Darren Clarke to hit first shot at the Open as tee times are confirmed

2011 Open winner Darren Clarke will tee off in the opening group at the 148th Open Championship in Portrush this week.

Clarke will tee off from 6:35am on Thursday with a group that includes Cork golfer James Surgue and American Charley Hoffman. 2020 Ryder Cup captain Padraig Harrington will tee off from 7:30am alongside Matthew Fitzpatrick and Andrew Putnam while Shane Lowry will begin his tournament 20 minutes later in a group that includes Phil Mickelson and Branden Grace. Home favourite Rory McIlroy is paired with Gary Woodland for the opening two rounds at Royal Portrush and tees off from 10:09am while defending champion Francesco Molinari will begin his defence 10 minutes earlier alongside Bryson DeChambeau and Adam Scott. https://twitter.com/BBCSPORTNI/status/1149407979701178369 You can view all the tee times for Thursday and Friday by clicking here. Selected Thursday tee times 6.35am – Darren Clarke, James Sugrue (A), Charley Hoffman 7.30am – Padraig Harrington, Matt Fitzpatrick, Andrew Putnam 7.52am – Phil Mickelson, Shane Lowry, Branden Grace 9.14am – Henrik Stenson, Xander Schauffele, Graeme McDowell 9.58am – Francesco Molinari, Adam Scott, Bryson DeChambeau 10.09am – Rory McIlroy, Paul Casey, Gary Woodland 10.20am – Hideki Matsuyama, Rickie Fowler, Kevin Kisner 12.53pm – Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Thomas, Thorbjorn Olesen 1.04pm – Brooks Koepka, Louis Oosthuizen, Shubhankar Sharma 1.26pm – Jordan Spieth, Marc Leishman, Danny Willett 2.48pm – Tony Finau, Lucas Bjerregaard, Justin Rose 2.59pm – Dustin Johnson, Jason Day, Keegan Bradley 3.10pm – Tiger Woods, Matthew Wallace, Patrick Reed 3.21pm – Jon Rahm, Matt Kuchar, Patrick Cantlay