Rory McIlroy faces a long wait to get his Open Championship under way after being handed a late tee time on Thursday at Royal Birkdale.

The reigning Masters champion and world No 2 will not go out until 3.15pm alongside 2024 Open winner Xander Schauffele and 2022 US Open winner Matt Fitzpatrick in the marquee afternoon group.

By then he will have seen how defending champion Scottie Scheffler has fared as the world No 1, who missed his first cut in four years at the Scottish Open on Friday, is out at 9.58am.

The American, seeking to become the first player to successfully defend the Claret Jug since Padraig Harrington at the Southport links in 2008, goes out with compatriot Bryson DeChambeau, seeking to avoid an unwanted calendar year grand slam of missed cuts in majors, and another English hope in Tyrrell Hatton.

Immediately behind them will be Southport-born Tommy Fleetwood, Jordan Spieth – the last winner of a Birkdale Open – and two-time major winner Jon Rahm.

Justin Rose, who finished tied-fourth as an amateur at the venue in 1998 – is alongside Ryder Cup team-mate Viktor Hovland and Russell Henley at 9.36am, while US PGA champion Aaron Rai, another looking to end an English drought at the Open stretching back to 1992, is grouped with 2019 winner Shane Lowry and five-time major champion Brooks Koepka at 2.53pm.

Royal Birkdale member Matt Baldwin, who came through final qualifying, has been given the honour of hitting the opening tee shot at 6.35am.

Thursday’s tee times

Gbr & Irl unless stated, (a) denotes amateurs, times shown are UK time (BST):
06:35 Matthew Baldwin, Thomas Detry (Bel), James Nicholas (USA)
06:46 Daniel Hillier (Nzl), Michael Kim (US), Andy Sullivan
06:57 Ryan Fox (Nzl), Matthew Jordan, Andrew Novak (US)
07:08 Max Homa (US), Henrik Stenson (Swe), Joseph Dean
07:19 Alex Fitzpatrick, Rickie Fowler (US), Robert MacIntyre
07:30 Martin Couvra (Fra), David Duval (US), Matthew Southgate
07:41 Daniel Brown, Sung-Jae Im (Kor), (a) Fifa Laopakdee (Tha)
07:52 Jake Knapp (US), Jordan Smith, Gary Woodland (US)
08:03 (a) Lev Grinberg (Ukr), Tom McKibbin, Francesco Molinari (Ita)
08:14 Jose Luis Ballester (Spa), Daniel Bradbury, Hennie Du Plessis (Rsa)
08:25 Angel Ayora (Spa), (a) Mateo Pulcini (Arg), Victor Perez (Fra)
08:36 Stewart Cink (US), Joakim Lagergren (Swe), Scott Vincent (Zim)
08:47 Kota Kaneko (Jpn), Travis Smyth (Aus), Michael Thorbjornsen (US)
09:03 Ryo Hisatsune (Jpn), Alex Smalley (US), Sam Stevens (US)
09:14 Akshay Bhatia (US), Harris English (US), Rasmus Hoejgaard (Den)
09:25 Ben Griffin (US), Min-Woo Lee (Aus), Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn)
09:36 Russell Henley (US), Viktor Hovland (Nor), Justin Rose
09:47 Jason Day (Aus), Alexander Noren (Swe), Justin Thomas (US)
09:58 Bryson DeChambeau (US), Tyrrell Hatton, Scottie Scheffler (US)
10:09 Tommy Fleetwood, Jon Rahm (Spa), Jordan Spieth (US)
10:20 Brian Harman (US), Si-Woo Kim (Kor), Nick Taylor (Can)
10:31 Ryan Gerard (US), Maverick McNealy (US), David Puig (Spa)
10:42 David Howard, Kazuma Kobori (Nzl), Thomas Sloman
10:53 Antoine Rozner (Fra), Caleb Surratt (US), Ren Yonezawa (Jpn)
11:04 M. J. Daffue (Rsa), Frederic Lacroix (Fra), Jack McDonald
11:15 (a) Alejandro De Castro (Spa), Jeong-Woo Ham (Kor), Ryutaro Nagano (Jpn)
11:41 Tiger Christensen (Ger), Eric Cole (US), John Parry
11:52 Eugenio Lopez-Chacarra (Spa), Max Greyserman (US), Matt Wallace
12:03 Michael Brennan (US), Laurie Canter, Sahith Theegala (US)
12:14 Stuart Grehan, Keith Mitchell (US), Cameron Smith (Aus)
12:25 Kurt Kitayama (US), Joaquin Niemann (Chi), Sepp Straka (Aut)
12:36 Shaun Norris (Rsa), Jackson Suber (US), Sami Valimaki (Fin)
12:47 Darren Clarke, Adrien Saddier (Fra), Bernd Wiesberger (Aut)
12:58 Keegan Bradley (US), Corey Conners (Can), Casey Jarvis (Rsa)
13:09 Harry Hall, Haotong Li (Chn), Matt McCarty (US)
13:20 Padraig Harrington, Michael Hollick (Rsa), Marco Penge
13:31 Billy Horschel (US), (a) Mason Howell (US), Joo-Hyung Kim (Kor)
13:42 Pierceson Coody (US), Keita Nakajima (Jpn), Johnny Keefer (US)
13:53 Jack Buchanan (Aus), Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa), Jesper Svensson (Swe)
14:09 Bud Cauley (US), Lucas Herbert (Aus), Jayden Schaper (Rsa)
14:20 J. T. Poston (US), Patrick Reed (US), Kristoffer Reitan (Nor)
14:31 Sam Burns (US), Chris Gotterup (US), Adam Scott (Aus)
14:42 Nicolai Hoejgaard (Den), Collin Morikawa (USA), J. J. Spaun (US)
14:53 Brooks Koepka (US), Shane Lowry, Aaron Rai
15:04 Ludvig Aaberg (Swe), Wyndham Clark (US), Cameron Young (US)
15:15 Matthew Fitzpatrick, Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele (US)
15:26 Jacob Bridgeman (US), Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen (Den), (a) Tim Wiedemeyer (Ger)
15:37 Daniel Berger (US), Patrick Cantlay (US), Nicolas Echavarria (Col)
15:48 Alistair Docherty (US), Francesco Laporta (Ita), Peter Uihlein (US)
15:59 Sam Bairstow, Cameron John (Aus), Austen Truslow (US)
16:10 Baard Bjoernevik Skogen (Nor), Naoyuki Kataoka (Jpn), Marcus Plunkett (US)
16:21 Kazuki Higa (Jpn), (a) Nevill Ruiter (Ned), Ji-Ho Yang (Kor)

Friday’s tee times

Gbr & Irl unless stated, (a) denotes amateurs, times shown are UK time (BST):
06:35 Tiger Christensen (Ger), Eric Cole (US), John Parry
06:46 Eugenio Lopez-Chacarra (Spa), Max Greyserman (US), Matt Wallace
06:57 Michael Brennan (US), Laurie Canter, Sahith Theegala (US)
07:08 Stuart Grehan, Keith Mitchell (US), Cameron Smith (Aus)
07:19 Kurt Kitayama (US), Joaquin Niemann (Chi), Sepp Straka (Aut)
07:30 Shaun Norris (Rsa), Jackson Suber (US), Sami Valimaki (Fin)
07:41 Darren Clarke, Adrien Saddier (Fra), Bernd Wiesberger (Aut)
07:52 Keegan Bradley (US), Corey Conners (Can), Casey Jarvis (Rsa)
08:03 Harry Hall, Haotong Li (Chn), Matt McCarty (US)
08:14 Padraig Harrington, Michael Hollick (Rsa), Marco Penge
08:25 Billy Horschel (US), (a) Mason Howell (US), Joo-Hyung Kim (Kor)
08:36 Pierceson Coody (US), Keita Nakajima (Jpn), Johnny Keefer (US)
08:47 Jack Buchanan (Aus), Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa), Jesper Svensson (Swe)
09:03 Bud Cauley (US), Lucas Herbert (Aus), Jayden Schaper (Rsa)
09:14 J. T. Poston (US), Patrick Reed (US), Kristoffer Reitan (Nor)
09:25 Sam Burns (US), Chris Gotterup (US), Adam Scott (Aus)
09:36 Nicolai Hoejgaard (Den), Collin Morikawa (US), J. J. Spaun (US)
09:47 Brooks Koepka (US), Shane Lowry, Aaron Rai
09:58 Ludvig Aaberg (Swe), Wyndham Clark (US), Cameron Young (US)
10:09 Matthew Fitzpatrick, Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele (US)
10:20 Jacob Bridgeman (US), Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen (Den), (a) Tim Wiedemeyer (Ger)
10:31 Daniel Berger (US), Patrick Cantlay (US), Nicolas Echavarria (Col)
10:42 Alistair Docherty (US), Francesco Laporta (Ita), Peter Uihlein (US)
10:53 Sam Bairstow, Cameron John (Aus), Austen Truslow (US)
11:04 Baard Bjoernevik Skogen (Nor), Naoyuki Kataoka (Jpn), Marcus Plunkett (US)
11:15 Kazuki Higa (Jpn), (a) Nevill Ruiter (Ned), Ji-Ho Yang (Kor)
11:41 Matthew Baldwin, Thomas Detry (Bel), James Nicholas (US)
11:52 Daniel Hillier (Nzl), Michael Kim (US), Andy Sullivan
12:03 Ryan Fox (Nzl), Matthew Jordan, Andrew Novak (US)
12:14 Max Homa (US), Henrik Stenson (Swe), Joseph Dean
12:25 Alex Fitzpatrick, Rickie Fowler (US), Robert MacIntyre
12:36 Martin Couvra (Fra), David Duval (US), Matthew Southgate
12:47 Daniel Brown, Sung-Jae Im (Kor), (a) Fifa Laopakdee (Tha)
12:58 Jake Knapp (US), Jordan Smith, Gary Woodland (US)
13:09 (a) Lev Grinberg (Fra), Tom McKibbin, Francesco Molinari (Ita)
13:20 Jose Luis Ballester (Spa), Daniel Bradbury, Hennie Du Plessis (Rsa)
13:31 Angel Ayora (Spa), (a) Mateo Pulcini (Arg), Victor Perez (Fra)
13:42 Stewart Cink (US), Joakim Lagergren (Swe), Scott Vincent (Zim)
13:53 Kota Kaneko (Jpn), Travis Smyth (Aus), Michael Thorbjornsen (US)
14:09 Ryo Hisatsune (Jpn), Alex Smalley (US), Sam Stevens (US)
14:20 Akshay Bhatia (US), Harris English (US), Rasmus Hoejgaard (Den)
14:31 Ben Griffin (US), Min-Woo Lee (Aus), Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn)
14:42 Russell Henley (US), Viktor Hovland (Nor), Justin Rose
14:53 Jason Day (Aus), Alexander Noren (Swe), Justin Thomas (US)
15:04 Bryson DeChambeau (US), Tyrrell Hatton, Scottie Scheffler (US)
15:15 Tommy Fleetwood, Jon Rahm (Spa), Jordan Spieth (US)
15:26 Brian Harman (US), Si-Woo Kim (Kor), Nick Taylor (Can)
15:37 Ryan Gerard (US), Maverick McNealy (US), David Puig (Spa)
15:48 David Howard, Kazuma Kobori (Nzl), Thomas Sloman
15:59 Antoine Rozner (Fra), Caleb Surratt (US), Ren Yonezawa (Jpn)
16:10 M. J. Daffue (Rsa), Frederic Lacroix (Fra), Jack McDonald
16:21 (a) Alejandro De Castro (Spa), Jeong-Woo Ham (Kor), Ryutaro Nagano (Jpn)