The open tee times put Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy in loaded Royal Birkdale groups

The Open Championship released its first and second round tee times on Monday, with the R&A ensuring golf’s two biggest stars feature in two marquee groupings.

Defending Golfer of the Year champion Scottie Scheffler will play alongside two-time US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau and Tyrrell Hatton during the opening two rounds at Royal Birkdale.

Six-time major champion and world No. 2 Rory McIlroy was paired with a pair of former major winners: Xander Schauffele, winner of the 2024 PGA Championship and Open Championship, and England’s Matt Fitzpatrick, winner of the 2022 US Open.

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Talk about loading two groups with big names. The R&A also decided to split the groups between the morning and afternoon waves to ensure that Scheffler and McIlroy would be on the course at different times.

Scheffler, world No.1, enters the week looking to defend the Claret Jug after his dominant win at Royal Portrush last year. He’ll be joined by DeChambeau, one of the game’s biggest draws. The interesting subplot here is current form for both players. Scheffler missed the cut at the Scottish Open last week, breaking a streak of 78 consecutive cuts.

DeChambeau has contested 2026 majors and missed the cut at the Masters, PGA Championship and US Open. He had never missed the cut in three majors before this year. Questions are starting to mount about whether he is still in the conversation as one of the best golfers on the planet, and his performance at Royal Birkdale will be under a microscope. Add the pressure of playing with Scheffler, and there’s a recipe for one of the most exciting major pairings all year.

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The trio of Scheffler, DeChambeau and Hatton starts at 9:58 a.m. local time (4:58 ET) on Thursday before switching to an afternoon kickoff on Friday.

Don’t sleep on the afternoon wave on Thursday, though.

McIlroy, who completed the career Grand Slam at the 2025 Masters, will begin his quest for a second Open Championship alongside major champions Schauffele and Fitzpatrick.

McIlroy finished 7th at the Scottish Open and is in strong form heading into the week. He has made the cut in all 10 events he has played this season, including a win at the Masters and four top-10 finishes.

While McIlroy has won the Masters in back-to-back years, he has not won any of the other three majors since 2014, when he won both the Open and the PGA Championship. A native of Northern Ireland, McIlroy surely wants to add at least one more Claret Jug to his trophy case.

Playing alongside Fitzpatrick, who is tied for the PGA Tour leader with three wins in 2026, adds pressure on McIlroy. While the crowd figures to root for McIlroy, Fitzpatrick gives the group a home nation angle as an Englishman.

The three-way tie is scheduled to start at 3:15 p.m. local time (10:15 a.m. ET) on Thursday.

Nor are these the only notable pairings at Royal Birkdale.

Chris Gotterup, who is tied with Fitzpatrick for the PGA Tour lead with three wins in 2026, will tee off with Sam Burns and Adam Scott in one of the more exciting afternoon groups. Five-time major champion Brooks Koepka also gets a major-heavy draw, along with former Open champion Shane Lowry and Aaron Rai, the reigning PGA Championship winner.

Jon Rahm, Tommy Fleetwood and Jordan Spieth are together in another loaded trio, while Justin Thomas, Alex Noren and Jason Day bring plenty of experience to the group immediately ahead of Scheffler’s tee time. Cameron Young, Wyndham Clark and Ludvig Aberg give the late wave another strong group, with Clark fresh off his second US Open title.

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Royal Birkdale is hosting The Open for the first time since Jordan Spieth’s dramatic victory in 2017, and with favorable weather expected for the opening rounds, fans should get an immediate look at many of the tournament favourites.

Some of the tee times for the marquee in the first round include:

Morning wave:

• 9:47 a.m. local (4:47 a.m. ET): Justin Thomas, Alex Noren, Jason Day
• 9:58 a.m. local (4:58 a.m. ET): Scottie Scheffler, Tyrrell Hatton, Bryson DeChambeau
• 10:09 a.m. local (5:09 a.m. ET): Jordan Spieth, Tommy Fleetwood, Jon Rahm

Afternoon wave:

• 2:31 p.m. local (9:31 a.m. ET): Chris Gotterup, Sam Burns, Adam Scott
• 2:53 p.m. local (9:53 a.m. ET): Shane Lowry, Aaron Rai, Brooks Koepka
• 3:04 p.m. local (10:04 a.m. ET): Cameron Young, Wyndham Clark, Ludvig Aberg
• 3:15 p.m. local (10:15 a.m. ET): Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, Matt Fitzpatrick

Complete list of first and second round tee times (Thursday/Friday, all times ET):

01:35 / 6:41: Matthew Baldwin, Thomas Detry, James Nicholas

01:46 / 6:52: Michael Kim, Daniel Hillier, Andy Sullivan

01:57 / 7:03: Ryan Fox, Andrew Novak, Matthew Jordan

02:08 / 7:14: Henrik Stenson, Max Homa, Joe Dean

02:19 / 7:25: Robert MacIntyre, Rickie Fowler, Alex Fitzpatrick

02:30 / 7:36: David Duval, Martin Couvra, Matthew Southgate

02:41 / 7:47: Sungjae Im, Dan Brown, Fifa Laopakdee (a)

02:52 / 7:58: Gary Woodland, Jake Knapp, Jordan Smith

03:03 / 8:09: Francesco Molinari, Tom McKibbin, Lev Grinberg (a)

03:14 / 8:20: Hennie du Plessis, Jose Luis Ballester Barrio, Dan Bradbury

03:25 / 8:31: Angel Ayora, Victor Perez, Mateo Pulcini (a)

03:36 / 8:42: Stewart Cink, Scott Vincent, Joakim Lagergren

03:47 / 8:53: Michael Thorbjornsen, Kota Kaneko, Travis Smyth

4:03 / 9:09: Alex Smalley, Sam Stevens, Ryo Hisatsune

4:14 / 9:20: Akshay Bhatia, Harris English, Rasmus Højgaard

04:25 / 9:31: Ben Griffin, Hideki Matsuyama, Min Woo Lee

4:36 / 9:42: Russell Henley, Justin Rose, Viktor Hovland

4:47 / 9:53: Justin Thomas, Alex Noren, Jason Day

04:58 / 10:04: Scottie Scheffler, Tyrrell Hatton, Bryson DeChambeau

5:09 / 10:15: Jordan Spieth, Tommy Fleetwood, Jon Rahm

05:20 / 10:26: Brian Harman, Si Woo Kim, Nick Taylor

05:31 / 10:37: Ryan Gerard, Maverick McNealy, David Puig

5:42 / 10:48: Kazuma Kobori, Tom Sloman, David Howard (a)

5:53 / 10:59: Antoine Rozner, Ren Yonezawa, Caleb Surratt

6:04 / 11:10: MJ Daffue, Frederic Lacroix, Jack McDonald

6:15 / 11:21: Jeongwoo Ham, Ryutaro Nagano, Alejandro de Castro Piera (a)

6:41 / 1:35: John Parry, Eric Cole, Tiger Christensen

06:52 / 01:46: Eugenio Chacarra, Matt Wallace, Max Greyserman

7:03 / 01:57: Michael Brennan, Sahith Theegala, Laurie Canter

7:14 / 02:08: Cameron Smith, Keith Mitchell, Stuart Grehan (a)

7:25 / 02:19: Sepp Straka, Joaquin Niemann, Kurt Kitayama

7:36 / 02:30: Sami Valimaki, Shaun Norris, Jackson Suber

7:47 / 02:41: Darren Clarke, Adrien Saddier, Bernd Wiesberger

7:58 / 02:52: Keegan Bradley, Corey Conners, Casey Jarvis

8:09 / 3:03: Matt McCarty, Harry Hall, Haotong Li

8:20 / 3:14: Padraig Harrington, Marco Penge, Michael Hollick

8:31 / 3:25: Tom Kim, Billy Horschel, Mason Howell (a)

8:42 / 3:36: Johnny Keefer, Pierceson Coody, Keita Nakajima

8:53 / 3:47: Louis Oosthuizen, Jesper Svensson, Jack Buchanan (a)

9:09 / 4:03: Bud Cauley, Jayden Schaper, Lucas Herbert

9:20 / 4:14: Kristoffer Reitan, Patrick Reed, JT Poston

9:31 / 4:25: Chris Gotterup, Sam Burns, Adam Scott

9:42 / 4:36: Collin Morikawa, JJ Spaun, Nicolai Højgaard

9:53 / 4:47: Shane Lowry, Aaron Rai, Brooks Koepka

10:04 / 4:58: Cameron Young, Wyndham Clark, Ludvig Aberg

10:15 / 5:09: Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, Matt Fitzpatrick

10:26 / 5:20: Jacob Bridgeman, Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, Tim Wiedemeyer (a)

10:37 / 5:31: Patrick Cantlay, Daniel Berger, Nicolas Echavarria

10:48 / 5:42: Peter Uihlein, Alistair Docherty, Francesco Laporta

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10:59 / 5:53: Cameron John, Austen Truslow, Samuel Bairstow

11:10 / 6:04: Naoyuki Kataoka, Marcus Plunkett, Baard Bjoernevik Skogen

11:21 / 6:15: Kazuki Higa, Jiho Yang, Nevill Ruiter (a)