Jordan Spieth brilliantly birdies the 11th hole at Carnoustie after finding the rough to continue his charge in the opening round of the 2018 Open Championship.
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The 2018 Open Championship: Webb Simpson eagles 14 with monster putt
Watch as Webb Simpson holes this monster putt on 14 for eagle in the first round of the 2018 Open Championship at Carnoustie.
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McIlroy keen to ‘create good memories’ – Open preview
| The 147th Open Championship |
|---|
| Venue: Carnoustie, Scotland Dates: 19-22 July |
| Coverage: Live across BBC Radio, highlights on BBC TV and online, live text commentaries on BBC website. |
The Open Championship returns to Carnoustie for an eighth time this week with Rory McIlroy among the home players hoping to break an American stranglehold on the majors.
All four of golf’s biggest prizes are held by US players, with Jordan Spieth the returning champion for the 147th Open, which starts at 06:35 BST on Thursday.
Northern Ireland’s McIlroy won the Silver Medal as the leading amateur on his Open debut in 2007, the last time the championship was held at Carnousite.
“It’s great to be back,” said the 29-year-old, who won the Claret Jug in 2014. “Hopefully I can create more good memories this week.
“When we last played The Open here I was just happy to be here. I was bouncing down the fairways and I didn’t care if I shot 82 or 62. The more I can get into that mindset this week, the better I’ll play golf.”
In his past two Opens, McIlroy has finished joint fourth and tied for fifth, after winning in 2014, and he comes into this year’s tournament on the back of an excellent 2018.
He won the Arnold Palmer Invitational, taking a career-best 100 putts for the tournament in the process, finished joint-fifth at the Masters in April and has had three other top-fives.
His only real blemish was missing the US Open cut after a 10-over-par 80 in the first round.
- Tee times – who tees off when
- What makes Carnoustie ‘Car-nasty’?
- Tiger Woods says Carnoustie his ‘best chance’ for 15th major
The challenges of the ‘Carnasty’ course
Standing in McIlroy’s way is a course that was dubbed ‘Carnasty’ in 1999 when The Open returned after a 24-year absence.
High winds, narrow fairways and deep rough combined to make the winning score six over par, with Scotland’s Paul Lawrie winning in a play-off after Jean van de Velde’s infamous meltdown on the 18th.
The 18th has been called the scariest on The Open rota and it follows Barry Burn and Island to make up arguably the toughest finishing stretch in all championship golf.
This week, the rough is a little less severe – but the lack of rain in the area has left the fairways parched and players struggling to keep balls on the fairways.
“The golf course is playing so firm and fast,” said four-time major winner McIlroy. “The risk of hitting the driver on some holes is not having full control of your ball if it does run into the rough.
“But either side of the fairway there are five to 10 yards where the rough is not too bad. If it does go in the rough, you’re still able to get some control and then you’re trying to land the ball on the front edge and get it trundling on to the green.”
Tiger Woods has talked of balls bounding 80 yards down the fairway and hitting a three-iron 333 yards – as long as he would hit a driver on US courses. “Creativity plays such an important role at Carnoustie,” he said.
Spieth added that he was looking forward to using his “imagination” after a sticky spell this year that has seen him miss three cuts in seven events after finishing third at the Masters.
One of those missed cuts came at last month’s US Open and the world number six said: “I got very technical and into making everything perfect. This week provides an opportunity to use your imagination, hold the ball, ride the wind.”
The 112 bunkers are likely to feature heavily, with world number one Dustin Johnson saying if he can take them out of the equation by hitting his driver, then he will, thoughts echoed by US Open champion Brooks Koepka.
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Johnson said: “You hit it in a bunker and it’s like a penalty shot. You can advance the ball forward but I haven’t seen one I could actually hit it out of and on to the green.
“The rough is not very penal so if I can carry all the bunkers, I’m going to hit driver.
McIlroy warned against going in with one set game plan for the week, though.
“With links golf you have to adapt,” he said. “There is not one player that has a game plan on a Wednesday night and is going to stick to it for the whole 72 holes.
“It’s just not going to happen with wind conditions and pin placements.
“You’ll see guys on Saturday and Sunday taking way more drivers, way more risks, because they’ve played the course a couple more times and think the risk is worth it.”
The home challenge
England’s Justin Rose is still to better his fourth-place finish as a teenage amateur at Royal Birkdale 20 years ago.
But the world number three has been typically meticulous in planning for this latest tilt. He came to Carnoustie and played a “surreal” round in 30C temperatures before last week’s Scottish Open at Gullane.
“You can’t click into this style of golf quickly, especially when the fairways are as fast as they are now,” he told BBC Sport.
“You need to play links golf and I’ve been fortunate that all the courses have been browned out, even down south so I feel like I’ve been playing this style of golf for a month.”
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Rose ran through a host of English players, including US Open runner-up Tommy Fleetwood, Paul Casey and Ian Poulter as “guys who are completely capable of winning this week”.
Fleetwood, 27, missed an eight-foot birdie putt on his 72nd hole at Shinnecock Hills in June, eventually losing by one shot.
“One shot is a quarter of a shot a round so it’s not that much,” he said. “There’s no good reason why I can’t win a major.”
Russell Knox leads the home challenge after the Scotsman won the Irish Open a couple of weeks ago, although there will be many eyes on 1985 champion Sandy Lyle, who will hit the first tee shot on Thursday morning as he plays in what could be his final Open at the age of 60.
Amateur Sam Locke, who works part-time in 1999 champion Lawrie’s Aberdeenshire golf centre, is playing his first Open. Lawrie, who used to be coached by Locke’s father, is missing because of foot and back injuries.
Darren Clarke, the champion golfer of 2011, flies the Northern Irish flag alongside McIlroy.
The American challenge
Three-time Open champion Woods has declared links golf as his best hope of adding to his tally of 14 majors, and the 42-year-old has been hugely in demand this week, with hordes of fans following his practice rounds as he returns to the tournament after missing the previous two with a back injury.
Woods has not won a major since the 2008 US Open and although he has the links golf experience, it would be a remarkable story were he to win.
The young quartet of major holders Spieth, Koepka, Patrick Reed (Masters) and Justin Thomas (PGA Championship) are expected to be in contention as they look to extend the US winning run to six majors.
Reed said his challenge was “getting a bit more comfortable with landing the ball short and letting it run” and adjusting to “hitting a 90% six iron 260 yards when back home I’m hitting a three wood”.
There are any number of players who could win this week though, far too many to go into detail here.
As McIlroy put it: “There’s 156 guys in the field and there are probably over half who have a realistic chance of winning.”
The weather
Thursday’s early starters are likely to have the better of the conditions, with sunshine and light winds forecast. The breeze freshens in the afternoon, getting up to around 20-25mph.
And those playing in the stronger winds on Thursday afternoon look set to get a little wet on Friday morning with predicted rain showers blowing away by mid-afternoon.
The weekend is set fair though with winds no stronger than 25mph.
Brittany Lincicome set to make PGA Tour history at Barbosal Championship
While all eyes are on the leading male players in the world at Carnoustie this week, one female golfer will be doing her bit to inspire young girls to take up the sport.
For as the 147th Open gets under way, Brittany Lincicome will be lining up alongside the men at the PGA’s Barbosal Championship in Kentucky.
In doing so the 32-year-old American will be only the sixth woman in history to compete against men on the PGA Tour.
The last was Michelle Wie a decade ago.
Last month Lincicome and Wie were paired at an LPGA event in Arkansas and Lincicome, a two-time major winner, said she tried to ask the Hawaiian about her experiences against the men.
“She wasn’t very helpful,” Lincicome joked, “she said she couldn’t remember, it was so long ago.”
Annika Sorenstam, Suzy Whaley, Shirley Spork and Babe Didrikson Zaharias are the only other women to have competed alongside the men in the PGA’s 102 years.
“It’s kind of surreal, I just can’t stop smiling,” Lincicome told the PGA Tour website.
“Obviously I’ve heard many times I would be the first LPGA or female person to make the cut in a men’s event.
“I’m trying to block that all out and just go out and play and have fun and play my own game and not be too tense or uptight about it.”
But her motivation is to inspire the younger generation: “If I can inspire one child to pick up the game of golf and want to play, I feel like my job as a pro has been succeeded,” she said.
Lincicome has also written for the Players’ Tribune website this week about her reasons for playing.
“The more I thought about whether to play in this event, the more I kept coming back to all the younger girls who I might be able to connect with and inspire by doing this,” she explained.
“I thought about how an opportunity like this might be able to make a difference in how people think about our sport in the future.”
The Open 2018: Golf ‘will never get over’ box-office Tiger Woods
| The 147th Open Championship |
|---|
| Venue: Carnoustie, Scotland Dates: 19-22 July |
| Coverage: Live across BBC Radio, highlights on BBC TV and online, live text commentaries on BBC website. |
Nobody in global golf can make old men move like young animals quite like Tiger Woods.
When Woods is on his way to the interview room, media folk grow extra legs. They exit their seat like a greyhound from the traps and whizz past you in a blur. Lesson one about covering a major championship: don’t get in the way of a man on his way to a Tiger press conference. Dawdle and you’re dead. Roadkill.
- Woods targets 15th major at Carnoustie
- Lyle to hit first shot at Open
- Wrecker of dreams: What makes Carnoustie Car-nasty?
This will be Woods’ 20th Open and his 13th Open in Scotland. Twenty-three years he’s been coming here, since playing, coincidentally, Carnoustie in the Scottish Open as an amateur in 1995 before kicking on to St Andrews for a major won famously by John Daly.
Woods and Scotland has been a love story. Two of his three Claret Jugs were won at St Andrews. He was once asked to pick his three favourite holes in Scottish golf.
“The Road Hole – and anything else at St Andrews,’ he replied.
To borrow a current – and somewhat weary – phrase, there’s an element this week of Woods coming home to what he knows and loves most about golf.
He told a tale about about those first weeks in Scotland.
“I’d never played links golf,” he said. “This was my first time. I spent close to two hours on the range just hitting balls before I even went and played because I thought it was just the best, seeing the ball bounce, being creative and using my mind.
“I grew up in Southern California where nothing rolls. I remember going down to (hole) number two, I was probably 120 yards out and bringing out my putter. I’d never done that before. That was one of the cooler moments. It stuck with me. That was my introduction to links golf – Carnoustie and St Andrews. Doesn’t get any better than that.”
Woods had a captive audience. We were literally queuing out the door. For reigning Open champion Jordan Spieth on Monday – a healthy attendance at his press conference, but not full. For Masters champion Patrick Reed – a decent turnout. For US Open champion Brooks Koepka – a respectable crowd. For Woods, a stampede.
A few months back, Padraig Harrington, champion here at Carnoustie in 2007, was asked about the Tiger Effect and whether the scandals and the injuries and the total absence of glory over the last decade has diminished his appeal in any way. As with most things, Harrington had an interesting and insightful take.
The Irishman said that he’d observed Woods at a tournament a few weeks before and that he’d never seen such galleries around him. The weight of numbers, the noise, the buzz – not even when the American was in his pomp had Harrington witnessed such a hubbub.
His point was that it doesn’t matter – and will never matter – that Woods wasn’t a contender. What mattered was that people who had never seen him before wanted to see him now, they wanted to be able to tell their grandchildren that they once the saw the great man play.
Since Harrington spoke, a vast biography of Woods has been published and some of the detail is extraordinary. For much of it, Woods comes across as shockingly arrogant, unspeakably rude and totally aloof. The portrait, largely, is of a boy who was brought up in a sporting lab of his over-bearing father’s making, a golfing machine that cared little or nothing for anything or anyone bar himself.
In essence, the book fleshed out, in microscopic detail, some of what we already knew about him. Nobody will have ever mistaken him for an altar boy. The coldness, the meanness, the seemingly irredeemable aspects of his personality – we shouldn’t be cheering for a guy like this, but the simple fact is that we do.
Talking to golf fans of all ages on Tuesday – from seven to 70-something – it was Tiger’s name that kept cropping up. Kids who weren’t alive when he last won a major championship wanted to see him play more than anybody else in the field. His legend has been passed down a generation, a legend so strong that it has overcome all the character failings, all the awful things in his make-up.
Tiger as a player in his peak was a phenomenon and he remains a phenomenon now, not because of the shots he hits or the tournaments he wins but because he still draws the biggest crowds and has everyone hanging on his every word and deed just like he did in his dominant years.
Put simply, we will never get over Tiger. For good and bad, he is imbedded in our hearts and minds. People wonder whether he can pull off a miracle and win this week – or any week when there’s a major on the line. The miracle isn’t exclusively about him winning, it’s about us wanting him to win. That’s a miraculous event in itself. Despite everything that he has done, we’re still rooting for him ahead of most, if not, all of the field?
As Tiger was wont to say – it is what it is.
‘You have to be creative’: Carnoustie gives me an Open chance, says Woods
| The 147th Open Championship |
|---|
| Venue: Carnoustie, Scotland Dates: 19-22 July |
| Coverage: Live across BBC Radio, highlights on BBC TV and online, live text commentaries on BBC website. |
Tiger Woods believes this year’s Open can see him add to his 14 major titles.
The American, 42, is playing his first Open Championship since 2015 after recovering from back fusion surgery.
But when asked whether the Open – played on links courses – was his best chance for more silverware, he said: “Yes, because you don’t have to be long to play on a links golf course.”
Woods was joint 32nd at the Masters in April on his return to major golf and missed the cut at June’s US Open.
The three-time winner of the Claret Jug added: “Look what Tom Watson did at Turnberry in 2009 at the age of 59.”
Watson, who had won the last of his five Open titles in 1983, missed a putt to win the title that year then lost in a play-off to fellow American Stewart Cink.
“You get to places like Augusta National where it’s just a big ballpark and the course outgrows you. That’s just the way it goes,” Woods continued.
“At Carnoustie there are not many opportunities to hit the driver because the ball is going to roll 80 yards, so it’s hard to keep the ball in play.
“I hit a three iron 333 yards in practice on the 18th hole so when I get a bit older I can still chase a long club down there, so distance becomes a moot point.
“But creativity plays such an important role. There’s a reason Tom won five of these – he was very creative.”
Woods got his first taste of links golf at Carnoustie as a 19-year-old amateur at the 1995 Scottish Open and he recalled playing the par-four second and “being close to 120 yards out and putting it”.
He added: “I’d never done that before – that was one of the cooler moments.
“I spent two hours on the driving range hitting the ball to the 100m sign. I was hitting nine iron, four iron, five iron, just having a blast trying to hit the sign, being creative and using my mind.”
Woods finished joint seventh in 1999 and in a tie for 12th in 2007 on his other visits to The Open at Carnoustie.
The Open champion of 2000, 2005 and 2006 has also had nine top-10 finishes in his 19 starts in the tournament.
“I love playing links golf,” he said. “You know you’re not going to get the most perfect of bounces. You know a wonderful shot down the middle of the fairway could bounce some weird way.
“Traditionally, the guys who have done well over the years have been wonderful feel players and wonderful lag putters because a lot of times it is difficult to get the ball close and you have numerous putts from 40 or 50 feet.
“That’s just part of it. And I think that’s the fun challenge of it.”
The Open 2018: What makes Carnoustie ‘Car-nasty’?
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| The 147th Open Championship |
|---|
| Venue: Carnoustie, Scotland Dates: 19-22 July |
| Coverage: Live across BBC Radio, highlights on BBC TV and online, live text commentaries on BBC website. |
Carnoustie. Wrecker of dreams. Jean van de Velde. The most famous of Open Championship meltdowns.
The images are as fresh today as if they happened yesterday. Van de Velde, socks and shoes off, wading into Barry Burn. A three-shot lead and the Claret Jug slipping away at the last.
But the Frenchman, who signed for a seven on the par-four 18th, was not the only player chewed up by ‘Car-nasty’ in 1999.
Teenage tears flowed on day one for a Spaniard who walked off the course with an 89. An 18-over-par 89, the consoling shoulder of his mother absorbing the anguish.
That 19-year-old was Sergio Garcia. He had won the Irish Open two weeks before. The new Seve? Not quite.
Garcia returned in 2007, demons banished. He opened with a six-under 65 and led from start almost to finish.
He needed one final par to break his major duck but an eight-foot putt lipped out and for a third straight Open at Carnoustie, it was a play-off. American great Tom Watson had won his first major there in a 1975 play-off; Scotland’s Paul Lawrie benefited in 1999; this time it was Ireland’s Padraig Harrington.
What makes Carnoustie Car-nasty?
Clearly, the weather can play its part. But then it can do that at all seaside courses.
Taking that out of the equation, at 7,400 yards Carnoustie is the longest course on the Open rota, but what really sets it apart is Barry Burn, Island and Home – the final three holes – widely regarded as the toughest finish in championship golf.
Record 18-time major winner Jack Nicklaus said in 2007: “I’ve always regarded Carnoustie as the hardest of all the championship venues.
“It’s got all the features you would want, including a few blind shots. It’s what you would expect from Scottish golf.”
- The Open 2018: BBC coverage details
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- Carnoustie’s 18th – the scariest hole in Open history?
- Pepperell puts punditry on hold after last-minute qualification
- The Carnoustie family who took golf to the USA
Five-time Open champion Watson called the 248-yard 16th “the hardest par three in the world”.
It’s called Barry Burn, after the stream that meanders across it, and several other holes, and the American failed to par it in five attempts (including the 18-hole play-off). “Couldn’t lick it. Tried, but couldn’t lick it,” he conceded.
The Barry Burn also features heavily on the 17th. Island is so named because the drive has to find a landing area almost completely surrounded by water.
Three-time Open champion Tiger Woods called the hole “a little weird”; 2011 winner Darren Clarke opts for “weird and wonderful”.
And so to Home. A 499-yard par four. The burn crosses the hole three times, including just in front of the green. With a helping wind, a drive and a pitch is enough. Into the wind, it’s a daunting prospect.
Rampaging Irishman Harrington arrived on the 18th tee in 2007 with a one-shot lead after starting the day six behind Garcia. He hit two into the burn and walked off with a six – albeit after a terrific chip and putt.
“Out of bounds left off the tee, water left, water right, water short, bunkers straight in front of you,” he told BBC Sport. “All the complications off the tee that you can possibly think of.
“The second shot, you can hit the green and go out of bounds. We’ve seen that many times. It’s the most difficult closing hole in major championship golf and probably in world golf.”
Playing tough since 1931
Those final three holes have been troubling players since Carnoustie, located just north of St Andrews on the east coast of Scotland, hosted its first Open Championship in 1931.
Eventual winner Tommy Armour, a Scottish-born American, said he had “never lived through such an hour” after local favourite Mac Smith and Argentina’s Jose Jurado fell apart.
Smith just needed to par his way in from 16 to win. A double bogey on 16 and another double on 17 ended his hopes.
Jurado also dropped two shots on the 17th and, in an era when scoreboards were not visible around the course, played it safe on the 18th, thinking he could bogey the hole and still get in a play-off.
“For maybe 20 years I thought about it constantly,” said Jurado long after two-putting for a bogey and handing victory to the American.
When The Open returned in 1937, England’s Henry Cotton played what is considered the round of his life in torrential rain to post a final-day 71 and win by two shots.
There is grainy footage of him putting between puddles on greens that would be deemed unplayable today.
It’s not always carnage at Carnoustie
This, the 147th Open, will be the eighth staging of golf’s oldest major at Carnoustie.
In 1953, American Ben Hogan arrived in Angus having already won the Masters and US Open. After opening with a one-over 73, he improved his score each day, finishing with a 68 and six-under total to win by four shots – the last of his nine majors.
He played with such precision that the sixth – ‘Long’, a 567-yard par five – was renamed Hogan’s Alley after he threaded his tee shot down the left side of the fairway, between bunkers and out of bounds, in each round to give himself a better angle of approach to the green.
It was Hogan’s one and only Open appearance, at the age of 40, and just four years after a near-fatal car crash threatened to halt his career. His record of winning the first three majors of the year has never been matched. He was prevented from attempting to win the final leg of the Grand Slam because the US PGA Championship was held at the same time as the Open.
Gary Player won the only other Open at Carnoustie. He played one of the best shots of his illustrious career on the par-five 14th, drilling a three-wood into the teeth of a gale to two feet to set up an eagle three.
That helped the South African catch and pass American Billy Casper, who had a six on that hole, named Spectacles because of the two bunkers that protect the green.
Harrington also eagled the 14th on his way to beating Garcia in 2007, a fortuitous hop out of the rough helping his ball finish on the green.
That eagle undid the damage of his double bogey on the last – a double bogey that Harrington later said could have sent his career “into reverse”.
Carnoustie. Maker of dreams.
Late tee time for Woods in Open first round
| The 147th Open Championship |
|---|
| Venue: Carnoustie, Scotland Dates: 19-22 July |
| Coverage: Live across BBC Radio, highlights on BBC TV and online, live text commentaries on BBC website. |
Three-time champion Tiger Woods has a late start for Thursday’s first round of the Open Championship at Carnoustie.
The 42-year-old world number 71, returning to the event for the first time since 2015, tees off at 15:21 BST.
England’s world number three, Justin Rose, tees off at 09:58, while Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy is off at 12:53.
The first shot will be hit by 60-year-old two-time major champion Sandy Lyle, who will make his final Open appearance unless he can finish in the top 10.
Woods is in a group featuring Lyle’s fellow Scot, Russell Knox, who won this month’s Irish Open.
Rose goes out with defending champion Jordan Spieth of the United States.
- Meticulous Rose plans to outdo his teenage feat, 20 years on
- Carnoustie’s 18th – the scariest hole in Open history?
- Spieth relishing Open defence as Fleetwood eyes first major
Open Championship first-round tee times (BST), (‘a’ denotes amateur):
06:35: S Lyle (Sco), M Kaymer (Ger), A Sullivan (Eng)
06:46: E Van Rooyen (SA), B Schnell (US), M Southgate (Eng)
06:57: D Willett (Eng), E Grillo (Arg), L List (US)
07:08: M Calcavecchia (US), D Boonma (Tha), S Norris (SA)
07:19: K Chappell (US), O Wilson (Eng), E Pepperell (Eng)
07:30: P Dunne (Ire), R Fisher (Eng), A Cook (US)
07:41: P Cantlay (US), T Hatton (Eng), S Lowry (Ire)
07:52: T Pieters (Bel), K Kisner (US), M Kinhult (Swe)
08:03: S Kodaira (Jpn), P Mickelson (US), R Cabrera-Bello (Spa)
08:14: B Harman (US), Y Ikeda (Jpn), A Landry (US)
08:25: Si Woo Kim (Kor), W Simpson (US), N Hojgaard (Den) (a)
08:36: S Cink (US), B Stone (SA), H Tanihara (Jpn)
08:47: G Woodland (US), Y Miyazato (Jpn), Sung Kang (Kor)
09:03: A Hadwin (Can), E Els (SA), C Hadley (US)
09:14: P Perez (US), J Suri (US), G Coetzee (SA)
09:25: D Duval (US), S Jamieson (Sco), K Na (US)
09:36: B Langer (Ger), D Clarke (NI), R Goosen (SA)
09:47: M Kuchar (US), A Lahiri (Ind), P Uihlein (US)
09:58: J Rose (Eng), J Spieth (US), K Aphibarnrat (Tha)
10:09: R Fowler (US), J Rahm (Spa), C Wood (Eng)
10:20: L Oosthuizen (SA), P Casey (Eng), P Reed (US)
10:31: X Schauffele (US), T Finau (US), J Vegas (Ven)
10:42: Yuxin Lin (a) (Chn), A Bjork (Swe), Sang Hyun Park (Kor)
10:53: J Robinson (Eng), H Magnus (Isr), Z Lombard (SA)
11:04: K Ichihara (Jpn), R Enoch (Wal), M Armitage (Eng)
11:15: G Green (Mal), S Crocker (US), A Turner (Eng)
11:36: S Locke (Sco) (a), B Snedeker (US), C Davis (Aus)
11:47: P Kizzire (USA), J Blixt (Swe), C Howell III (US)
11:58: C Schwartzel (SA), D Berger (US), T Lewis (Eng)
12:09: R Moore (US), A Levy (Fra), Byeong-Hun An (Kor)
12:20: M Hendry (NZ), K Kraft (US), L Westwood (Eng)
12:31: T Fleetwood (Eng), H Stenson (Swe), J Walker (US)
12:42: R Henley (US), M Fitzpatrick (Eng), J Rebula (SA) (a)
12:53: R McIlroy (NI), M Leishman (Aus), T Olesen (Den)
13:04: A Noren (Swe), D Johnson (US), C Hoffman (US)
13:15: Z Johnson (US), A Scott (Aus), B Steele (US)
13:26: J Thomas (US), F Molinari (Ita), B Grace (SA)
13:37: J Day (Aus), S Akiyoshi (Jpn), Haotong Li (Chn)
13:48: B Hossler (US), T Hamilton (US), J Campillo (Spa)
14:04: C Reavie (US), R Tokimatsu (Jpn), M Kim (US)
14:15: K Stanley (US), N Colsaerts (Bel), J Dantorp (Swe)
14:26: D Frittelli (SA), T Lehman (US), G Forrest (Sco)
14:37: L Herbert (Aus), J Kokrak (US), Min Chel Choi (Kor)
14:48: P Harrington (Ire), M Wallace (Eng), B Watson (US)
14:59: C Smith (Aus), B Koepka (US), I Poulter (Eng)
15:10: S Garcia (Spa), S Sharma (Ind), B DeChambeau (US)
15:21: H Matsuyama (Jpn), R Knox (Sco), T Woods (US)
15:32: J Dufner (US), K Bradley (US), R Fox (NZ)
15:43: A Ancer (Mex), M Kawamura (Jpn), R Armour (US)
15:54: J Janewattananond (Tha), F Zanotti (Par), J Smith (Eng)
16:05: M Kobayashi (Jpn), J Senior (Eng), B Rumford (Aus)
16:16: T Curtis (Eng), B Burgoon (US), M Jones (Aus)
Defending champion Spieth to ‘use imagination’ at Open
| The 147th Open Championship |
|---|
| Venue: Carnoustie Championship Course Dates: 19-22 July Coverage: Live across BBC Radio, highlights on BBC TV and online, live text commentaries on BBC website |
Defending champion Jordan Spieth is looking forward to using his “imagination” at The Open this week, after recent struggles on the PGA Tour.
The 24-year-old American, who saw the course at Carnoustie for the first time on Monday, has missed three cuts in seven tournaments since finishing third at the Masters in April.
“I was dragging along, playing cut-line golf and a heavy schedule and I needed to get away from the game,” said the world number six, who is a three-time major champion.
“An Open Championship requires a lot of feel and imagination, and that’s what I needed a bit of in my game.”
One of Spieth’s missed cuts came at the US Open in June.
He said: “I had got very technical and into making everything perfect instead of the way I normally play. This week provides that opportunity where you don’t know how far the ball is necessarily going to go off the tee.
“You need to play the spots and then use your imagination from there – hold the ball, ride the wind. You’ll see guys playing the golf course with a lot of different strategies.”
The champion golfer
Spieth – the 2015 Masters and US Open champion – won the 146th staging of golf’s oldest major by three shots at Birkdale last year, and has revelled in being called ‘champion golfer of the year’.
“The traditions of The Open are special. It’s a unique title for their champion and it’s been an honour being introduced that way throughout the year at different events,” he said.
“That will certainly bring some good feeling and some chills on the first tee this week.”
Spieth returned the Claret Jug to R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers in a traditional ceremony on the first tee on Monday.
“It wasn’t an enjoyable experience, but it’s done,” said Spieth.
“Hopefully it will only be out of my possession for a week, That would be ideal.”
Spieth tees off at 09:58 BST on Thursday with England’s Justin Rose and Kiradech Aphibarnrat of Thailand.
The Open 2018: Tiger Woods with late tee time as Sandy Lyle hits first shot
| The 147th Open Championship |
|---|
| Venue: Carnoustie, Scotland Dates: 19-22 July |
| Coverage: Live across BBC Radio, highlights on BBC TV and online, live text commentaries on BBC website. |
Three-time champion Tiger Woods has a late start for Thursday’s first round of the Open Championship at Carnoustie.
The 42-year-old world number 71, returning to the event for the first time since 2015, tees off at 15:21 BST.
England’s world number three Justin Rose tees off at 09:58, while Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy is off at 12:53.
The first shot will be hit by 60-year-old two-time major champion Sandy Lyle, who will make his final Open appearance unless he can finish in the top 10.
Open Championship first-round tee times (BST), (‘a’ denotes amateur):
06:35: S Lyle (Sco), M Kaymer (Ger), A Sullivan (Eng)
06:46: E Van Rooyen (SA), B Schnell (US), M Southgate (Eng)
06:57: D Willett (Eng), E Grillo (Arg), L List (US)
07:08: M Calcavecchia (US), D Boonma (Tha), S Norris (SA)
07:19: K Chappell (US), O Wilson (Eng), E Pepperell (Eng)
07:30: P Dunne (Ire), R Fisher (Eng), A Cook (US)
07:41: P Cantlay (US), T Hatton (Eng), S Lowry (Ire)
07:52: T Pieters (Bel), K Kisner (US), M Kinhult (Swe)
08:03: S Kodaira (Jpn), P Mickelson (US), R Cabrera-Bello (Spa)
08:14: B Harman (US), Y Ikeda (Jpn), A Landry (US)
08:25: Si Woo Kim (Kor), W Simpson (US), N Hojgaard (Den) (a)
08:36: S Cink (US), B Stone (SA), H Tanihara (Jpn)
08:47: G Woodland (US), Y Miyazato (Jpn), Sung Kang (Kor)
09:03: A Hadwin (Can), E Els (SA), C Hadley (US)
09:14: P Perez (US), J Suri (US), G Coetzee (SA)
09:25: D Duval (US), S Jamieson (Sco), K Na (US)
09:36: B Langer (Ger), D Clarke (NI), R Goosen (SA)
09:47: M Kuchar (US), A Lahiri (Ind), P Uihlein (US)
09:58: J Rose (Eng), J Spieth (US), K Aphibarnrat (Tha)
10:09: R Fowler (US), J Rahm (Spa), C Wood (Eng)
10:20: L Oosthuizen (SA), P Casey (Eng), P Reed (US)
10:31: X Schauffele (US), T Finau (US), J Vegas (Ven)
10:42: Yuxin Lin (a) (Chn), A Bjork (Swe), Sang Hyun Park (Kor)
10:53: J Robinson (Eng), H Magnus (Isr), Z Lombard (SA)
11:04: K Ichihara (Jpn), R Enoch (Wal), M Armitage (Eng)
11:15: G Green (Mal), S Crocker (US), A Turner (Eng)
11:36: S Locke (Sco) (a), B Snedeker (US), C Davis (Aus)
11:47: P Kizzire (USA), J Blixt (Swe), C Howell III (US)
11:58: C Schwartzel (SA), D Berger (US), T Lewis (Eng)
12:09: R Moore (US), A Levy (Fra), Byeong-Hun An (Kor)
12:20: M Hendry (NZ), K Kraft (US), L Westwood (Eng)
12:31: T Fleetwood (Eng), H Stenson (Swe), J Walker (US)
12:42: R Henley (US), M Fitzpatrick (Eng), J Rebula (SA) (a)
12:53: R McIlroy (NI), M Leishman (Aus), T Olesen (Den)
13:04: A Noren (Swe), D Johnson (US), C Hoffman (US)
13:15: Z Johnson (US), A Scott (Aus), B Steele (US)
13:26: J Thomas (US), F Molinari (Ita), B Grace (SA)
13:37: J Day (Aus), S Akiyoshi (Jpn), Haotong Li (Chn)
13:48: B Hossler (US), T Hamilton (US), J Campillo (Spa)
14:04: C Reavie (US), R Tokimatsu (Jpn), M Kim (US)
14:15: K Stanley (US), N Colsaerts (Bel), J Dantorp (Swe)
14:26: D Frittelli (SA), T Lehman (US), G Forrest (Sco)
14:37: L Herbert (Aus), J Kokrak (US), Min Chel Choi (Kor)
14:48: P Harrington (Ire), M Wallace (Eng), B Watson (US)
14:59: C Smith (Aus), B Koepka (US), I Poulter (Eng)
15:10: S Garcia (Spa), S Sharma (Ind), B DeChambeau (US)
15:21: H Matsuyama (Jpn), R Knox (Sco), T Woods (US)
15:32: J Dufner (US), K Bradley (US), R Fox (NZ)
15:43: A Ancer (Mex), M Kawamura (Jpn), R Armour (US)
15:54: J Janewattananond (Tha), F Zanotti (Par), J Smith (Eng)
16:05: M Kobayashi (Jpn), J Senior (Eng), B Rumford (Aus)
16:16: T Curtis (Eng), B Burgoon (US), M Jones (Aus)