When is it on?
The final men’s big of the year, the Open Championship, will begin at the Old Course at St Andrews early on Thursday morning. It is the 150th edition of golf’s oldest Major. The tournament will run until Sunday afternoon, where the winner will pick up the Claret Jug.
How can I follow it all?
The Open is being broadcast live exclusively on Sky Sports and NowTV all week. Sky have renamed their channel Sky Sports The Open and coverage from will begin from 6.30am on Thursday and follow throughout the week. Round-by-round highlights will be available on BBC Two.
Who are the main Irish contenders?
There are seven Irish players in the field this week and rarely will Ireland go into a big with as many prospects. Rory McIlroy is favourite in the bookies after a strong summer form-wise and is poised to challenge. He once shot 63 at St Andrews in the Open in 2010 (albeit followed up with an 80 in a gale). Shane Lowry is in fine form and after winning the Open three years ago will have targeted this one as a potential second Major. Séamus Power has finished T27, T9 and T12 in the Majors this season and is trending in the right direction.
And the other Irish players are in the field?
Pádraig Harrington is a two-time winner of the Open and knows how to play links golf just about as well as anyone and won the Senior US Open recently. Darren Clarke is another former winner who has got a new lease of life on the senior’s tour. Ronan Mullarney and David Carey have both qualified for the event through regional qualifying. With four places on offer at four venues, Carey finished top of the qualifier at Fairmont St Andrews by four shots, while Galway’s Mullarney claimed second spot at Prince’s in Kent.
How will Tiger Woods do?
Tiger Woods is a two-time winner of the Open at St Andrews, mostly famously shooting a 19-under-par total to win here by eight strokes in 2000, without hitting the ball into a single bunker. Woods knows the Old Course like the back of his hand but there are question marks about his leg injury as he played the JP McManus Pro Am in a buggy, finishing near the back of the field. Woods has played a lot of golf in the meantime, playing a practice round in Ballybunion in Co Kerry with Rory McIlroy before playing several rounds at St Andrews this week, stopping to take a picture on Swiliken bridge with fellow “greatest of all time” contender Jack Nicklaus. Woods will always think he can win, but making the cut would be a good performance.
Who are the favourites?
McIlroy is the clear bookies favourite given his form and his history of good rounds at St Andrews. The Northern Irishman missed the last Open at the Old Course due to a foot injury, so hasn’t played a big here since he was tied 3rd in 2010. American Xander Schauffele is second favourite having won three events in a row (Travelers Championship, JP McManus Pro Am and Scottish Open). World number one Scottie Scheffler, US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick, Spaniard Jon Rahm and 2017 winner Jordan Spieth are next in the betting.
Who else should you watch out for?
It will be interesting to see how the LIV Tour rebel golfers fare with Louis Oosthuizen and Brooks Koepka among the best bets of that group. South African Oosthuizen has won and lost in a playoff in his previous two Opens at St Andrews, so has a clear flair for the Old Course, while 11 of Koepka’s 12 rounds at St Andrews have been par or better, and he’s twice shot 64 here. Will Zalatoris has finished second in the past two Majors, after a tied 6th in the Masters, and is surely knocking on the door of a first big win.
What are the tee-times?
06.35 Paul Lawrie (Sco), Webb Simpson, Min Woo Lee (Aus)
06.46 Sadom Kaewkanjana (Tha), Ben Campbell (Nzl), Barclay Brown (Eng) (x)
06.57 Dean Burmester (Rsa), Chan Kim, Brandon Wu
07.08 Ian Poulter (Eng), Jamie Donaldson (Wal), Guido Migliozzi (Ita)
07.19 Garrick Higgo (Rsa), MinKyu Kim (Kor), Ashley Chesters (Eng)
07.30 Phil Mickelson, Lucas Herbert (Aus), Kurt Kitayama
07.41 Patrick Reed, Tom Hoge, JooHyung Kim (Kor)
07.52 John Daly, Bryson DeChambeau, Cameron Tringale
08.03 Cameron Smith (Aus), Brooks Koepka, Séamus Power (Irl)
08.14 Francesco Molinari (Ita), Tommy Fleetwood (Eng), Justin Rose (Eng)
08.25 Cameron Young, Kyoung Hoon Lee (Kor), Robert MacIntyre (Sco)
08.36 Zach Johnson, Billy Horschel, Corey Conners (Can)
08.47 Brian Harman, Pablo Larrazabal (Esp), Danny Willett (Eng)
09.03 Stephen Dodd (Wal), JT Poston, Lee Westwood (Eng)
09.14 Sepp Straka (Aut), Luke List, Justin De Los Santos (Phi)
09.25 Ernie Els (Rsa), Adri Arnaus (Esp), Brad Kennedy (Aus)
09.36 Mackenzie Hughes (Can), Scott Vincent (Zim), Victor Perez (Fra)
09.47 Jason Kokrak, Nicolai Hojgaard (Den), Sihwan Kim (Kor)
09.58 Collin Morikawa, Rory McIlroy (NIrl), Xander Schauffele
10.09 Shane Lowry (Irl), Justin Thomas, Victor Hovland (Nor)
10.20 Will Zalatoris, Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn), Tony Finau
10.31 Kevin Kisner, Chris Kirk, Takumi Kanaya (Jpn)
10.42 Dylan Frittelli (Rsa), Trey Mullinax, Matthew Jordan (Eng)
10.53 Anthony Quayle (Aus), Zander Lombard (Rsa), John Parry
11.04 Thomas Detry (Bel), Richard Mansell, Marco Penge
111.5 Alexander Bjork (Swe), Oliver Farr, Matt Ford
11.36 Mark Calcavecchia, Ryan Fox (Nzl), Jediah Morgan (Aus)
11.47 Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa), Bernd Wiesberger (Aut), Sam Bairstow (x)
11.58 Adrian Meronk (Pol), Haotong Li (Chn), Marcus Armitage
12.09 Thriston Lawrence (Rsa), Fabrizio Zanotti (Par), Alex Wrigley
12.20 Aaron Wise, Si Woo Kim (Kor), Sam Horsfield (Eng)
12.31 Talor Gooch, Shaun Norris (Rsa), Wyndham Clark
12.42 Henrik Stenson (Swe), Russell Henley, Aldrich Potgieter (Rsa, x)
12.53 Stewart Cink, Sergio Garcia (Esp), Aaron Jarvis (Cay, x)
13.04 Sungjae Im (Kor), Paul Casey (Eng), Gary Woodland
13.15 Dustin Johnson, Adam Scott (Aus), Marc Leishman (Aus)
13.26 Scottie Scheffler, Joaquin Niemann (Chi), Tyrrell Hatton
13.37 Darren Clarke (Nirl), Richard Bland (Eng), Filippo Celli (Ita, x)
13.48 Kevin Na, Kazuki Higa (Jpn), Erik van Rooyen (Rsa)
14.04 David Duval, Justin Harding (Rsa), Jordan Smith (Eng)
14.15 Shugo Imahira (Jpn), Jason Scrivener (Aus), David Law (Sco)
14.26 Abraham Ancer (Mex), Yuto Katsuragawa (Jpn), Emiliano Grillo (Arg)
14.37 Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa), Harris English, Keita Nakajima (Jpn, x)
14.48 Pádraig Harrington (Irl), Thomas Pieters (Bel), Keith Mitchell
14.49 Tiger Woods, Matt Fitzpatrick (Eng), Max Homa
15.10 Jordan Spieth, Jon Rahm (Esp), Harold Varner III
15.21 Patrick Cantlay, Sam Burns, Mito Pereira (Chi)
15.32 Keegan Bradley, Sebastian Munoz (Col), Sahith Theegala
15.43 Laurie Canter, Dimitrios Papadatos (Aus), Matthew Griffin (Aus)
15.54 John Catlin, Jamie Rutherford (Eng), David Carey (Irl)
16.05 Mingyu Cho (Kor), Jorge Fernandez Valdes (Arg), Robert Dinwiddie (Eng)
16.16 Lars Van Meijel (Ned), Jack Floydd (Eng), Ronan Mullarney (Irl)
Have there been any course changes to St Andrews this year?
“Apart from rebuilding and revetting all 78 bunkers and adding a new-ish 8th tee which was used in the 2018 Senior Open, the course will be no different from what it was in 2015,” Sandy Reid, St Andrews’ director of greenkeeping. has said.
What is the Open winner’s prize?
The 2022 Open champion will receive £2.1 million (€2.4m), but perhaps more significantly the winner receives the Claret Jug, along with an invitation to play in the Open until they are 60, and the moniker of “Champion Golfer of the Year”.
What is the weather forecast?
Mostly dry weather predicted for the week at St Andrews, with scattered showers and temperatures of about 20 degrees. Wind plays a key factor in Opens and Friday is forecast to be breezier than Thursday, with west to southwesterly winds turning to southerly winds at the weekend. Some of the bad weather that plagued the last few Opens at St Andrews is unlikely to be a factor.
