By Ryan Herrington
PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — It’s a week that has been 68 years in the making. For just the second time in the history of the Open Championship, the R&A is holding the event outside of England and Scotland, returning to Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland after previously playing it here in 1951. Save for “local” natives Rory McIlroy, Graeme McDowell and Darren Clarke, the famed Dunluce Links presents a mystery to most of the 156-player field, setting up some interesting practice rounds early in the week as competitors try to become acclimated with the place before scores start to count on Thursday.

A relative unknown, England’s Max Faulkner, was the winner when the Open was here previously. Recent venues holding majors for the first time or returning to the major spotlight after a long spell away, however, have seen players near the top of the Official World Golf Ranking coming away the winners. What type of winner we’ll get come Sunday only adds to the mystery of the championship.

Meanwhile, it seems fitting that the R&A would choose one of Northern Ireland’s own to hit the opening shot of the 148th Open, Clarke, the 2011 champion, being picked to do the honours. Here are the threesomes in their entirety for the opening two rounds at Portrush.

Thursday/Friday Tee Times – All times local (all first tee)
NOTE: The UAE is three hours AHEAD of Northern Ireland time

6:35 am/11:36 am (9.35am/2.36pm UAE time) 
Darren CLARKE
James SUGRUE (a)
Charley HOFFMAN

6:46 am/11:47 am
Emiliano GRILLO
Sung KANG
Thomas THURLOWAY (a)

6:57 am/11:58 am
Andy SULLIVAN
Christiaan BEZUIDENHOUT
Alexander LEVY

7:08 am/12:09 pm
Chan KIM
Zander LOMBARD
Brandon WU (a)

7:19 am/12:20 pm
Richard STERNE
Romain LANGASQUE
Matthias SCHMID (a)

7:30 am/12:31 pm
Padraig HARRINGTON
Matthew FITZPATRICK
Andrew PUTNAM

7:41 am/12:42 pm
Bubba WATSON
Eddie PEPPERELL
Rafa CABRERA-BELLO

7:52 am/12:53 pm
Phil MICKELSON
Shane LOWRY
Branden GRACE

8:03 am/1:04 pm
Alex NOREN
Mike LORENZO-VERA
Sam LOCKE

8:14 am/1:15 pm
Webb SIMPSON
Sergio GARCIA
C.T. PAN

8:25 am/1:26 pm
Ryan PALMER
Andrea PAVAN
Dylan FRITTELLI

8:36 am/1:37 pm
Kyle STANLEY
Robert MACINTYRE
Andrew JOHNSTON

8:47 am/1:48 pm
Mikko KORHONEN
Oliver WILSON
Curtis KNIPES (a)

9:03 am/2:04 pm
Ian POULTER
Sungjae IM
Kiradech APHIBARNRAT

9:14 am/2:15 pm
Henrik STENSON
Xander SCHAUFFELE
Graeme MCDOWELL

9:25 am/2:26 pm
Haotong LI
Russell KNOX
Bernd WIESBERGER

9:36 am/2:37 pm
Jason KOKRAK
Connor SYME
Austin CONNELLY

9:47 am/2:48 pm
Zach JOHNSON
David DUVAL
Corey CONNERS

9:58 am/2:59 pm
Francesco MOLINARI
Bryson DECHAMBEAU
Adam SCOTT

10:09 am/3:10 pm
Rory MCILROY
Gary WOODLAND
Paul CASEY

10:20 am/3:21 pm
Rickie FOWLER
Kevin KISNER
Hideki MATSUYAMA

10:31 am/3:32 pm
Jim FURYK
Si-Woo KIM
Jimmy WALKER

10:42 am/3:43 pm
Luke LIST
Alexander BJORK
Paul WARING

10:53 am/3:54 pm
Shugo IMAHIRA
Nate LASHLEY
Benjamin HEBERT

11:04 am/4:05 pm
Mikumu HORIKAWA
Callum SHINKWIN
Garrick PORTEOUS

11:15 am/4:16 pm
Prom MEESAWAT
Matthew BALDWIN
Jack SENIOR

11:36 am/6:35 am
Tom LEHMAN
Joaquin NIEMANN
Miguel Angel JIMENEZ

11:47 am/6:46 am
Byeong Hun AN
Jorge CAMPILLO
Chris WOOD

11:58 am/6:57 am
Joel DAHMEN
Adri ARNAUS
Dimitrios PAPADATOS

12:09 pm/7:08 am
Stewart CINK
Rory SABBATINI
Innchoon HWANG

12:20 pm/7:19 am
Erik VAN ROOYEN
Kurt KITAYAMA
Jake MCLEOD

12:31 pm/7:30 am
Ryan FOX
Shaun NORRIS
Dongkyu JANG

12:42 pm/7:41 am
Tyrrell HATTON
Keith MITCHELL
Thomas PIETERS

12:53 pm/7:52 am
Justin THOMAS
Tommy FLEETWOOD
Thorbjorn OLESEN

1:04 pm/8:03 am
Brooks KOEPKA
Louis OOSTHUIZEN
Shubhankar SHARMA

1:15 pm/8:14 am
Billy HORSCHEL
Jazz JANEWATTANANOND
Aaron WISE

1:26 pm/8:25 am
Jordan SPIETH
Marc LEISHMAN
Danny WILLETT

1:37 pm/8:36 am
Cameron SMITH
Adam HADWIN
David LIPSKY

1:48 pm/8:47 am
Paul LAWRIE
Chez REAVIE
Justin HARDING

2:04 pm/9:03 am
Takumi KANAYA (a)
Tom LEWIS
Brandon STONE

2:15 pm/9:14 am
Lucas GLOVER
Joost LUITEN
Nino BERTASIO

2:26 pm/9:25 am
Ernie ELS
JB HOLMES
Abraham ANCER

2:37 pm/9:36 am
Brandt SNEDEKER
Lee WESTWOOD
Brian HARMAN

2:48 pm/9:47 am
Justin ROSE
Tony FINAU
Lucas BJERREGAARD

2:59 pm/9:58 am
Dustin JOHNSON
Jason DAY
Keegan BRADLEY

3:10 pm/10:09 am
Tiger WOODS
Matt WALLACE
Patrick REED

3:21 pm/10:20 am
Jon RAHM
Patrick CANTLAY
Matt KUCHAR

3:32 pm/10:31 am
Kevin STREELMAN
Doc REDMAN
Robert ROCK

3:43 pm/10:42 am
Adrian OTAEGUI
Yuta IKEDA
Isidro BENITEZ

3:54 pm/10:53 am
Patton KIZZIRE
Sang Hyun PARK
Yuki INAMORI

4:05 pm/11:04 am
Yoshinori FUJIMOTO
Doyeob MUN
Andrew WILSON

4:16 pm/11:15 am
Gunn CHAROENKUL
Yosuke ASAJI
Ashton TURNER

The post Tee times for the opening two rounds of the Open at Royal Portrush appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.