Major championship golf is back, baby! It seems an eternity since Hinako Shibuno sensationally won the Women’s British Open at Woburn; one year and two days to be precise. Under normal circumstances, Shane Lowry would have defended his Open title three weeks ago at Sandwich, wrapping up the 2020 major season for the men. But these are far from normal circumstances, and here we are, starting it up right now, four months late, with a tournament for so long known as Glory’s Last Shot. A world turned upside down, huh.
It’s been long enough that we may need to remind ourselves of the 2019 winners in the men’s majors. Here’s the roll of honour …
- Masters Tournament: Tiger Woods
- PGA Championship: Brooks Koepka
- US Open: Gary Woodland
- Open Championship: Shane Lowry
Koepka is looking to become only the second player to win the PGA three times in a row, having held off a resurgent Tiger Woods at Bellerive in 2018, then resisted a Dustin Johnson charge – and his own demons, an unprecedented collapse momentarily looking likely – at Bethpage Black last May. Walter Hagen is the only other man to pull off a three-peat in this tournament; in fact he managed four on the spin during the 1920s, when the PGA was a matchplay event. Given how close Koepka came last weekend at the WGC St Jude, there’d be no huge surprise if he pulled this one off. If he does, he’d be the first man to win three in a row at any major since Peter Thomson won his third Open in 1956.
Koepka is one of many stellar names with huge hopes of prevailing at Harding Park. Justin Thomas, the new world number one, coming off a win at the WGC St Jude. Tiger Woods, looking for number 16 on a course he’s long enjoyed playing. Jordan Spieth, looking to complete a career grand slam. Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm, Xander Schauffele, Daniel Berger, Tony Finau, Patrick Cantlay and Colin Morikawa, looking to make their major breakthrough. Tyrrell Hatton and Matthew Fitzpatrick, looking to become the first English winner since 1919. Rory McIlroy, looking to end a six-year major drought. Webb Simpson, Jason Day, Michael Thompson and Phil Mickelson, looking to continue their recent resurgence. Big Dustin! Rickie! Phil! Shane! Gary! An outsider in the Beem-Micheel tradition!
Sergio!
Of course the public can’t come in – ironically so, given Harding Park, just outside San Francisco, is a municipal – but a television audience is in for some real theatre nonetheless. It’s the first major of the 2020 season! It’ll be historic in all sorts of ways! It’s on!
Here are the first-round tee times …
(USA unless stated; times all local, add eight hours for UK time)
Starting at hole 1 …
0700 Jeff Hart, Brian Harman, Cheng-Tsung Pan (Tai)
0711 Andrew Landry, Rod Perry, Nate Lashley
0722 Sung Kang (Kor), John O’Leary (Irl), Dylan Frittelli (Rsa)
0733 Russell Henley, Erik Van Rooyen (Rsa), Carlos Ortiz (Mex)
0744 Ryan Palmer, Kevin Kisner, Michael Thompson
0755 Lucas Glover, Bud Cauley, Tyrrell Hatton (Eng)
0806 Rich Beem, Alex Beach, Shaun Micheel
0817 Rafael Cabrera-Bello (Spa), Ryo Ishikawa (Jpn), Jason Kokrak
0828 Danny Lee (Nzl), Bernd Wiesberger (Aut), Vaughn Taylor
0839 Keith Mitchell, Matthias Schwab (Aut), Brendan Steele
0850 Joel Dahmen, Luke List, Victor Perez (Fra)
0901 Mike Lorenzo-Vera (Fra), Marty Jertson, Tom Lewis (Eng)
0912 David Muttitt, Mackenzie Hughes (Can), Harris English
1230 JR Roth, Tyler Duncan, Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa)
1241 Lanto Griffin, Rich Berberian Jr., Joost Luiten (Ned)
1252 Jim Herman, Rob Labritz, Shaun Norris (Rsa)
1303 Brandt Snedeker, Adam Hadwin (Can), Xinjun Zhang (Chn)
1314 Kevin Na, Patrick Reed, Robert Macintyre (Sco)
1325 Bubba Watson, Matthew Wolff, Graeme McDowell (NIrl)
1336 Viktor Hovland (Nor), Tommy Fleetwood (Eng), Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn)
1347 Rickie Fowler, Bryson DeChambeau, Adam Scott (Aus)
1358 Phil Mickelson, Jon Rahm (Spa), Sergio Garcia (Spa)
1409 Paul Casey (Eng), Ian Poulter (Eng), Webb Simpson
1420 Matt Wallace (Eng), Matt Kuchar, Marc Leishman (Aus)
1431 Sepp Straka (Aut), Ryan Vermeer, Si Woo Kim (Kor)
1442 Justin Bertsch, Sebastian Munoz (Col), Benjamin Hebert (Fra)
… and starting at hole 10 …
0705 Daniel Balin, Scottie Scheffler, Tom Hoge
0716 Mike Auterson, Rory Sabbatini (Svk), Nick Taylor (Can)
0727 Tony Finau, Danny Willett (Eng), Patrick Cantlay
0738 Jason Dufner, Martin Kaymer (Ger), Jason Day (Aus)
0749 Daniel Berger, Xander Schauffele, Steve Stricker
0800 Collin Morikawa, Henrik Stenson (Swe), Zach Johnson
0811 Gary Woodland, Brooks Koepka, Shane Lowry (Irl)
0822 Jordan Spieth, Dustin Johnson, Justin Rose (Eng)
0833 Rory McIlroy (NIrl), Tiger Woods, Justin Thomas
0844 Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa), Max Homa, Matthew Fitzpatrick (Eng)
0855 Abraham Ancer (Mex), Charl Schwartzel (Rsa), Joohyung Kim (Kor)
0906 Corey Conners (Can), Zachary J Johnson, Chez Reavie
0917 Alex Knoll, Scott Piercy, Andrew Putnam
1225 Kurt Kitayama, Bob Sowards, Richy Werenski
1236 Haotong Li (Chn), Ben Cook, Jorge Campillo (Spa)
1247 Talor Gooch, Byeong-Hun An (Kor), Sungjae Im (Kor)
1258 JT Poston, Joaquin Niemann (Chi), Harold Varner III
1309 Ken Tanigawa, Emiliano Grillo (Arg), Cameron Tringale
1320 Brian Stuard, Jim Furyk, Billy Horschel
1331 Matt Jones (Aus), Jazz Janewattananond (Tha), Kevin Streelman
1342 Davis Love III, Jimmy Walker, Keegan Bradley
1353 Cameron Smith (Aus), Denny McCarthy, Cameron Champ
1404 Wyndham Clark, Troy Merritt, Chan Kim
1415 Doc Redman, Jason Caron, Brendon Todd
1426 Jordan Gibb (Eng), Lucas Herbert (Aus), Mark Hubbard
1437 Shawn Warren, Marcus Kinhult (Swe), Adam Long