Pars for Jordan Spieth and Tony Finau up the last, and the pair sign for highly decent opening rounds of 69. That’s the end of the Thursday action. Hope to see you tomorrow afternoon for the (potentially soggy, thundery and delayed) second round. Nighty night!
-7: Hovland, Rahm, Koepka
-5: Young, Day
-4: Lowry, Schauffele, Scott, Woodland, Scheffler, Bennett (a), Burns
-3: Rose, Morikawa, Spieth, Finau
(US unless stated, all times BST, a denotes amateur)
1pm José María Olazábal (Sp), Cameron Champ
1.12pm Charl Schwartzel (SA), Taylor Moore, Aldrich Potgieter (SA, a)
1.24pm JT Poston, Francesco Molinari (It), Bryson DeChambeau
1.36pm Bernhard Langer (Ger), Mito Pereira (Chl), Ben Carr (a)
1.48pm Danny Willett (Eng), Gary Woodland, Brooks Koepka
2pm Sepp Straka (Aut), Harold Varner III, Kyoung-Hoon Lee (Kor)
2.12pm Phil Mickelson, Tom Hoge, Si Woo Kim (Kor)
2.24pm Billy Horschel, Harris English, Ryan Fox (NZ)
2.36pm Zach Johnson, Jason Day (Aus), Gordon Sargent (a)
2.48pm Brian Harman, Joaquin Niemann (Chl), Tyrrell Hatton (Eng)
3.06pm Dustin Johnson, Corey Conners (Can), Justin Rose (Eng)
3.18pm Matthew Fitzpatrick (Eng), Collin Morikawa, Will Zalatoris
3.30pm Scottie Scheffler, Max Homa, Sam Bennett (a)
3.42pm Tom Kim (Kor), Rory McIlroy (NI), Sam Burns
3.54pm Jordan Spieth, Tommy Fleetwood (Eng), Tony Finau
4.06pm Mike Weir (Can), Kevin Na
4.18pm Vijay Singh (Fij), Scott Stallings, Matthew McClean (NI, a)
4.30pm Sandy Lyle (Sco), Jason Kokrak, Talor Gooch
4.42pm Fred Couples, Russell Henley, Alex Noren (Swe)
4.54pm Adrian Meronk (Pol), Kevin Kisner, Louis Oosthuizen (SA)
5.12pm Larry Mize, Min Woo Lee (Aus), Harrison Crowe (Aus, a)
5.24pm Sergio García (Sp), Kazuki Higa (Jpn), Keith Mitchell
5.36pm Patrick Reed, Adam Svensson (Can), Sahith Theegala
5.48pm Shane Lowry (Ire), Mackenzie Hughes (Can), Thomas Pieters (Bel)
6pm Bubba Watson, Seamus Power (Ire), Mateo Fernández de Oliveira (Arg, a)
6.12pm Abraham Ancer (Mex), Chris Kirk, Keegan Bradley
6.24pm Tiger Woods, Viktor Hovland (Nor), Xander Schauffele
6.36pm Adam Scott (Aus), Patrick Cantlay, Kurt Kitayama
6.48pm Justin Thomas, Jon Rahm (Sp), Cameron Young
7pm Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn), Cameron Smith (Aus), Sungjae Im (Korea)
It looks as though the disappointment is beginning to consume McIlroy already. He gives up on his chip, leaving it a good ten feet short, and flushes red as he sizes up his par saver. Before he can putt, Tom Kim makes his par and signs for a 70. But then Rory gathers himself and rolls in his par putt. A level-par 72. One better than last year’s opening round, if nothing else. He smiles grimly. Par for Sam Burns, too, and the Match Play champion signs for a fine 68 that, for a while, promised more.
