By Peter Andrews
Editor’s note: In celebration of Golf Digest’s 70th anniversary, we’re revisiting the best literature and journalism we’ve ever published.

The alternate-shot portion of The Match II—especially when Peyton Manning was playing Tiger’s drive and Tom Brady was playing Phil Mickelson’s drive—gave a glimpse into the fantasy of every golfer with a sub-90-mile-per-hour swing speed: What could you do off a pro’s tee-ball?

The mind races at the idea of bombing 300-yard drives, routinely hitting par 5s in two, reaching the odd short par 4. It’s a variation on the theme of what a tour pro would shoot on your home course, but it puts you in the tour pro’s shoes. In early 1991, I was looking to explore this idea and found the affable Mark O’Meara as a willing co-conspirator.

Mark was known as user-friendly in pro-ams; he mixed well with amateurs and seemed to raise their games a notch when he played with them. A good indicator was that he’d won three AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Ams at that point—in 1985, 1989 and 1990. He was both a pro’s pro and an am’s pro. O’Meara was the obvious pick for this proposition—you would play off his tee-ball, and he would play off yours, and we’d see how the scoring would go.

Then the question became, who would be you? What writer could be so average, so short off the tee, so utterly inadequate in his masculinity, yet with a winning sense of humour and outsize ego to put it all on the line? Then I remembered an article I’d read by Contributing Editor Peter Andrews about Pebble Beach, coincidentally, in which he described in delicious detail how tour pros play the iconic eighth hole at Pebble. After a towering tee shot, the expert would nip a crisp iron over the cavernous abyss to a green “the size of a double bed surrounded by bunkers,” and then he added: “I love reading about stuff like that, just as I love reading about men who have won the favours of Catherine Deneuve. It may not be immediately useful to me, but it does have a certain anecdotal value, and I am delighted to know that it can be done.” We’d found our Everyman!

But Catherine Deneuve? A younger man at the time might have said, say, Demi Moore. But Andrews was a golfer with a mature swing. This story appeared in the May 1991 issue. O’Meara would go on to win two more AT&T’s, in 1992 and 1997. Peter did not. —Jerry Tarde

***

I don’t think there is a phrase in the English language I despise more than “Drive for show and putt for dough.” This is an aphorism invariably propounded by thin-lipped moralists who go jogging at dawn, hold business meetings before 10 in the morning, and tell you, “A messy desk is the sign of a messy mind.” These are people who have never in their lives expressed a thought that was not trite or banal. And yet they rule the world simply because they are awake early in the morning thinking about matters that should not concern them.

What in heaven’s name is the point of standing up at the tee, if it is not to bust something long? Who among us toiling in the trenches of golf do not believe that if only we could get some decent distance with the driver, we could really play this game? Golf manuals have been written beyond calculation (and this magazine is no better than the rest of them) telling us the key to low scoring takes place around the greens. This, however, supposes we can get to the green in the first place. They don’t tell us that. This is because they are long and we are not. They talk about chipping and putting in an airy manner while you and I, like Dickensian waifs, have to stand outside in the cold with our noses pressed against the windowpane watching the great and mighty amuse themselves with the short game.

When anyone asks me what I shoot, I generally tell them I score in the 80s when I’m playing well. This is very close to a lie. In my last 20 scores, I have done so three times. If memory serves, and I’m all too afraid that it does, I have broken 80 seven times in my life. All of those scores were on the two courses I play the most, and only three of them took place when anyone of importance was watching. Nevertheless, in my heart of hearts I am convinced that with only a few measly extra yards off the tee, assuming 50 yards qualifies as measly, I could be a regular 70s shooter.

Recently, Golf Digest offered me a chance to find out if this were so. The editors arranged for me to take my 18-handicap down to Florida and play a round with Mark O’Meara in which Mark would hit his tee shot before I played the hole from there on in. By the same token, to see if the pros really need all their famed distance, Mark would play my tee ball into the cup. The results, like those of the last Congressional election, were interesting but mixed.

In picking O’Meara for my partner in this escapade, the magazine chose well. Mark is one of the solid men on the PGA Tour. The possessor of a good, uncomplicated swing, he is generally playing well somewhere on the globe, having won events in America, England, Australia and Japan. More important, Mark has the reputation of being one of the most considerate professionals in pro-am events. He is consistent and has a kind heart, two things any playing partner of mine needs to have in abundance.

We played at Isleworth Golf and Country Club outside Orlando. It was a perfect venue for our event. The course is an Arnold Palmer/Ed Seay creation that insinuates itself through a housing complex where a prospective buyer willing to be content with something in the low seven figures can find himself quite comfortable. The swift greens are superb, the heaving fairways are curried to a bright sheen, and the rough is cropped to the length of Marla Maples’ eyelashes. That’s my kind of golf course.

Mark and I played from the middle tees, which cut the track from 7,097 yards to a manageable 6,279. This 818-yard reduction was a bonanza for me, but for Mark, who has earned more than $3 million playing the tour from the tips, it proved a bit bothersome. The match was like a mixed Pinehurst event, except this time I was the one playing in pedal pushers.

I could see from the start that things were going to be a lot different for me, but not necessarily easier. The first hole is a gentle affair, about 340 yards from our tees. I hit my standard 3-wood about 210 yards. Mark is not a super-long driver. Usually, he is in the 260-yard range, but he can crank it up when the conditions are right. This was one of those times. He blew his drive 70 yards past my ball. I left Mark with 130 yards to the green, and he left me with 60. Frankly, I would rather have had Mark’s shot than mine. Whatever assets my game may have, delicacy of touch is not chief among them. While Mark went to a simplistic par, I managed to steer a wedge barely on the green and then overthink myself into three-putts. A bogey from playing the most glorious drive it has ever been my pleasure to deal with.

And so it went; Mark clicking off pars and birdies whenever I left him on anything Luther Burbank would have recognized as grass, and me constantly being offered the glittering prize, but able, only sporadically, to gather it in.

The second hole is a brief par 3 measuring only 137 yards. Mark and I both came down short. The difference was Mark left me directly in front of the hole, but I put him well left in some ugly junk. There’s not much junk at Isleworth, but I managed to find it. I got down in two for an easy par, and Mark struggled for a bogey. It’s going to bother me a lot if the short-game academicians turn out to be right.

I began to understand why Mark is such a good professional partner for an amateur player. He is unfailingly supportive and never critical. He offers suggestions when they are obviously called for, but he doesn’t try to change your game in the middle of the round. My swing has been favourably likened to the sex life of a hummingbird: swift, darting and indiscriminate. Mark told me not to worry too much about how quickly I manoeuvre the club.

“You can’t always blame speed when something goes wrong,” he said. “Speed just exposes whatever flaws there are in the swing. Concentrate on your mechanics. If your setup and movement through the ball are correct, speed, by itself, doesn’t mean anything.”

Mark is an apostle of restraint off the tee. “Don’t try to swing too hard with your hands,” he cautioned. “Use your body and let your hands be passive. They’ll come into the swing by themselves.”

Armed with Mark’s good advice, which at once brought a measure of moderation to my swing and still let me have at it with as much speed as I desired, I managed to hit the fairway on 12 of the 14 driving holes.

I learned a great many lessons this day, not all of them immediately useful. The fourth hole is something more than 400 yards. Mark and I both parred it. I hit a 7-iron 140 yards to the green, and Mark bore in a 2-iron from 220 yards. That it is possible to save par by hitting an iron 220 yards could be good for me to know in another life. Tell me then that length isn’t important.

I learned another lesson on the fifth hole, a par 3 that measures 203 yards to the cup. I showed some of my 18-handicap by putting Mark in a culvert, and he got me on the green perhaps 90 feet from the hole. We both got miracle pars, but I realized the obvious, which is one of my specialities. As far from the hole as I was, I had an amateur’s run at par, but it took a pro-shot from Mark to have a chance. Oh, God, maybe those ghastly people are right.

You know how you always botch up a hole after hitting your best drive of the day? On the 497-yard, par-5 13th, I screwed up Mark’s best drive. He hit a screamer about 280 yards. Now I had one of my rare chances to be on a par 5 in two. I took that extra bit of upper-body coil and added a tiny bit of celerity to the swing and slurped a 5-wood some 60 yards. It was one of those times when you look at your playing partner and talk about how snarly the grass and how low the ground and one thing and another was, while he, his eyes like BBs, drum his fingers on the steering wheel on the golf cart.

Worse was to come. On the 376-yard 14th, Mark, who was rarely off the fairway, put me near a bunker with a steep uphill lie. In recompense for the leave, Mark nicely showed me a new shot for the situation. I’m sure the shot is a fine one, but it required movements alien to my body, and I whiffed. Nothing tricky, just a straightforward miss. From there, a triple bogey was child’s play.

Throughout the round I had to hit a lot of 50- to 70-yard wedges. Although that is not my favourite thing to do in golf, I could learn to love the shot if I were hitting to the green for birdie putts more often. Putting for birdies is something an 18-handicapper needs a while to get used to. Even I began to get the hang of it by the time we got to the backside. Mark left me about 70 yards short of the green on the 348-yard, par-4 16th hole, and I finally put a wedge close enough for me to make the birdie. Being farther back didn’t seem to bother Mark. He just hit the ball, beautifully to me, but not to him. Mark hadn’t played in several days and felt his game was off because of the layoff.

A small amount of statistical analysis might be useful here. I shot 82 off Mark’s ball, and he scored 75 off mine. In his round, Mark made two birdies and five bogeys. It was only when I hit wide of any reasonable target area that Mark was at a disadvantage. The lesson, I suppose, is that if you hit a tee shot both short and offline, it’s hard to make par no matter who you are.

If my shortness was not debilitating to Mark, was his length helpful to me? Oh, yes. I only had to cruise with my regular game to get that 82. Golfers are forever dealing with what might have been—but give me my whiffed stroke back and a couple of reasonable approach shots, and I’d have been in the 70s easy, which is where I belong.

Surprisingly, because this was an experiment in length off the tee, both our rounds turned for good and ill on the par 3s. Mark hit all four greens, and I was able to play them in one under par. Because I, inexcusably, missed three of the greens, Mark played the par 3s two over, and it took something close to Divine Intervention for him to do that. Are they right? Say it isn’t so.

I asked Mark what he thought was the meaning of our round, and he took a limited view.

“What it means,” he said, “is that I have to come back tomorrow and hit some balls.”

The post How would you score playing a pro’s tee ball? appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Strege
The Ally Challenge is a new PGA Tour Champions event on an old familiar course for many players in the field, none of whom played it as well as a Warwick Hills Golf and Country Club rookie.

Englishman Paul Broadhurst, 53, won the inaugural Ally Challenge on Sunday, shooting a six-under par 66 on the Grand Blanc, Mich., course to win by two over Brandt Jobe and three over Warwick Hills veterans Mark O’Meara and Tom Lehman.

WIN: Places in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, Omega Dubai Desert Classic and Omega Dubai Ladies Classic Pro-Ams

Warwick Hills was the site of the PGA Tour’s Buick Open beginning in 1958 and concluding in 2009, when Tiger Woods won the tournament for the third time.

“To go back to places you know so well and enjoy so much is a great thing,” Lehman said earlier in the week.

But it was the player who had never played there before who prevailed. Broadhurst, who never joined the PGA Tour, played 54-holes in 15-under par 201 to record his third victory of the year and fifth of his senior tour career.

“Pretty special,” Broadhurst said. “I was seriously not about to play this week. I was back home last week and pulled a muscle in my back. The physio’s done a great job out here this week to get me fit. Obviously pleased to be here and win once again in Michigan.”

Broadhurst, who won the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship in Benton Harbor, Mich., in May, made seven birdies, but the key to his round largely were par saves on the back nine.

“To come here and play as well as I did, although at times it was really scrappy, my game wasn’t totally in the groove,” he said. “It was in spells. The back nine was a little bit scrappy. Hit some poor tee shots and the rhythm was getting quicker and quicker.”

His most impressive birdie came at the par-5 13th hole. When his drive wound up in an old divot, he was not able to reach the green in two, so he laid up. He left his third shot 30 feet short of the hole, then made the birdie putt.

It was a dagger for O’Meara, who had trailed by one and reasonably could have expected to pull into a tie for the lead. But after reaching the green in two, O’Meara three-putted and made par to lose a shot rather than gaining one.

Still, it was a surprisingly strong performance for O’Meara, who is now 61 and generally no longer a factor. O’Meara’s tie for third was his best finish since 2015.

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By Sam Weinman
There is a small moment in the new Tiger Woods biography, one of many, that illustrates how a man so graceful on a golf course could be so clumsy off it. In 1998, Woods had been staying at Mark O’Meara’s rental house during the Masters when he met Peggy Lewis, the Augusta school teacher whose house they had been renting. As the authors Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian describe, Woods had knocked on a neighbouring door in search of O’Meara’s wife, Alicia, when Lewis rose to greet the superstar.

Proudly telling Woods that he was staying in her house next door, Lewis extended her hand. But Woods didn’t even look at Lewis, ignoring her hand and turning to Alicia O’Meara to ask a question.

“Humiliated, Lewis quietly sat down as Woods walked out, never acknowledging her,” the authors write.

There are vignettes like this dotted throughout Tiger Woods, perhaps what you’d expect from an ambitious 360-degree portrait of golf’s most scrutinized figure. Culled from more than 400 interviews, including over 250 people from in and around Woods’ life—although tellingly not directly with the title subject—it is a book brimming with revealing details about Woods’ unique background, his rise to superstardom and the myriad character flaws that contributed to his well-publicized fall. But remember, we’re talking about an athlete who has likely inspired more coverage than any in history, so the real achievement in Tiger Woods is not in detailing what has happened in the golfer’s 42 years. Instead, it is in describing how Woods became who he is—uniquely gifted, widely admired, but also emotionally stunted by his parents.

“Tiger’s inability to show gratitude, apologize, or express appreciation was rooted in his warped upbringing,” Benedict and Keteyian write. “His mother pampered him like a prince, and his father rarely uttered the words thank you or I’m sorry. Tiger learned early and often that his needs were all that mattered. His unapologetically self-centered attitude was critical to his success in golf, but it had an utterly devastating impact on the way people perceived him.”

Related: A Q&A with the authors about the juicy details in the new Tiger book

More than two decades after Earl Woods published Training A Tiger, his guide to “raising a winner in golf and life,” Tiger Woods might stand as an unintentional counterweight, a guide on how to raise a socially maladjusted child whose issues will carry into adulthood. Harsh? In Benedict and Keteyian’s portrayal, the Earl Woods influence in particular extends far beyond awkward exchanges with rental homeowners. It helps explain Woods’ serial philandering, his repeated excommunication of employees who disappointed him, not to mention his compulsive competitiveness. Other books have endeavored to explain Earl Woods’ influence on his son’s life, most notably Tom Callahan’s His Father’s Son. But perhaps no book has detailed just how extensively Earl factored into the full arc of Tiger’s career, how he shaped not only the golfer’s beginnings in the game on a military course in Orange County, but his complicated existence as competitor, as the head of a global brand, and as a person.

Getty Images
Earl Woods’ influence is felt throughout Tiger Woods, the new biography of the 14-time major champion.

That’s not to say Earl’s influence was only negative, nor is it to suggest that Woods should be absolved of blame for his own missteps. The book features fresh reporting on almost every significant element of Woods’ story, from his decision to turn pro to the extensive network of women outside his marriage, to even the specifics of his sex-addiction rehab program in Mississippi (including details of a painful hour-long session with then-wife Elin in which he confessed the extent of his cheating). To read the book is to see an athlete imprisoned by circumstances in some instances, but plain bullheaded in others.

Potentially the most provocative passage in the book is in new details around Woods’ dealings with Dr. Anthony Galea, in which a source with knowledge of the doctor’s treatment of Woods claims human growth hormone was used as part of his recovery from 2008 knee surgery, perhaps without Woods’ knowledge. The Woods camp, meanwhile, issued a strong denial through another doctor, Mark Lindsay, who also tended to Woods during his rehabilitation.

Related: Book excerpt: President Clinton-Tiger Woods: ‘A Major Breach of Golf Etiquette’

As the authors write, although most of Woods’ injuries have come in the years since Earl’s 2006 death, the emotional challenges of being unable to compete underscored how Woods still derived his self worth from golf and little else.

“He didn’t know how to love and be loved as a human being,” they write. “The adoration he experienced was always tied to golf and performance.”

Although the book is being released in the midst of Woods’ most dramatic comeback, reading it now offers a new appreciation for the golfer we’ve seen on the course in recent weeks, one who has been quicker to smile and who has forged an easier connection with the public. That connection might be a result of no longer viewing Woods through the singular prism of greatness. Instead, he’s seen as a guy trying to navigate out of the darkness of the last years, and whose been forced to overcome all sorts of bad decisions in his life—some of which were even made by him.

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Just about the only glitches of his final round were the beginning and the end. Hitting the first shot in his last British Open, the former Masters champion sent his ball way to the right and out-of-bounds en route to a quadruple-bogey 8. Then, after sending his 8-iron approach just over the 18th green on Friday, one of the finest putters of his generation needed three more to get down, finishing with an even-par 70.

“This is the greatest championship,” said O’Meara, his eyes a little moist around the edges. “I know there are three other majors, but I truly believe that the Open Championship is the top of the list in my book.

“I felt the warmth of the crowd coming up the 18th hole. I’m not Tom Watson. I’m not Jack Nicklaus. I’m not Arnold Palmer. I’m just a guy who in ’98 was lucky to win this championship. And for me to have Shaun and my daughter, Michelle, alongside me this week was special.”

Inevitably, talk turned to memories of championships past.

“On the Tuesday before my first Open in ’81, I played a practice round with Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Seve Ballesteros,” O’Meara said. “Three legends. It was a little intimidating. We played for, I think, a $25 nassau, which was a lot for me at the time. Gary and Seve were giving Jack the needle about never paying when he lost. Which didn’t really come up as Jack and I won.”

And the highlights apart from his 1998 British Open triumph?

“I remember how I felt in 1991 here when I played in the last group on the last day with Ian Baker-Finch,” he continued. “I was happy for my friend. And then seven years later, when I won, I was in the clubhouse when I felt hands on my shoulders. It was Ian. He had a tear in his eye because I won. That’s the stuff you never forget.”

Round in 70. Receiving a nice ovation all the way up 18. And a hug from his son when it was done. All in all, not a bad way to go.

The post Mark O’Meara ends his Open career after 31 starts on a high note appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Thirty nine players bettered par on an absorbing opening day at the 146th Open Championship and another 18 are within six shots of overnight pacesetters Jordan Spieth, Brooks Koepka and Matt Kuchar.

The American trio are a shot ahead of former Masters champion Charl Swartzel and Paul Casey who fired 66s, the latter leading the English challenge heading into Friday, his 40th birthday.

It’s a quality leaderboard but like winter in the HBO hit Game of Thrones, some seriously scary weather is coming to Royal Birkdale.

Get yourself set for a day of snakes and ladders drama on the big yellow leaderboards with our quick-fire first round wrap and some potentially wet and wild predictions for round two.

Shot of the Day – A Tale of Two Starts

A smidgeon unfair perhaps, but to put our shot of Thursday into context we’ve hit rewind to the very first shot of the championship. Golf is hard as Mark O’Meara could attest after sending his tee ball sailing out of bounds en-route to a dreaded snowman.

And we're off…#TheOpen pic.twitter.com/VymiAUXEYH

— The Open (@TheOpen) July 20, 2017

In the 60-year-old America’s defence, he did encounter the worst of Thursday’s weather as he signed for a dead last, 11-over 81. Contrast the 127th Open champion’s (Birkdale in 1988) 6.35am horror show to Charlie Hofmann’s 1.48pm dream with a healthy dollop of sympathy thus.

Great start! @hoffman_charley holes an eagle on the first. #TheOpen pic.twitter.com/mXGgIvUwYb

— The Open (@TheOpen) July 20, 2017

Who said golf was hard? The eagle helped Hoffman, a bit of a first round specialist in majors of late, to a opening 67. Out early in what is expected to the best of Friday’s patience-testing conditions, the American must fancy his chances of staying in or around the top-10. Whatever happens, he gets the nod for shot of the day by a whisker from Koepka and his sand-dusted eagle on 17. We’re loving the artistic in-bunker insights.

Great work! @bkoepka holes a bunker shot to move in to a share of the lead. #TheOpen pic.twitter.com/cv8UGVpRFD

— The Open (@TheOpen) July 20, 2017

Comeback of the Day – McIlroy’s Tale of Two Halves
From downright pity to pretty darn good. McIlroy looked over when he went out in 39 with five bogeys in his first six holes. But just as a ‘four missed cuts in five starts’ inquest looked certain, he positively Rors home in 32 with four birdies in his last eight holes, including a real momentum swinging gain on 18 in front of the appreciative galleries.

A bogey free round for the new clubhouse leader @jordanspieth. #TheOpen pic.twitter.com/Qc3ik002Gl

— The Open (@TheOpen) July 20, 2017

McIlroy is off at 9.47am (12.47pm UAE time) and should just sneak in before the the heaviest of the rain and 35mph winds arrive. He’s six back but its not so much the margain, but the names ahead. Eitherway, the questions still begs – which McIlroy will turn up on the first tee? Class is permanent, right?

Attire of the Day – Dapper JT

Justin Thomas promised to “rock” his tie and cardigan combo ahead of the first round and he duly did, a 67 seeing him just two back. And its just as well. If you’re going to wear yesteryear gear, as dapper and well-intentioned as Mr. 59’s nod to the traditions of The Open were, you gotta have game.

Reprieve of the Day – Rahmbo’s (2nd) Great Escape

After his ball marking scare en-route to the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open, Jon Rahm’s heart surely sank when he accidentally uprooted a plant addressing a shot on 17. The Spaniard called a two-stroke penalty on himself but the rules police again came to his aid as they had at Portstewart, waivering the penalty, saying he hadn’t improved his lie.
Another great escape and potentially pivotal too as Rahm finished one under and is off in match 19 (of 52) at 9.58am (12.58pm UAE time). Looks like he might have the weather gods on his side as well.

Round of the Day – Spieth by Split Decision

Spieth marked his 65 a “nine [out of 10] across the board for everything – tee balls, ball-striking, short game and putting”, so who are we to argue? The only blemish was a pushed birdie putt on the last but the 23-year-old Texan seems to have sublime control over almost every facet of his game right now. With an otherwise co-operative putter and “ball-striking [that] hasn’t been better in any years that I’ve ever played golf,” watch out over the weekend if the two-time major champ can escape his 5.48pm (UAE) tee time Friday relatively unscathed.
An honourable mention for “Kuuuch” of course who went out in 29 (-5) but couldn’t shake his Mr. Consistency tag with the outright lead at his fingertips, nine straight inward nine pars keeping him pegged at -5. What Kuchar would have given for a little of Koepka’s flat stick magic. Defying any fears over rig-rust having put his sticks on ice since Erin Hills, the newly crowned U.S. Open champ needed just 21 putts to navigate his way around Birkdale and to the cluttered summit of the leaderboard, the least number of putts since Rocco Mediate in 1988. Holing out for eagle on 17 helped somewhat but that’s scary good.

.@jordanspieth is the joint-leader of The Open after and a bogey-free Round 1. Will he continue to tame @RoyalBirkdale_ tomorrow? #TheOpen pic.twitter.com/cXe5wK6bws

— The Open (@TheOpen) July 20, 2017

146th Open Championship: Leading Scores – Round 1
T1. SPIETH, Jordan 65. -5
T1. KOEPKA, Brooks 65  -5
T1. KUCHAR, Matt 65  -5
T4. CASEY, Paul 66  -4
T4. SCHWARTZEL, Charl 66  -4
T6. POULTER, Ian 67  -3
T6. THOMAS, Justin 67. -3
T6  BLAND, Richard 67  -3
T6. CONNELLY, Austin 67  -3
T6. HOFFMAN, Charlie 67  -3
T6. CABRERA-BELLO, Rafa 67 -3

Check out the best of the action from today's Round 1 highlights from #TheOpen pic.twitter.com/iYwEPKMyrp

— The Open (@TheOpen) July 20, 2017

The post Birkdale Morning Report: 5 things for your Open Friday appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Mark O’Meara, the 127th Open champion at Royal Birkdale in 1998, will hit the opening shot of the 146th championship Thursday ahead of a tasty smorgasbord of opening round three-balls.

The 60-year-old American, who won the US Masters three months before edging fellow countryman Brian Watts in a playoff for the Claret Jug, is off at 6.35am local time (9.35am UAE time) alongside Ryan Moore and Chris Wood, the 2008 Open silver medallist as low amateur over the Southport links.

Defending champion Henrik Stenson is out with Jordan Spieth and South Korean Si-Woo Kim in the headline morning threesome at 12.47pm (all UAE times herewith) ahead of Louis Oosthuizen, Justin Rose and Justin Thomas at 12.58pm.

The other key morning group sees U.S. Open champion Brooks Koepka end his post Erin Hills hiatus alongside world No.2 Hideki Matsuyama and Abu Dhabi and French Open champion Tommy Fleetwood, the local favourite.

The 1998 champion Mark O’Meara will hit the first shot Thursday

World No.1 Dustin Johnson is grouped with struggling Rory McIlroy and former Masters champion Charl Schwartzel in the marquee afternoon three-ball at 5:48pm.  Mouthwatering groups beforehand include 2015 champion Zach Johnson, Jason Day and reigning  Dubai Desert Clasic and Masters champion Segio Garcia (4.04pm) and Rickie Flower, Adam Scott and Paul Casey (4.26pm).

There’s sure to be huge support for Andrew ‘Beef’ Johnson on Royal Birkdale’s first tee at 2.36pm  and big galleries following runaway Dubai Duty Free Irish Open champion Jon Rahm, US Ryder Cup star Patrick Reed and Englishman Lee Westwood at 5.59pm.

Phil Mickelson, the 2013 champion at Muirfield, is out at late at 6.10pm just ahead of newly crowed Scottish Open champion and Golf in Dubai-based Rafa Cabrera-Bello, the Spaniard joined by two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson and Aussie journeyman Scott Held at 6.21pm.

The long range forecast for Birkdale on Thursday is for a cloudy high of 16 degrees Celsius with westerly winds of 17mph gusting to 30mph. — Kent Gray travelled to The Open with Etihad Airways

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