When and where is it on?
The final men’s Major of the year, the Open Championship, will begin at Royal Troon early on Thursday morning. It is the 152nd 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. Coverage from will begin from 6.30am on Thursday on Main Event and Golf channels and run all day. Round-by-round highlights will be available on BBC Two from 8pm on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday and from 9pm on Friday.
What are the tee times?
The tee times will follow when they are made available on Tuesday. Six Irish players await their groupings for Thursday and Friday.
Who are the Irish players playing at Troon?
It is a good sign of the Irish success in this event since Pádraig Harrington broke the mould in 2007 that four of the six Irish competitors are former winners – Harrington, Darren Clarke, Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry. The other two players make their debuts from differing paths.
Tom McKibbin will play in his first Open after making the cut at the US Open, his first Major, qualifying after finishing second in the Italian Open. Liam Nolan, meanwhile, came through final qualifying at Dundonald Links. The Galway amateur played in the Walker Cup at St Andrews last year and won the 2023 Brabazon Trophy, a prestigious amateur event in England.
Can Rory erase the demons of Pinehurst here?
McIlroy will be playing in his first Major since his infamous finish to the US Open at Pinehurst in June, when he missed two putts inside four feet on the final three holes to lose by a shot to Bryson DeChambeau. It meant his Major drought extended another few months, 2014 PGA Championship his last victory. He comes into Troon in good form, an ideal tune-up of tied fourth at the Scottish Open last week and no finish outside the top 15 since April.
McIlroy was also tied fourth last time the Open was at Troon in 2017, and has been in the top six in five of his last seven Opens. Nobody doubts he is good enough to win this week, but question marks remain over his mental game. He has been working on that with his psychologist Bob Rotella.
“I walked the High Line in Manhattan on the Tuesday and had a really good chat with Rotella for about an hour. We talked a lot about all that stuff, about routine,” he said. “We talked about Pinehurst, where the positives far outweighed the negatives but the negatives were pretty big. You have to learn from it.”
What about Shane Lowry?
Most people would say that Lowry has it in him to win another Open Championship, of all the Majors, given his flair for links courses. While next year at Portrush might suit him better, Lowry will fancy his chances at Troon, despite missing the cut here in 2017. The Offaly man skipped the Scottish Open as he took a few weeks off in Ireland, and made an appearance in the crowd at Wimbledon, to rest up after a fine year on the PGA Tour so far, where he is 13th in the Fed-Ex Cup standings.
Who are the other main contenders?
World number one Scottie Scheffler is understandably the favourite at 4-1 in the midst of one of the finest PGA Tour seasons in history – he has already won six times including the Masters. He is yet to go that close to winning an Open on a links course, however, with a best finish of tied-eighth in 2021. US Open winner Bryson DeChambeau is the same, a best finish of tied-eighth from six attempts, and might be why he is only fifth favourite with the bookies behind Scheffler, McIlroy (13-2), Ludvig Aberg (9-1) and Xander Schauffele (10-1).
What is the course like?
This is the 10th staging of the Open at Troon, the first back in 1923 and most recently in 2017 where there was a titanic battle between Henrik Stenson and Phil Mickelson. It is best known for Postage Stamp eighth hole, only a wedge to one of the shortest par 3s in professional golf, but surrounded by hazards everywhere if you misjudge your tee shot.
What is the weather forecast?
Temperatures of 17 to 19 degrees, mostly cloudy with some showers, with a gentle to moderate breeze expected throughout the week.
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