British Open 2019: Featured pairings for the first two rounds at Royal Portrush

We’re on the eve of the 148th British Open at Royal Portrush. Here are your featured pairings as you prepare for the first two days of the year’s final major.

The British Open – or the Open Championship for purists – is arguably golf’s greatest championship. It’s certainly its most historic, and it brings out the greatest in all those who would dream of hoisting the Claret Jug.

The journey to be named the 2019 Champion Golfer of the Year begins early Thursday morning at Royal Portrush, on the northern coast of Northern Ireland. It’s the first time the Open has gone to the Emerald Isle since 1951.

Indeed, Portrush was the host that year, the only time in 147 championships that the Royal and Ancient has brought their marquee tournament to the oft-neglected portion of the United Kingdom. It’s amazing when you consider the quality of golf that this particular region of the world hosts, but when so much of the modern rota is dominated by the likes of St. Andrews, Carnoustie, Muirfield and Turnberry, it doesn’t always leave a lot of room for exploration.

That will prove to be a double-edged sword for much of this year’s British Open field. The fact that this isn’t a track that just about anybody has intimate knowledge of means nobody will have a significant advantage. Of course, it also means that it will be a pure test of links golf, with all a player’s potential shortcomings fully visible to the world.

It’s a mission that all 156 players in this year’s field take on with open eyes, because there’s nothing else in the world quite like the history that is made at every Open Championship. You literally can’t recreate this anywhere else in the world…and why would you want to?

Here, we’ll take a look at several of the featured groups you should watch for in the first two rounds of the 2019 British Open. We’ve got some of the game’s all-time greats, and more than a few contenders looking to add their names to that list.

If you’re like me and watching in the States, get ready to put your coffee on for a late night or a really early morning. And just let your boss know that you should be done watching before your mid-afternoon conference calls.

All tee times for the first round are listed in Eastern and local (+5 hours) time.

To borrow a phrase, let’s get stuck in!