuji HIRATSUKA Stewart CINK
12 08:31 Nick WATNEY Matteo MANASSERO Angel CABRERA
13 08:42 Yuta IKEDA Ian POULTER Dustin JOHNSON
14 08:58 Ben CURTIS Paul CASEY Aaron BADDELEY
15 09:09 Ernie ELS Rory McILROY Rickie FOWLER
16 09:20 Luke DONALD Ryo ISHIKAWA Sergio GARCIA
17 09:31 Retief GOOSEN Hunter MAHAN Anders HANSEN
18 09:42 Brian DAVIS Camilo VILLEGAS David DUVAL
19 09:53 John DALY Ross FISHER Peter HANSON
20 10:04 Gregory BOURDY Jason DUFNER Craig HINTON
21 10:15 Alexander NOREN Paul LAWRIE Kevin NA
22 10:26 Sean O’HAIR Seung-Yul NOH Thorbjorn OLESEN
23 10:37 Simon EDWARDS Bob ESTES Richard McEVOY
24 10:48 Francis McGUIRK Matthew MILLAR Kevin STREELMAN
25 10:59 Mark LASKEY Thomas SHADBOLT Rick KULACZ
26 11:10 Simon LILLY Chris TIDLAND Neil SCHIETEKAT
27 11:31 Peter WHITEFORD Spencer LEVIN Thomas AIKEN
28 11:42 Prom MEESAWAT Martin MARITZ Harrison FRAZAR
29 11:53 Chad CAMPBELL Kenneth FERRIE Scott JAMIESON
30 12:04 Raphael JACQUELIN Mark WILSON Kyle STANLEY
31 12:15 Steve MARINO Richard GREEN Pablo LARRAZABAL
32 12:26 Rory SABBATINI Sandy LYLE Anthony KIM
33 12:37 Edoardo MOLINARI Charles HOWELL III Joost LUITEN
34 12:48 Brandt SNEDEKER Lucas BJERREGAARD Trevor IMMELMAN
35 12:59 Darren CLARKE Jonathan BYRD YE YANG
36 13:10 Lucas GLOVER Hiroo KAWAI Robert KARLSSON
37 13:21 Bryden MACPHERSON Matt KUCHAR Padraig HARRINGTON
38 13:32 Zach JOHNSON Adam SCOTT Justin ROSE
39 13:43 Graeme McDOWELL Jason DAY Bubba WATSON
40 13:59 Jim FURYK Bernhard LANGER Tadahiro TAKAYAMA
41 14:10 Lee WESTWOOD Steve STRICKER Charl SCHWARTZEL
42 14:21 Louis OOSTHUIZEN Martin KAYMER Phil MICKELSON
43 14:32 Henrik STENSON Tom LEWIS Tom WATSON
44 14:43 Robert ALLENBY Davis LOVE III Fredrik ANDERSSON HED
45 14:54 Nicolas COLSAERTS JB HOLMES SM BAE
46 15:05 Webb SIMPSON Robert ROCK Alejandro CANIZARES
47 15:16 Kurt BARNES Justin LEONARD Jeff OVERTON
48 15:27 Lee CORFIELD Ben CRANE Floris DE VRIES
49 15:38 Ryan PALMER Tom LEHMAN Adam WOOTTON
50 15:49 Jung-Gon HWANG Gary BOYD Robert GARRIGUS
51 16:00 George COETZEE Andy SMITH Brad KENNEDY
52 16:11 Jason KNUTZON Andrew JOHNSTON Chih-Bing LAM
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Which are your favorites? Could be fun to name the groups, but the R&A doesn’t quite do it like the USGA where there’s usually a theme to each threesome.
