Few people earn their keep more at the British Open than David Lancaster. He’s the first tee announcer, taking over the job from legendary Ivor Robson in 2016. If things go to schedule, Lancaster will arrive at his post this week at Royal Birkdale shortly before 6:30 a.m. on Thursday and Friday and remain until just past 4 p.m., faithfully seeing off all 156 players competing in the championship.
Such is one of the lovable quirks of the oldest tournament in golf. With daylight in England lasting more than 18 hours come July, the R&A sends every one of the 52 threesomes off the first tee. (Yes, Augusta National does this too, but it’s a lot easier with only around 100 players competing in the Masters.)
It brings with it a unique anticipation among players as to “when” they’ll be scheduled to tee off. Getting on the “right side” of the draw in the Open Championship is something many discuss, and in any given championship could be a major factor in the outcome. That said, we crunched the numbers over the last few decades and found it wasn’t as big a deal as it’s made out to be, and that there is no noticeable trend in whether early-late times result in more champions than late-early (it’s a 13-12 split in the last 25 years).
Players will be competing in threesomes on Thursday and Friday at Birkdale. Official tee times came out Monday. Here's the listing below:
British Open Tee Times (local time/EDT)
FIRST ROUND/THURSDAY
First tee
6:35 a.m./1:35 a.m. -- Matthew Baldwin, Thomas Detry, James Nicholas
6:46 a.m./1:46 a.m. -- Michael Kim, Daniel Hillier, Andy Sullivan
6:57 a.m./1:57 a.m. -- Ryan Fox, Andrew Novak, Matthew Jordan
7:08 a.m./2:08 a.m. -- Henrik Stenson, Max Homa, Joe Dean
7:19 a.m./2:19 a.m. -- Robert MacIntyre, Rickie Fowler, Alex Fitzpatrick
7:30 a.m./2:30 a.m. -- David Duval, Martin Couvra, Matthew Southgate
7:41 a.m./2:41 a.m. -- Sungjae Im, Daniel Brown, Fifa Laopakdee (a)
7:52 a.m./2:52 a.m. -- Gary Woodland, Jake Knapp, Jordan Smith
8:03 a.m./3:03 a.m. -- Francesco Molinari, Tom McKibbin, Lev Grinberg (a)
8:14 a.m./3:14 a.m. -- Hennie Du Plessis, Jose Luis Ballester, Dan Bradbury
8:25 a.m./3:25 a.m. -- Angel Ayora, Victor Perez, Mateo Pulcini (a)
8:26 a.m./3:36 a.m. -- Stewart Cink, Scott Vincent, Joakim Lagergren
8:47 a.m./3:47 a.m. -- Michael Thorbjornsen, Kota Kaneko, Travis Smyth
9:03 a.m./4:03 a.m. -- Alex Smalley, Sam Stevens, Ryo Hisatsune
9:14 a.m./4:14 a.m. -- Akshay Bhatia, Harris English, Rasmus Hojgaard
9:25 a.m./4:25 a.m. -- Ben Griffin, Hideki Matsuyama, Min Woo Lee
9:36 a.m./4:36 a.m. -- Russell Henley, Justin Rose, Viktor Hovland
9:47 a.m./4:47 a.m. -- Justin Thomas, Alex Noren, Jason Day
9:58 a.m./4:58 a.m. -- Scottie Scheffler, Tyrrell Hatton, Bryson DeChambeau
10:09 a.m./5:09 a.m. -- Jordan Spieth, Tommy Fleetwood, Jon Rahm
10:20 a.m./5:20 a.m. -- Brian Harman, Si Woo Kim, Nick Taylor
10:31 a.m./5:31 a.m. -- Ryan Gerard, Maverick McNealy, David Puig
10:42 a.m./5:42 a.m. -- Kazuma Kobori, Tom Sloman, David Howard (a)
10:53 a.m./5:53 a.m. -- Antoine Rozner, Ren Yonezawa, Caleb Surratt
11:04 a.m./6:04 a.m. -- MJ Daffue, Frederic Lacroix, Jack McDonald
11:15 a.m./6:15 a.m. -- Jeongwoo Ham, Ryutaro Nagano, Alejandro De Castro Piera (a)
11:41 a.m./6:41 a.m. -- John Parry, Eric Cole, Tiger Christensen
11:52 a.m./6:52 a.m. -- Eugenio Chacarra, Matt Wallace, Max Greyserman
12:03 p.m./7:03 a.m. -- Michael Brennan, Sahith Theegala, Laurie Canter
12:14 p.m./7:14 a.m. -- Cameron Smith, Keith Mitchell, Stuart Grehan (a)
12:25 p.m./7:25 a.m. -- Sepp Straka, Joaquin Niemann, Kurt Kitayama
12:36 p.m./7:36 a.m. -- Sami Valimaki, Shaun Norris, Jackson Suber
12:47 p.m./7:47 a.m. -- Darren Clarke, Adrien Saddier, Bernd Wiesberger
12:58 p.m./7:58 a.m. -- Keegan Bradley, Corey Conners, Casey Jarvis
1:09 p.m./8:09 a.m. -- Matt McCarty, Harry Hall, Haotong Li
1:20 p.m./8:20 a.m. -- Padraig Harrington, Marco Penge, Michael Hollick
1:31 p.m./8:31 a.m. -- Tom Kim, Billy Horschel, Mason Howell (a)
1:42 p.m./8:42 a.m. -- Johnny Kiefer, Pierceson Coody, Keita Nakajima
1:53 p.m./8:53 a.m. -- Louis Oosthuizen, Jesper Svansson, Jack Buchanan (a)
2:09 p.m./9:09 a.m. -- Bud Cauley, Jayden Schaper, Lucas Herbert
2:20 p.m./9:20 a.m. -- Kristoffer Reitan, Patrick Reed, J.T. Poston
2:31 p.m./9:31 a.m. -- Chris Gotterup, Sam Burns, Adam Scott
2:42 p.m./9:42 a.m. -- Collin Morikawa, J.J. Spaun, Nicolai Hojgaard
2:53 p.m./9:53 a.m. -- Shane Lowry, Aaron Rai, Brooks Koepka
3:04 p.m./10:04 a.m. -- Cameron Young, Wyndham Clark, Luvig Aberg
3:15 p.m./10:15 a.m. -- Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, Matt Fitzpatrick
3:26 p.m./10:26 a.m. -- Jacob Bridgeman, Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, Tim Wiedemeyer (a)
3:37 p.m./10:37 a.m. -- Patrick Cantlay, Daniel Berger, Nico Echavarria
3:48 p.m./10:48 a.m. -- Peter Uihlin, Alistair Docherty, Francesco Laporta
3:59 p.m./10:59 a.m. -- Cameron John, Austen Truslow, Sam Bairstow
4:10 p.m./11:10 a.m. -- Naoyuki Kataoka, Marcus Plunkett, Baard Bjoernevik Skogen
4:21 p.m./11:21 a.m. -- Kazuki Higa, Jiho Yang, Nevill Ruiter (a)
SECOND ROUND/FRIDAY
First Tee
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6:35 a.m./1:35 a.m. -- John Parry, Eric Cole, Tiger Christensen
6:46 a.m./1:46 a.m. -- Eugenio Chacarra, Matt Wallace, Max Greyserman
6:57 a.m./1:57 a.m. -- Michael Brennan, Sahith Theegala, Laurie Canter
7:08 a.m./2:08 a.m. -- Cameron Smith, Keith Mitchell, Stuart Grehan (a)
7:19 a.m./2:19 a.m. -- Sepp Straka, Joaquin Niemann, Kurt Kitayama
7:30 a.m./2:30 a.m. -- Sami Valimaki, Shaun Norris, Jackson Suber
7:41 a.m./2:41 a.m. -- Darren Clarke, Adrien Saddier, Bernd Wiesberger
7:52 a.m./2:52 a.m. -- Keegan Bradley, Corey Conners, Casey Jarvis
8:03 a.m./3:03 a.m. -- Matt McCarty, Harry Hall, Haotong Li
8:14 a.m./3:14 a.m. -- Padraig Harrington, Marco Penge, Michael Hollick
8:25 a.m./3:25 a.m. -- Tom Kim, Billy Horschel, Mason Howell (a)
8:26 a.m./3:36 a.m. -- Johnny Kiefer, Pierceson Coody, Keita Nakajima
8:47 a.m./3:47 a.m. -- Louis Oosthuizen, Jesper Svansson, Jack Buchanan (a)
9:03 a.m./4:03 a.m. -- Bud Cauley, Jayden Schaper, Lucas Herbert
9:14 a.m./4:14 a.m. -- Kristoffer Reitan, Patrick Reed, J.T. Poston
9:25 a.m./4:25 a.m. -- Chris Gotterup, Sam Burns, Adam Scott
9:36 a.m./4:36 a.m. -- Collin Morikawa, J.J. Spaun, Nicolai Hojgaard
9:47 a.m./4:47 a.m. -- Shane Lowry, Aaron Rai, Brooks Koepka
9:58 a.m./4:58 a.m. -- Cameron Young, Wyndham Clark, Luvig Aberg
10:09 a.m./5:09 a.m. -- Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, Matt Fitzpatrick
10:20 a.m./5:20 a.m. -- Jacob Bridgeman, Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, Tim Wiedemeyer (a)
10:31 a.m./5:31 a.m. -- Patrick Cantlay, Daniel Berger, Nico Echavarria
10:42 a.m./5:42 a.m. -- Peter Uihlin, Alistair Docherty, Francesco Laporta
10:53 a.m./5:53 a.m. -- Cameron John, Austen Truslow, Sam Bairstow
11:04 a.m./6:04 a.m. -- Naoyuki Kataoka, Marcus Plunkett, Baard Bjoernevik Skogen
11:15 a.m./6:15 a.m. -- Kazuki Higa, Jiho Yang, Nevill Ruiter (a)
11:41 a.m./6:41 a.m. -- Matthew Baldwin, Thomas Detry, James Nicholas
11:52 a.m./6:52 a.m. -- Michael Kim, Daniel Hillier, Andy Sullivan
12:03 p.m./7:03 a.m. -- Ryan Fox, Andrew Novak, Matthew Jordan
12:14 p.m./7:14 a.m. -- Henrik Stenson, Max Homa, Joe Dean
12:25 p.m./7:25 a.m. -- Robert MacIntyre, Rickie Fowler, Alex Fitzpatrick
12:36 p.m./7:36 a.m. -- David Duval, Martin Couvra, Matthew Southgate
12:47 p.m./7:47 a.m. -- Sungjae Im, Daniel Brown, Fifa Laopakdee (a)
12:58 p.m./7:58 a.m. -- Gary Woodland, Jake Knapp, Jordan Smith
1:09 p.m./8:09 a.m. -- Francesco Molinari, Tom McKibbin, Lev Grinberg (a)
1:20 p.m./8:20 a.m. -- Hennie Du Plessis, Jose Luis Ballester, Dan Bradbury
1:31 p.m./8:31 a.m. -- Angel Ayora, Victor Perez, Mateo Pulcini (a)
1:42 p.m./8:42 a.m. -- Stewart Cink, Scott Vincent, Joakim Lagergren
1:53 p.m./8:53 a.m. -- Michael Thorbjornsen, Kota Kaneko, Travis Smyth
2:09 p.m./9:09 a.m. -- Alex Smalley, Sam Stevens, Ryo Hisatsune
2:20 p.m./9:20 a.m. -- Akshay Bhatia, Harris English, Rasmus Hojgaard
2:31 p.m./9:31 a.m. -- Ben Griffin, Hideki Matsuyama, Min Woo Lee
2:42 p.m./9:42 a.m. -- Russell Henley, Justin Rose, Viktor Hovland
2:53 p.m./9:53 a.m. -- Justin Thomas, Alex Noren, Jason Day
3:04 p.m./10:04 a.m. -- Scottie Scheffler, Tyrrell Hatton, Bryson DeChambeau
3:15 p.m./10:15 a.m. -- Jordan Spieth, Tommy Fleetwood, Jon Rahm
3:26 p.m./10:26 a.m. -- Brian Harman, Si Woo Kim, Nick Taylor
3:37 p.m./10:37 a.m. -- Ryan Gerard, Maverick McNealy, David Puig
3:48 p.m./10:48 a.m. -- Kazuma Kobori, Tom Sloman, David Howard (a)
3:59 p.m./10:59 a.m. -- Antoine Rozner, Ren Yonezawa, Caleb Surratt
4:10 p.m./11:10 a.m. -- MJ Daffue, Frederic Lacroix, Jack McDonald
4:21 p.m./11:21 a.m. -- Jeongwoo Ham, Ryutaro Nagano, Alejandro De Castro Piera (a)
• • •
Is it the British Open or the Open Championship? The name of the final men’s major of the golf season is a subject of continued discussion. The event’s official name, as explained in this op-ed by former R&A chairman Ian Pattinson, is the Open Championship. But since many United States golf fans continue to refer to it as the British Open, and search news around the event accordingly, Golf Digest continues to utilize both names in its coverage.