The Official Open Championship thread

[NedB-H]

Tee Off Times:
06:30 Jerry Kelly, Nathan Green, DANNY WILLETT
06:41 Thongchai Jaidee, Mark Calcavecchia, GRAEME STORM
06:52 GREGORY HAVRET, Charley Hoffman, MARKUS BRIER
07:03 Todd Hamilton, SIMON KHAN, Prayad Marksaeng
07:14 RHYS DAVIES, FREDRIK JACOBSON, Mark O'Meara
07:25 Vijay Singh, SIMON DYSON, Gary Woodland
07:36 KT Kim, Ryan Moore, ALVARO QUIROS
07:47 Bo Van Pelt, KJ Choi, MARTIN LAIRD
07:58 STEPHEN GALLACHER, Bill Haas, Hiroyuki Fujita
08:09 Geoff Ogilvy, Peter Uihlein (am), MIGUEL ANGEL JIMENEZ
08:20 FRANCESCO MOLINARI, Tetsuji Hiratsuka, Stewart Cink
08:31 Nick Watney, MATTEO MANASSERO, Angel Cabrera
08:42 Yuta Ikeda, IAN POULTER, Dustin Johnson
08:58 Ben Curtis, PAUL CASEY, Aaron Baddeley
09:09 Ernie Els, RORY MCILROY, Rickie Fowler
09:20 LUKE DONALD, Ryo Ishikawa, SERGIO GARCIA
09:31 Retief Goosen, Hunter Mahan, ANDERS HANSEN
09:42 BRIAN DAVIS, Camilo Villegas, David Duval
09:53 John Daly, ROSS FISHER, PETER HANSON
10:04 GREGORY BOURDY, Jason Dufner, CRAIG HINTON (am)
10:15 ALEXANDER NOREN, PAUL LAWRIE, Kevin Na
10:26 Sean O'Hair, Seung-Yul Noh, THORBJORN OLESEN
10:37 SIMON EDWARDS, Bob Estes, RICHARD MCEVOY
10:48 FRANCIS MCGUIRK, Matthew Millar, Kevin Streelman
10:59 MARK LASKEY, THOMAS SHADBOLT, Rick Kulacz
11:10 SIMON LILLY, Chris Tidland, Neil Schietekat
11:31 PETER WHITEFORD, Spencer Levin, Thomas Aiken
11:42 Prom Meesawat, Martin Maritz, Harrison Frazar
11:53 Chad Campbell, KENNETH FERRIE, SCOTT JAMIESON
12:04 RAPHAEL JACQUELIN, Mark Wilson, Kyle Stanley
12:15 Steve Marino, Richard Green, PABLO LARRAZABAL
12:26 Rory Sabbatini, SANDY LYLE, Anthony Kim
12:37 EDOARDO MOLINARI, Charles Howell III, JOOST LUITEN
12:48 Brandt Snedeker, LUCAS BJERREGAARD (am), Trevor Immelman
12:59 DARREN CLARKE, Jonathan Byrd, YE Yang
13:10 Lucas Glover, Hiroo Kawai, ROBERT KARLSSON
13:21 Bryden Macpherson (am), Matt Kuchar, PADRAIG HARRINGTON
13:32 Zach Johnson, Adam Scott, JUSTIN ROSE
13:43 GRAEME MCDOWELL, Jason Day, Bubba Watson
13:59 Jim Furyk, BERNHARD LANGER, Tadahiro Takayama
14:10 LEE WESTWOOD, Steve Stricker, Charl Schwartzel
14:21 Louis Oosthuizen, MARTIN KAYMER, Phil Mickelson
14:32 HENRIK STENSON, TOM LEWIS (am), Tom Watson
14:43 Robert Allenby, Davis Love III, FREDRIK ANDERSSON HED
14:54 Nicolas COLSAERTS, JB Holmes, SM Bae
15:05 Webb Simpson, ROBERT ROCK, Alejandro CANIZARES
15:16 Kurt Barnes, Justin Leonard, Jeff Overton
15:27 LEE CORFIELD, Ben Crane, FLORIS DE VRIES
15:38 Ryan Palmer, Tom Lehman, ADAM WOOTTON
15:49 Jung-Gon Hwang, GARY BOYD, Robert Garrigus
16:00 George Coetzee, ANDY SMITH, Brad Kennedy
16:11 Jason Knutzon, ANDREW JOHNSTON, Chih-Bing Lam

[NedB-H]

First thoughts:
A pretty good job overall, impressed with the number of potentially interesting groups away from the big names. Seems like there's potential storylines for about two thirds of them, the Dyson, Quiros and Laird groups should be particularly good, as should the Stenson, Andersson Hed and Colsaerts ones.
Marquee start times are obviously Els/McIlroy/Fowler, Donald/Ishikawa/Garcia, Westwood/Stricker/Schwartzel, Oosthuizen/Kaymer/Mickelson. But there's some strange ones too. Difficult to see what Kawai has done to be in such elevated company, and clearly Furyk and Crane have annoyed the R&A somehow, graveyard spots for them. And Sabbatini/Lyle/Kim should be good for fireworks of some description...

[drive4show]

I'm delighted to see that all the amateurs with the possible exception of Hinton have all been given good draws with top players. After all, at this stage of their careers, just making the Open is like winning a major for them.

[Davie]

I'd say there are some pretty uninspiring groups there - almost seems like a semi-draw, i.e. they've thrown together pots of players of similar ranking/popularity/controversy, they done a random draw from within these "pots".

Doesn't seem as imaginative as the US Open "draw"

e.g. putting Rory and Rickie together again - but joining them with Ernie, or putting buddies like Poults and Dustbin together but then adding Ikeda

Westwood, Stricker and Schwartzel lacks imagination also IMO

The only one that appears to show any sense of mischief that the US Open are so famous for is Sabbatini, Lyle and Kim

I think I'd rather see a totally random draw, or go the whole hog and do the groups in US Open style, i.e.

Rory, Pod, Gmac
Lee, Luke, Kaymer
Mickelson, Stricker, Watson
Poults, Dustbin, Rickieeeee etc

[kwinigolfer]

Somewhat surprised to see Vijay still among the runners and riders - perhaps he's starting a new run of consecutive Majors. If he equals the last it will take him well into his 60's.

Isn't the Sneds / Immelman pairing a reprise of Immelman's Masters weekend?

Don't like Rory and Rickie together - putting the US Open Champ with a non-winner is a touch disrespectful, and panders to US media prejudice.

Think I'd like to start with Watney / Matteo / Cabrera and spend the afternoon with Oosthuizen, Kaymer and Phil.

[Diggers]

I think the draw should be completely random personally. Whoever comes out of the hat is who you play with for the first two days. Not really a fan of glamour groupings really.

[NedB-H]

Davie, I think the US Open goes too far in the wrong direction, their groups are too contrived and become a bit exhibition-y. Agree with Kwini that the constant McIlroy v Fowler stuff is tedious, and Ishikawa again gets a slightly better group than he probably deserves, those would be my main complaints. Random draws would be fun, but the TV guys would never agree to it.

[Diggers]

I dont think the networks would pull out just because the R&A insisted on a proper draw. Lets face it they have to put up with all kinds of rules and restrictions for Augusta and they wouldnt dream of not showing that.

[EmmDee57]

Why are some of the names in BLOCK CAPITALS on the list?

[hend085]

Europeans i think

[milkyboy]

i think it should be random, but if they need to keep some interest for tv and spectators throughout the day they could sprinkle the names through the draw by seeding it on world rankings and sending the big guns out at regular intervals during the day.

I recognise the tv guys love to have a big name group to follow, but its meaningless for me and not really in the spirit of it.

[WillyGilly]

I'm liking the GMac, Day, Bubba group. Could easily be a boy band.

[EmmDee57]

Europeans i think

Touchè

[NedB-H]

Europeans i think

Yup

Remember the old BBC Ceefax pages used to do it like that, thought I'd continue the tradition

[sirbenson]

13:21 Bryden Macpherson (am), Matt Kuchar, PADRAIG HARRINGTON
13:32 Zach Johnson, Adam Scott, JUSTIN ROSE
13:43 GRAEME MCDOWELL, Jason Day, Bubba Watson

These three groups back to back would be my fave groups tbh!

[I'm never wrong]

Somewhat surprised to see Vijay still among the runners and riders

He's now out, replaced by Thomas Bjorn

[Thomond]

Don't know if he suits links golf but Jason Day is at 40/1 ew with Paddy Power AFAIK. Might be worth a punt.

[GloucesterBear]

GRAEME MCDOWELL, Jason Day, Bubba Watson



Fantastic tee of times nicely spread out, some good groups like Rory and Donald and young Mannasero and some other good players going out around 8-9, then that group I have picked out especially plus Rose, Scott, Harrington and a Molinari brother going out midday nicely set out and something im really looking forward to.

Thomond I agree on Day, links golf im not so sure he will adapt but definitely worth a punt has been one of the best players to watch on tour of late, especially in the Masters and US of course. A one to watch if he starts well.

[ryan86]

I think I remember reading somewhere that they tried to make the top 30 groups or something 1 European, 1 US, 1 RTW. I may be wrong, but they do generally follow that. The rest of the groups are then the more journeymen players and the champs that have not had any form for 15 years.

I guess the problem with a completely random draw is that you could end up with something along the lines of Montgomerie, Woods and say, Tom Watson at a Scottish-based Open and you'll end up with huge crowds trying to follow one match or you no 1 player starts at 6:30 am and by the time your coverage starts he's -7 on the 15th hole and you've missed most of his round.

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