Rory McIlroy gets his bid for more Open Championship success under way at 2.59pm on Thursday

OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP: ROUND 1 TEE TIMES

The 151st Open Championship draw for the opening two rounds at Royal Liverpool in Hoylake has been released with some mouth-watering trios set to play together early in the historic championship.

Rory McIlroy has been grouped alongside Masters champion Jon Rahm and former world No 1 Justin Rose for the first two rounds. McIlroy, who won The Open the last time it was held in Hoylake in 2014, has been handed a late-early start time as he looks to follow on from his Scottish Open success and end his nine-year major drought.

The four-time major champion will headline afternoon coverage on the opening day and tee-off at 2.59pm local time, before getting under way at 9.58am on Friday.

Defending champion Cameron Smith is on the opposite side of the draw and has been drawn alongside US Open winner Wyndham Clark and Xander Schauffele, who has posted top-20 finishes in his last six major appearances.

World No 1 Scottie Scheffler is out in the group before with Tommy Fleetwood and former Masters champion Adam Scott, while reigning PGA Championship winner Brooks Koepka has a morning tee time on the opening day, playing with Patrick Cantlay and Hideki Matsuyama, while 2017 champion Jordan Spieth has been put with fellow major winners Matt Fitzpatrick and Jason Day.Rickie Fowler is in the same group as 2019 Open Champion Shane Lowry and Sunday’s Scottish Open runner-up Robert MacIntyre.

Royal Liverpool member Matthew Jordan has been given the honour of hitting the opening tee shot after progressing through Final Qualifying, and will tee it up alongside Richie Ramsay and Branden Grace for the opening three-ball at 6.35am.

Full Starting Times for Round 1

0635 Matthew Jordan (Eng), Richie Ramsay (Sco), Branden Grace (Rsa)

0646 Russell Henley, Jazz Janewattananond (Tha), Graeme Robertson (Sco)

0657 Ryan Fox (Nzl), Lucas Herbert (Aus), Byeong Hun An (Kor)

0708 Rikuya Hoshino (Jpn), Charl Schwartzel (Rsa), Alex Maguire (x) (Irl)

0719 Adrian Meronk (Pol), Pablo Larrazabal (Esp), Hiroshi Iwata (Jpn)

0730 Patrick Reed, Connor Syme (Sco), Jose Luis Ballester Barrio (x) (Esp)

0741 Darren Clarke (NIrl), Victor Perez (Fra), Thomas Pieters (Bel)

0752 Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa), Joost Luiten (Ned), Christo Lamprecht (x) (Rsa)

0803 Stewart Cink, JT Poston, Trey Mullinax

0814 Henrik Stenson (Swe), Harris English, Andrew Putnam

0825 Scott Stallings, Jordan Smith (Eng), Thorbjorn Olesen (Den)

0836 Ernie Els (Rsa), Kurt Kitayama, Takumi Kanaya (Jpn)

0847 Sam Burns, Sepp Straka (Aut), Chris Kirk

0903 Padraig Harrington (Irl), Seamus Power (Irl), Talor Gooch

0914 Jordan Spieth, Matt Fitzpatrick (Eng), Jason Day (Aus)

0925 KH Lee (Kor), Davis Riley, Taiga Semikawa (Jpn)

0947 Scottie Scheffler, Tommy Fleetwood (Eng), Adam Scott (Aus)

0958 Cameron Smith (Aus), Xander Schauffele, Wyndham Clark

1009 Shane Lowry (Irl), Rickie Fowler, Robert MacIntyre (Sco)

1020 Cameron Young, Si Woo Kim (Kor), Bryson DeChambeau

1031 Nicolai Hojgaard (Den), Bio Kim (Kor), Kazuki Yasumori (Jpn)

1042 Dan Bradbury (Eng), Oliver Farr (Wal), Haydn Barron (Aus)

1053 Marcel Siem (Ger), Martin Rohwer (Rsa), Tiger Christensen (x) (Ger)

1104 Lee Hodges, Antoine Rozner (Fra), Richard Bland (Eng)

1115 Yannik Paul (Ger), Sami Valimaki (Fin), Laurie Canter (Eng)

1136 Rasmus Hojgaard (Den), Matthew Southgate (Eng), Alex Fitzpatrick (Eng)

1147 Daniel Hillier (Nzl), Kyung Nam Kang (Kor), Kensei Hirata (Jpn)

1158 Callum Shinkwin (Eng), Kazuki Higa (Jpn), Michael Kim

1209 Keita Nakajima (Jpn), Zack Fischer, Kyle Barker (Rsa)

1220 Brendon Todd, Romain Langasque (Fra), Travis Smyth (Aus)

1231 Gary Woodland, Adrian Otaegui (Esp), Alexander Bjork (Swe)

1242 Min Woo Lee (Aus), Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa), Harrison Crowe (x) (Aus)

1253 Corey Conners (Can), Billy Horschel, Alex Noren (Swe)

1304 Tom Kim (Kor), Tom Hoge, Abraham Ancer (Mex)

1315 Zach Johnson, Matt Wallace (Eng), David Micheluzzi (Aus)

1326 Sahith Theegala (USA), Emiliano Grillo (Arg), Dustin Johnson

1337 Francesco Molinari (Ita), Denny McCarthy, Mateo Fernadez De Oliveira (x) (Arg)

1348 Brian Harman, Thriston Lawrence (Rsa), Thomas Detry (Bel)

1404 John Daly, Taylor Moore, Danny Willett (Eng)

1415 David Lingmerth (Swe), Ben Griffin, Ockie Strydom (Rsa)

1426 Adri Arnaus (Esp), Ewen Ferguson (Sco), Taichi Kho (Hgk)

1437 Keegan Bradley, Sungjae Im (Kor), Joaquin Niemann (Chi)

1448 Viktor Hovland (Nor), Tony Finau, Justin Thomas

1459 Rory McIlroy (NIrl), Jon Rahm (Esp), Justin Rose (Eng)

1510 Collin Morikawa, Max Homa, Tyrrell Hatton (Eng)

1521 Phil Mickelson, Nick Taylor (Can), Adam Schenk

1532 Nacho Elvira (Esp), Marc Warren (Sco), Alejandro Canizares (Esp)

1543 Guido Migliozzi (Ita), Oliver Wilson, Connor McKinney (Aus)

1554 Kalle Samooja (Fin), Shubhankar Sharma (Ind), Gunner Wiebe

1605 Jorge Campillo (Esp), Brandon Robinson Thompson (Eng), Michael Stewart (Sco)

1616 Hurly Long (Ger), Seungsu Han, Marco Penge (Eng)