Tee times, confirmed groups as Rory McIlroy is travelling with Tyrrell Hatton and LIVE commentary from Royal Troon

The 2024 Open Championship begins TODAY at Royal Troon as the best golfers compete in the final major of the summer.

The first three majors of this year have all generated huge excitement and now an all-star field will be put to the test at the famous Scottish links.

Brian Harman is the current Open champion after his dominant victory at Royal Liverpool last year.

The American returned the Claret Jug on Monday morning and will now try to win it again in Troon.

Rory McIlroy will be one of the favorites for the title after his recent serious setback at the US Open.

McIlroy lost on the final hole at Pinehurst, while Bryson DeChambeau took the win.

Also taking part are Masters champion Scottie Scheffler, PGA Championship winner Xander Schauffele and 15-time major winner Tiger Woods.

The Open 2024: Dates and how to follow them

The 152nd edition of The Open takes place today, Thursday 18 July, to Sunday 21 July.

It takes place on the Old Course at Royal Troon in South Ayrshire, Scotland.

Play starts at 6:35 a.m. on the first two days and at 8:00 a.m. on the weekend.

talkSPORT 2 has live commentary from Troon with Marcus Buckland, Sue Thearle, Ron Jones, Matt Adams and Rupert Bell. Our coverage starts at 7am.

To tune in to talkSPORT 2 via the website, click HERE for the live stream.

You can also listen on the talkSPORT app, on DAB digital radio, on your smart speaker and on 1089 or 1053 AM.

The action will also be broadcast live on Sky Sports Golf.

The Open 2024: starting times and rankings

You can find the latest Troon leaderboard here.

Before the cut on Friday evening, the field consists of 156 players.

Start times and group divisions for the first two rounds have been confirmed. Day one is listed below and the full schedule for the first two days can be found here.

McIlroy will play alongside Max Homa and Tyrrell Hatton and will start at 10:09 a.m. Woods will begin at 2:37 p.m. with Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay.

Other notable groups include Jon Rahm, Tommy Fleetwood and Robert MacIntyre at 9:36 a.m. and Scheffler, Jordan Spieth and Cameron Young at 3:10 p.m.

Justin Leonard, winner of the 1997 Open in Troon, will have the honor of teeing off at 6:35 a.m.

At the Open, there is no start from two tees, which means the last group will not start until 4:27 p.m.

Tee times for round 1: Thursday, July 18

• 06:35 Todd Hamilton (USA), Justin Leonard (USA), Jack McDonald (Sco)
• 06:46 Tom McKibbin (NI), (a) Calum Scott (Sco), Alexander Noren (Swe)
• 06:57 Michael Hendry (NZ), Vincent Norrman (Sweden), Jesper Svensson (Sweden)
• 07:08 Daniel Hillier (NZ), Ryosuke Kinoshita (Japan), Young-Han Song (Kor)
• 07:19 Abraham Ancer (Mexico), Ryo Hisatsune (Japan), Min-Woo Lee (Aus)
• 07:30 Nicolai Hoejgaard (Den), Keita Nakajima (Jpn), Adam Scott (Aus)
• 07:41 Francesco Molinari (Italy), Justin Rose (Eng), (a) Jasper Stubbs (Aus)
• 07:52 Sung-Jae Im (Kor), Matthew Southgate (Eng), Justin Thomas (US)
• 08:03 Laurie Canter (Eng), Nick Taylor (Can), Matt Wallace (Eng)
• 08:14 Matteo Manassero (Ita), Shubhankar Sharma (Ind), Sebastian Soderberg
• (Swedish)
• 08:25 Austin Eckroat (USA), Zach Johnson (USA), Thorbjoern Olesen (Den)
• 08:36 John Daly (USA), (a) Santiago de la Fuente (Mexico), Aaron Rai (Eng)
• 08:47 Stewart Cink (USA), (a) Dominic Clemons (Eng), Chris Kirk (USA)
• 09:03 Stephan Jaeger (German), Joaquin Niemann (Chi), Adam Schenk (US)
• 09:14 Christiaan Bezuidenhout (SA), Lucas Glover (US), Adam Hadwin (Can)
• 09:25 Tony Finau (US), Russell Henley (US), Matthieu Pavon (Fra)
• 09:36 Tommy Fleetwood (Eng), Robert MacIntyre (Sco), Jon Rahm (Spa)
• 09:47 Ludvig Aberg (Sweden), Bryson DeChambeau (USA), Joo-Hyung Kim (Kor)
• 09:58 Brian Harman (USA), Viktor Hovland (Nor), Sahith Theegala (USA)
• 10:09 Tyrrell Hatton (Eng), Max Homa (US), Rory McIlroy (NI)
• 10:20 Keegan Bradley (USA), (a) Gordon Sargent (USA), Will Zalatoris (USA)
• 10:31 Alexander Bjoerk (Sweden), Harris English (USA), Maverick McNealy (USA)
• 10:42 Sean Crocker (US), Guido Migliozzi (Ita), (a) Tommy Morrison (US)
• 10:53 John Catlin (USA), Gun-Taek Koh (Kor), David Puig (Spa)
• 11:04 Daniel Bradbury (Eng), Thriston Lawrence (SA), Elvis Smylie (Aus)
• 11:15 Ignacio Elvira (Spa), Darren Fichardt (SA), Min-Kyu Kim (Kor)
• 11:26 Mason Andersen (USA), Sam Hutsby (Eng), Masahiro Kawamura (Japan)
• 11:47 Ewen Ferguson (Sco), Marcel Siem (Ger)
• 11:58 Yuto Katsuragawa (Jpn), Romain Langasque (Fra), Chengtsung Pan (Tai)
• 12:09 Angel Hidalgo (Spa), Rikuya Hoshino (Japan), Richard Mansell (Eng)
• 12:20 Jorge Campillo (Spa), Corey Conners (Canada), Ryan Fox (New Zealand)
• 12:31 Ernie Els (SA), (a) Altin van der Merwe (SA), Gary Woodland (USA)
• 12:42 Rasmus Hoejgaard (Den), (a) Jacob Olesen (Den), Henrik Stenson (Sweden)
• 12:53 Billy Horschel (US), Louis Oosthuizen (SA), Victor Perez (Fra)
• 13:04 Jordan Smith (Eng), Sepp Straka (Aut), Brendon Todd (US)
• 13:15 Denny McCarthy (USA), Adrian Meronk (Poland), Taylor Moore (USA)
• 13:26 Byeong-Hun An (Korea), Jason Day (Australia), Rickie Fowler (USA)
• 13:37 Alex Cejka (D), Eric Cole (US), Kurt Kitayama (US)
• 13:48 Dean Burmester (SA), Darren Clarke (NI), JT Poston (US)
• 14:04 Dustin Johnson (USA), Joost Luiten (Ned), Phil Mickelson (USA)
• 14:15 Padraig Harrington (Ireland), Matthew Jordan (Eng), Davis Thompson (USA)
• 14:26 Wyndham Clark (USA), Brooks Koepka (USA), Hideki Matsuyama (Japan)
• 14:37 Patrick Cantlay (USA), Xander Schauffele (USA), Tiger Woods (USA)
• 14:48 Sam Burns (USA), Si-Woo Kim (Kor), Collin Morikawa (USA)
• 14:59 Matthew Fitzpatrick (Eng), Shane Lowry (Irish), Cameron Smith (Aus)
• 15:10 Scottie Scheffler (USA), Jordan Spieth (USA), Cameron Young (USA)
• 15:21 Akshay Bhatia (USA), Tom Hoge (USA), Sami Valimaki (Fin)
• 15:32 Ben Griffin (USA), Emiliano Grillo (Argentina), Mackenzie Hughes (Canada)
• 15:43 Joseph Dean (Eng), Andy Ogletree (US), Yannik Paul (D)
• 15:54 Charlie Lindh (Sweden), (a) Luis Masaveu (Spa), Ryan van Velzen (SA)
• 16:05 Kazuma Kobori (NZ), (a) Jaime Montojo (Spa), (a) Liam Nolan (Ireland)
• 16:16 Denwit Boriboonsub (Tha), Daniel Brown (Eng), (a) Matthew Dodd-Berry (Eng)
• 16:27 Sam Horsfield (Eng), Aguri Iwasaki (Japan), Jeung-Hun Wang (Korean)

The Open 2024: Course details

The Open Championship has been held in Troon nine times, with Swede Henrik Stenson winning an exciting victory the last time in 2016.

The Old Course at Troon was designed by George Strath and Willie Fernie in 1888 and renovated by James Braid in 1923. Like the Old Course at St. Andrews, it follows a traditional out-and-back course.

This year a par of 71 and a maximum length of 6,649 meters will be achieved.

Troon is enhancing one of the most famous holes in golf in the world – the par 3 8th hole “Postage Stamp”.

The iconic hole, famous for its tiny green, could be only 99 yards long.

At the other end of the scale, this tournament will include the longest hole in Open history: the par 5 6th hole “Turnberry”, which is said to be 568 meters long.

Troon offers a classic major finale with an easy par 5, followed by a difficult par 3 and a wonderful par 4 to finish.

The Open 2024: What was said?

Colin Montgomerie gave an exclusive interview to talkSPORT.com and hopes McIlroy can recover from his recent setback at the Majors.

Speaking to Sean O’Brien, he said: “It would be fantastic. I mean, it would be a herculean task if he could win. It would be great if he could get back into the Open after what happened last time. That would be great.”

“And he would certainly get the sympathy votes, wouldn’t he? He would certainly get the sympathy votes from all of us. He will be cheered on dramatically at The Open.

“I went to bed after the US Open and I was sad. I felt sorry for him because I’ve been through it myself. I know what it feels like to give away a major. And it’s a big deal. It doesn’t happen that often.”

“The Sky Sports people always say, ‘Oh, he’s going to win majors, lots of majors.’ I say, wait a minute. Rory has just proved how bloody difficult it is to actually do that.

“And there’s always someone who gets in your way, you know. But let’s hope he comes back and does well.”