Few people earn their keep more at the British Open than David Lancaster. He's the first tee announcer, taking over the job from legendary Ivor Robson in 2016. If things go to schedule, Lancaster will arrive at his post this week at Royal Birkdale shortly before 6:30 a.m. on Thursday and Friday and remain until just past 4 p.m., faithfully seeing off all 156 players competing in the championship.
Such is one of the lovable quirks of the oldest tournament in golf. With daylight in England lasting more than 18 hours come July, the R&A sends every one of the 52 threesomes off the first tee. (Yes, Augusta National does this too, but it's a lot easier with only around 100 players competing in the Masters.)
It brings with it a unique anticipation among players as to "when" they'll be scheduled to tee off. Getting on the "right side" of the draw in the Open Championship is something many discuss, and in any given championship could be a major factor in the outcome. That said, we crunched the numbers over the last few decades and found it wasn't as big a deal as it's made out to be, and that there is no noticeable trend in whether early-late times result in more champions than late-early (it's a 13-12 split in the last 25 years).
Players will be competing in threesomes on Thursday and Friday at Birkdale. Official tee times have not been announced so we are simply listing all the players in the field here. Check back here closer to the start of the championship and we'll have the tee times posted as soon as they go live.
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