The three British amateurs appearing in the 149th Open Championship at Royal St George’s today found out who their playing parters will be for the first two rounds.
British Amateur champions Laird Shepherd (2021) and Joe Long (2020) plus Sam Bairstow, who made it through Final Qualifying, are three of eight amateurs in the 156-man field with things kicking off at 6.35am on Thursday.
Sussex’s Laird Shepperd (Rye) will be out first at 7.19am alongside South African Dean Burmester and former Masters champion Danny Willett.
Gloucestershire’s Joe Long (Lansdown) will partner Darren Clarke, the last Open champion at the Sandwich course, and Austrian Bernd Wiesberger, starting at 8.25am.
For Yorkshireman Bairstow (Hallowes), the wait to start his first ever Open Championship will be considerably longer. The Hallowes member starts his tournament at 1.37pm in the company of Australian Jason Scrivener and American journeyman Keith Mitchell.