McIlroy, Rahm And Rose Among Open Championship Featured Groups

Four marquee groups will lead the coverage of the first round at Hoylake

Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy (R) and Norway's Viktor Hovland (C) leave the 12th tee during a practice round for 151st British Open Golf Championship at Royal Liverpool
(Image credit: Getty Images)

The R&A have announced the day one featured groups for the 151st Open at Royal Liverpool - and there is an obvious omission. 

Whether by coincidence or design, no LIV Golf players will be part of the featured group coverage from Hoylake on Thursday, which means even defending champion Cameron Smith has been overlooked.

Depending where you live, this might matter little. If you're based in the UK and subscribe to Sky Sports, for example, you'll have wall-to-wall coverage across all four days at your fingertips. 

If that isn't the case, however, then you might feel aggrieved depending on which way you are inclined. Given the strength in depth of the men's game, no matter which way the R&A sliced it, there were always going to be big names that were left out of the featured groups.

It's also highly possible that Smith and perhaps one or two of his colleagues on the breakaway circuit will get the nod for Friday.

As for the four marquee three-balls chosen for the the first round, it's hard to argue with the quality on offer. In the morning wave, Jordan Spieth, Matt Fitzpatrick and Jason Day kick things off at 9.03am local time, followed by World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, Tommy Fleetwood and Adam Scott roughly 40 minutes later.

Next up at 2.48pm local time are Viktor Hovland, Tony Finau and Justin Thomas, with Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm and Justin Rose making up the fourth and final featured group at 2.59pm.

Local Time & Eastern Time (ET):

  • 9.03am (4.03am): Jordan Spieth, Matt Fitzpatrick, Jason Day
  • 9.47am (4.47am): Scottie Scheffler, Tommy Fleetwood, Adam Scott
  • 2.48pm (9.48am): Viktor Hovland, Tony Finau, Justin Thomas
  • 2.59pm (9.59am): Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Justin Rose
Andrew Wright
Freelance News Writer

A lifelong golf fan, Andy graduated in 2019 with a degree in Sports Journalism and got his first role in the industry as the Instruction Editor for National Club Golfer. From there, he decided to go freelance and now covers a variety of topics for Golf Monthly. 

Andy took up the game at the age of seven and even harboured ambitions of a career in the professional ranks for a spell. That didn’t pan out, but he still enjoys his weekend golf at Royal Troon and holds a scratch handicap. As a side note, he's made five holes-in-one and could quite possibly be Retief Goosen’s biggest fan.

As well as the above, some of Andy's work has featured on websites such as goal.com, dailyrecord.co.uk, and theopen.com.

What's in Andy's bag?

Driver: Callaway Mavrik Sub-Zero (9°)

3-wood: TaylorMade Stealth 2 Plus (15°)

Driving iron: Titleist U500 (17°)

Irons: Mizuno mp32 (4-PW)

Wedges: Titleist Vokey SM9 (50°, 54° and 58°)

Putter: Titleist Scotty Cameron Newport 2.5

Ball: TaylorMade TP5x