The Open: Colin Montgomerie to hit first tee shot at home course

Masters champion Danny Willett will play with world number one Jason Day and Rickie Fowler in the first two rounds of the 145th Open Championship.

Willett's group will tee off at 09:25 BST on Thursday, while 2014 champion Rory McIlroy is in the group behind with Hideki Matsuyama and Bubba Watson.

Jordan Spieth plays with Justin Rose and Shane Lowry at 09:03 while US Open winner Dustin Johnson is off at 14:04.

Colin Montgomerie will hit the first shot at Royal Troon at 06:35.

The Scot, who is grouped with England's Luke Donald and Australian Marc Leishman, was invited to hit the opening tee shot at his home course, and where his father James was club secretary for more than 20 years.

"It is a great honour. I hit my first shot of golf when I was six years old on the children's course, which is now the TV compound, I believe," said Montgomerie.

"This is where I started playing and this is home. There's not many pros here that have the opportunity to play an Open on their own course where they're members of."

Reigning champion Zach Johnson is grouped with Adam Scott and Henrik Stenson at 14:15 while another star-studded three-ball on Thursday afternoon is the 13:26 group containing Phil Mickelson, Lee Westwood and Ernie Els.

The three previous Troon champions - Americans Todd Hamilton, Justin Leonard and Mark Calcavecchia - will go off together at 12:31.

(all times BST)

06:35 Colin Montgomerie (Sco), Marc Leishman (Aus), Luke Donald (Eng)

09:03 Jordan Spieth (US), Justin Rose (Eng), Shane Lowry (Ire)

09:25 Danny Willett (Eng), Rickie Fowler (US), Jason Day (Aus)

09:36 Rory McIlroy (NI), Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn), Bubba Watson (US)

13:26 Phil Mickelson (US), Lee Westwood (Eng), Ernie Els (SA)

14:04 Dustin Johnson (US), Martin Kaymer (Ger), Russell Knox (Sco)

14:15 Zach Johnson (US), Adam Scott (Aus), Henrik Stenson (Swe)

14:48 Anirban Lahiri (Ind), Sergio Garcia (Spa), Keegan Bradley (US)

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