The Holywood man shot a two-under 69 in Friday’s second round to secure an afternoon tee time on Saturday as he put himself in a share of 12th, seven shots behind overnight leader Scottie Scheffler.
World No.1 Scheffler leads the way at 10-under-par after a dazzling second round 64 and he will be the last man on the course at 3:35pm, with England’s Matthew Fitzpatrick his playing partner one shot behind him at nine-under-par.
Offaly’s Shane Lowry, who took a controversial penalty in his second round, will get his third round under way at 11:30am as he is in a blockbuster early group with Spain’s Jon Rahm, while the enigmatic Bryson DeChambeau is due on the first tee at 10:25am where he will be accompanied by England’s Nathan Kimsey.
Germany’s Matti Schmid, who has Castledawson man Chris Selfridge on his bag, will get the action under way at 9:35am when he tees off alongside Corey Conners in the opening group.
The tee times have been moved forward by 15 minutes in order to avoid clashing with a loyalist band parade in Portrush town centre, which is due to begin at 8:30pm and will feature over 70 bands.
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Open Championship third round tee times
09:35: Matti Schmid (+1), Corey Conners (+1)
09:45: Sepp Straka (+1), Hideki Matsuyama (+1)
09:55: Takumi Kanaya (+1), Adrien Saddier (+1)
10:05: Sebastian Soderberg (+1), Henrik Stenson (+1)
10:15: Thomas Detry (+1), Jacob Skov Olesen (+1)
10:25: Nathan Kimsey (+1), Bryson DeChambeau (+1)
10:35: Maverick McNealy (+1), Thriston Lawrence (+1)
10:45: Justin Leonard (+1), John Parry (+1)
11:00: Andrew Novak (+1), Sergio Garcia (+1)
11:10: Jesper Svensson (+1), Francesco Molinari (+1)
11:20: Riki Kawamoto (E), Wyndham Clark (E)
11:30: Shane Lowry (E), Jon Rahm (E)
11:40: JJ Spaun (E), Dustin Johnson (E)
11:50: Phil Mickelson (E), Jhonattan Vegas (E)
12:00: Viktor Hovland (E), Jordan Spieth (E)
12:15: Russell Henley (E), Antoine Rozner (E)
12:25: Romain Langasque (E), Daniel Berger (E)
12:35: Sungjae Im (E), Dean Burmester (E)
12:45: Matt Wallace (E), Akshay Bhatia (-1)
12:55: Jason Kokrak (-1), Lucas Glover (-1)
13:05: Tommy Fleetwood (-1), Justin Thomas (-1)
13:15: Aaron Rai (-1), Rickie Fowler (-1)
13:30: Marc Leishman (-1), Oliver Lindell (-2)
13:40: Ryggs Johnston (-2), Xander Schauffele (-2)
13:50: Kristoffer Reitan (-2), Matthew Jordan (-2)
14:00: Ludvig Aberg (-2), Justin Rose (-2)
14:10: Harry Hall (-2), Christiaan Bezuidenhout (-2)
14:20: Sam Burns (-3), Lee Westwood (-3)
14:30: Jordan Smith (-3), Rory McIlroy (-3)
14:45: Keegan Bradley (-3), Nicolai Hojgaard (-4)
14:55: Tony Finau (-4), Chris Gotterup (-5)
15:05: Harris English (-5), Robert MacIntyre (-5)
15:15: Tyrrell Hatton (-5), Rasmus Hojgaard (-5)
15:25: Haotong Li (-8), Brian Harman (-8)
15:35: Matt Fitzpatrick (-9), Scottie Scheffler (-10)