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Watch a selection of Rory McIlroy's greatest shots from over the years at The Open

Groupings and tee times for the opening round of The 154th Open, held at Royal Birkdale in Southport, Merseyside.

Royal Birkdale member Matthew Baldwin will hit the opening tee shot at 6.35am on Thursday, with Joe Dean - winner of the Last-Chance Qualifier - out early alongside Henrik Stenson and Max Homa.

Reigning Masters champion Rory McIlroy has been handed a late-early draw for the first two days, making up the marquee afternoon group alongside 2024 winner Xander Schauffele and Ryder Cup team-mate Matt Fitzpatrick.

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Defending champion Scottie Scheffler is on the opposite side of the draw, with the world No 1 beginning his bid to become the first back-to-back winner of The Open since Padraig Harrington with Bryson DeChambeau and Tyrrell Hatton.

Scheffler's threeball tee off at 9.58am on Thursday, while McIlroy's group go out at 3.15pm, with both players looking to be crowned Champion Golfer of the Year for a second time.

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Watch the best shots from The Open archives featuring Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods, Jordan Spieth and more!

Thursday's R1 groupings and UK start times

All times BST; USA unless stated; (x) denotes amateur

Starting on Hole One

0635 Matthew Baldwin (Eng), Thomas Detry (Bel), James Nicholas

0646 Michael Kim, Daniel Hillier (Nzl), Andy Sullivan (Eng)

0657 Ryan Fox (Nzl), Andrew Novak, Matthew Jordan (Eng)

0708 Henrik Stenson (Swe), Max Homa, Joe Dean (Eng)

0719 Robert MacIntyre (Sco), Rickie Fowler, Alex Fitzpatrick (Eng)

0730 David Duval, Martin Couvra (Fra), Matthew Southgate (Eng)

0741 Sungjae Im (Kor), Daniel Brown (Eng), Fifa Laopakdee (x) (Tha)

0752 Gary Woodland, Jake Knapp, Jordan Smith (Eng)

0803 Francesco Molinari (Ita), Tom McKibbin (NIrl), Lev Grinberg (x) (Fra)

0814 Hennie du Plessis (Rsa), Jose Luis Ballester (Esp), Dan Bradbury (Eng)

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Justin Rose reflects on where it all began for him at Royal Birkdale in 1998, ahead of the venue hosting The Open again

0825 Angel Ayora (Esp), Victor Perez (Fra), Mateo Pulcini (x) (Arg)

0836 Stewart Cink, Scott Vincent (Zim), Joakim Lagergren (Swe)

0847 Michael Thorbjornsen, Kota Kaneko (Jpn), Travis Smyth (Aus)

0903 Alex Smalley, Sam Stevens, Ryo Hisatsune (Jpn)

0914 Akshay Bhatia, Harris English, Rasmus Hojgaard (Den)

0925 Ben Griffin, Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn), Min Woo Lee (Aus)

0936 Russell Henley, Justin Rose (Eng), Viktor Hovland (Nor)

0947 Justin Thomas, Alex Noren (Swe), Jason Day (Aus)

0958 Scottie Scheffler, Tyrrell Hatton (Eng), Bryson DeChambeau

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The Open defending champion Scottie Scheffler reflects on his 2025 victory and looks ahead to a tough Royal Birkdale

1009 Jordan Spieth, Tommy Fleetwood (Eng), Jon Rahm (Esp)

1020 Brian Harman, Si Woo Kim (Kor), Nick Taylor (Can)

1031 Ryan Gerard, Maverick McNealy, David Puig (Esp)

1042 Kazuma Kobori (Aus), Tom Sloman (Eng), David Howard (x) (Ire)

1053 Antoine Rozner (Fra), Ren Yonezawa (Jpn), Caleb Surratt

1104 MJ Daffue (Rsa), Frederic Lacroix (Fra), Jack McDonald (Sco)

1115 Jeongwoo Ham (Kor), Ryutaro Nagano (Jpn), Alejandro de Castro Piera (x) (Esp)

1141 John Parry (Eng), Eric Cole, Tiger Christensen (Ger)

1152 Eugenio Chacarra (Esp), Matt Wallace (Eng), Max Greyserman

1203 Michael Brennan, Sahith Theegala, Laurie Canter (Eng)

1214 Cameron Smith (Aus), Keith Mitchell, Stuart Grehan (x) (Ire)

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Cam Smith joined The Open Zone team to discuss this year's Open and also look back at his win in the 2022 edition

1225 Sepp Straka (Aut), Joaquin Niemann (Chi), Kurt Kitayama

1236 Sami Valimaki (Fin), Shaun Norris (Rsa), Jackson Suber

1247 Darren Clarke (NIrl), Adrien Saddier (Fra), Bernd Wiesberger (Aut)

1258 Keegan Bradley, Corey Conners (Can), Casey Jarvis (Rsa)

1309 Matt McCarty, Harry Hall (Eng), Haotong Li (Chn)

1320 Padraig Harrington (Ire), Marco Penge (Eng), Michael Hollick (Rsa)

1331 Tom Kim (Kor), Billy Horschel, Mason Howell (x)

1342 Johnny Keefer, Pierceson Coody, Keita Nakajima (Jpn)

1353 Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa), Jesper Svensson (Swe), Jack Buchanan (x) (Rsa)

1409 Bud Cauley, Jayden Schaper (Rsa), Lucas Herbert (Aus)

1420 Kristoffer Reitan (Nor), Patrick Reed, JT Poston

1431 Chris Gotterup, Sam Burns, Adam Scott (Aus)

1442 Collin Morikawa, JJ Spaun, Nicolai Hojgaard (Den)

1453 Shane Lowry (Ire), Aaron Rai (Eng), Brooks Koepka

1504 Cameron Young, Wyndham Clark, Ludvig Åberg (Swe)

1515 Rory McIlroy (NIrl), Xander Schauffele, Matt Fitzpatrick (Eng)

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Rory McIlroy discusses his performance at the Genesis Scottish Open and his frustrations with his approach play

1526 Jacob Bridgeman, Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen (Den), Tim Wiedmeyer (x) (Ger)

1537 Patrick Cantlay, Daniel Berger, Nico Echevarria (Col)

1548 Peter Uihlein (US), Alistair Docherty, Francesco Laporta (Ita)

1559 Cameron John (Aus), Austen Truslow, Sam Bairstow (Eng)

1610 Naoyuki Kataoka (Jpn), Marcus Plunkett, Baard Bjoernevik (Den)

1621 Kazuki Higa (Jpn), Jiho Yang (Kor), Nevill Ruiter (x) (Ned)

When is The Open live on Sky Sports?

Sky Sports is once again the exclusive home of The Open in the UK and Ireland, with wall-to-wall action from the final men's major of the year gets under way at 6.30am on Thursday on Sky Sports Golf.

There will be at least 15 hours of action on both the first two rounds, with bonus feeds available on Sky Sports+ or the Sky Sports App, with extended coverage then starting at 9am on Saturday and 8am on Sunday.