1st round tee times for the 148th Open at Royal Portrush

The Open tee times for Thursday https://www.theopen.com/teetimes

The field for this 148th Open is set, all the qualifiers are in, the last being Darren Frittalli for his win at the John Deere, and England's Andrew Johnston, Frenchman Benjamin Hebert and Italy's Nino Bertasio for their performance at the Scottish Open.

Click above for the Thursday tee times and indeed bio's on each and every player in the biggest and best major of the year world wide, make no mistake.

This year it returns to Northern Ireland at Royal Portrush GC for the first time since 1951. Click here for pictures and a card of the course.http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2019/tournamentid=2019062/venue/index.html

County Antrim is right on the Irish Sea, about as far north as you can get in Northern Ireland. The weather for the week is the complete opposite from last week at the Renaissance GC in North Berwick where it was sunny and calm all week.

There will be overcast skies, cool temperatures 12*c - 20*c and rain in the forecast every day with a breeze from the NW...It could be worse !

This is the first all ticket Open such is it's popularity, it is sold out and is as big as it gets for Northern Ireland. Wins by Darren Clarke, who has a home here and will hit the first tee shot, Rory and to a certain extent Paddy Harrington (who is not from the north), along with Graeme McDowell's win at the US Open in 2010 pretty much paved the way for this return to Portrush, which will host it twice again in years to come.

There are three Canadians in this international field. Austin Connelly is paired with American Jason Kokrak and Scotland's Connor Syme at 9.36am.Corey Connors plays with David Duval and former champion Zach Johnson at 9.47.Adam Hadwin plays with Cameron Smith the brilliant young Aussie and American David Lipsky who plays exclusively on the European Tour.

For all Tiger fans he's off late at 310pm with Patrick Reed and England's Matt Wallace.

There are 6 Irish players in the field led by the bookies favourite at 8-1 Rory McIlroy. Graeme McDowell, and Darren Clarke from Northern Ireland and Paddy Harrington, British Amateur champion James Sugrue and Shane Lowry from Ireland.

Bryan Angus