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

By Brandon Raper

PORTRUSH, NORTHERN IRELAND - JULY 17: General view of the 16th hole during a practice round prior to the 148th Open Championship held on the Dunluce Links at Royal Portrush Golf Club on July 17, 2019 in Portrush, United Kingdom. (Photo by Stuart Franklin/Getty Images)
PORTRUSH, NORTHERN IRELAND - JULY 17: General view of the 16th hole during a practice round prior to the 148th Open Championship held on the Dunluce Links at Royal Portrush Golf Club on July 17, 2019 in Portrush, United Kingdom. (Photo by Stuart Franklin/Getty Images) /
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Dustin Johnson British Open 2019 Royal Portrush featured groups
PORTRUSH, NORTHERN IRELAND – JULY 16: Dustin Johnson of the United States plays his shot from the third tee during a practice round prior to the 148th Open Championship held on the Dunluce Links at Royal Portrush Golf Club on July 16, 2019 in Portrush, United Kingdom. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images) /

8: Dustin Johnson, Jason Day, Keegan Bradley (9:59AM/2:59PM)

In the interest of pure space considerations (as well as the patience of you, friendly reader), we had to make a bit of a time jump here. There are a pair of strong groups between the Koepka-led trio and this one led by Dustin Johnson, so here’s the Cliff’s Notes version of those.

At 8:26 Eastern, Jordan Spieth tees off alongside Marc Leishman and former Masters champ Danny Willett. Spieth has made some equipment changes this week (which he’s been testing for a while), in the hopes of taking his game back to where it belongs. He’s been closer lately, with a top-three finish at the PGA Championship the most notable. However, he’s still struggling for consistency. A former British Open winner, he’s got the highest ceiling of the group, but don’t sleep on Leishman, either.

At 9:48 AM, Justin Rose, Tony Finau and Lucas Bjerregaard get underway. For as strong a player as Rose is, he’s only truly contended for an Open Championship a couple of times, notably with top-ten finishes in 2015 and 2018. Of course, he was also the low amateur when he tied for fourth in his British Open debut in 1998. Finau has improved dramatically over the past two or three years, but I don’t think he’s quite ready to make the Open leap, either. Both will have a real chance, though, which is more than I’m willing to say for Bjerregaard.

Alright, on to the next main event. As much as I personally pull for Keegan Bradley and am happy to see him getting back in contention from time to time, I don’t think this is a great week for him. However, maybe the rising tide of Jason Day and Dustin Johnson will lift his proverbial ship, too. Because I’m looking for at least one of those two guys to enjoy a strong start to the week.

The obvious play here is DJ, but I like Day’s chances with Steve Williams on the bag. Williams was on Tiger’s bag for all three of his Open wins, and Day’s confidence with the veteran looper has been steadily on the rise, even if the results haven’t been instant. Then again, in golf, what is?

For Dustin Johnson, the story isn’t actually too different from most of his “regular” tour stops and major marches. He’s made massive improvement in his short game and putting – becoming a more complete weapon – but it all starts off the tee. If he’s striping it, avoiding the gorse and giving himself looks at what should be some receptive greens, he could jump out early on the rest of this field.

Part of his distance advantage is hitting it high, so he’ll also have to control his trajectory more than usual, but if he gets off to a hot start, it could become maintenance real fast for DJ.

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