England’s Gary Evans, who won a place in British hearts with his gutsy finish in the 2002 Open at Muirfield, will be among the first starters in the 2004 Open at Royal Troon on Thursday. He will be called on to the tee at 6.30am and will hit his tee shot down the opening par-4 368-yard hole seconds after Australian Peter O’Malley. Completing the first group will be American Brad Faxon. And you will be able to follow Gary’s progress throughout The Open in his exclusive diary for Golfmagic.com, courtesy of club-makers Olyo Golf, whose bag he carries on Tour. Evans finished in a tie for fifth place back in 2002 – only one shot behind eventual winner Ernie Els - and earned his automatic exemption this year with a tenth place, five behind surprise winner Ben Curtis. Despite some niggling injuries, Gary’s form has improved in recent weeks with top 25 finishes in Scotland, France and Ireland, where he now lives, and he played all four rounds in the Scottish Open at Loch Lomond. The rest of the first round draw has thrown up some fascinating pairings with the pick of them the combination of Tiger Woods, Lee Westwood and Greg Norman at 1.42pm Among the other early starters are local favourite Colin Montgomerie, Thomas Bjorn and Frank Lickliter at 8.58am and 61-year old Tom Weiskopf, who won here in 1973 paired with Australian Craig Parry and Scotland's Sandy Lyle. Justin Leonard who won at Troon in 1997, gets Ernie Els and Luke Donald at 7.58 with US Masters champion Phil Mickelson playing with England’s Paul Casey, a contemporary at Arizona State University and Japan’s Shigeki Maruyama. The full draw (second round times in brackets) 06:30 (11.41) Peter O'Malley, Gary Evans, Brad Faxon 06:41(11.52) Andrew Buckle, Mark Calcavecchia, Barry Lane 06:52 (12.03) Tom Weiskopf, Craig Parry, Sandy Lyle 07:03 (12.14) Rich Beem, Brendan Jones, Paul McGinley 07:14 (12.25) Shaun Micheel, Nick Price, Nick Flanagan 07:25 (12.36) Davis Love III, Paul Lawrie, K. J. Choi 07:36 (12.47) David Duval, Carl Pettersson, Craig Perks 07:47 (12.58) Chris DiMarco, Scott Drummond, Rodney Pampling 07:58 (13.09) Ernie Els, Justin Leonard, Luke Donald 08:09 (13.20) Mathias Gronberg, James Kingston, Skip Kendall 08:20 (13.31) Richard Green, Jonathan Kaye, Andrew Oldcorn 08:31(13.42) Phil Mickelson, Shigeki Maruyama, Paul Casey 08:42 (13.53) Chris Riley, Hidemasa Hoshino, Paul Sheehan 08:58 (14.09) Colin Montgomerie, Thomas Bjorn, Frank Lickliter 09:09 (14.20) Scott Verplank, Takashi Kamiyama, Warren Bennett 09:20 (14.31) Mathew Goggin, Graeme McDowell, Thomas Levet 09:31 (14.42) Sergio Garcia, Trevor Immelman, Charles Howell III 09:42 (14.53) Dinesh Chand, Euan Little, Kim Felton 09:53 (15.04) Bob Tway, Paul Broadhurst, Ignacio Garrido 10:04 (15.15) Padraig Harrington, Stuart Appleby, Bob Estes 10:15 (15.26) Jimmy Green, Jyoti Randhawa, Steven Tiley 10:26 (15.37) Stewart Cink, Hennie Otto, Paul Wesselingh 10:37 (15.48) Kenneth Ferrie, Andre Stolz, Martin Erlandsson 10:48 (15.59) Joakim Haeggman, Bo Van Pelt, Sean Whiffin 10:59 (16.10) Glen Day, Darren Fichardt, Paul Bradshaw 11:10 (16.21) Christian Cevaer, Klas Eriksson, Barry Hume 11:41 (06.30) Simon Dyson, Ian Poulter, S. K. Ho 11:52 (06.41) Peter Lonard, Gary Emerson, John Huston 12:03 (06.52) John Daly, Rory Sabbatini, Eduardo Romero 12:14 (07.03) Jerry Kelly, Phillip Price, Arjun Atwal 12:25 (07.14) David Howell, Aaron Baddeley, Mike Weir 12:36 (07.25) Darren Clarke, Adam Scott, Kenny Perry 12:47 (07.36) Chad Campbell, Stephen Leaney, Miles Tunnicliff 12:58 (07.47) Mark O'Meara, Stuart Wilson, Michael Campbell 13:09 (07.58) Retief Goosen, Robert Allenby, Jay Haas 13:20 (08.09) Tim Herron, Brian Davis, Tim Clark 13:31 (08.20) Tetsuji Hiratsuka, Steve Flesch, Peter Hedblom 13:42 (08.31) Tiger Woods, Lee Westwood, Greg Norman 13:53 (08.42) Scott Barr, Spike McRoy, Keiichiro Fukabori 14:09 (08.58) Vijay Singh, David Toms, Ian Spencer 14:20 (09.09) Mark Foster, Marten Olander, Jonathan Cheetham 14:31 (09.20) Yoshinobu Tsukada, Steve Lowery, Matthew Hazelden 14:42 (09.31) Ben Curtis, Nick Faldo, Jean Francois Remesy 14:53 (09.42) Anders Hansen, Adam Le Vesconte, Sven Struver 15:04 (9.53) Cameron Beckman, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Todd Hamilton 15:15 (10.04) Jim Furyk, Brian McElhinney, Fredrik Jacobson 15:26 (10.15) Zach Johnson, Louis Oosthuizen, Daniel Sugrue 15:37 (10.26) Tom Lehman, Stephen Ames, Andrew Willey 15:48 (10.37) Raphael Jacquelin, Simon Wakefield, Ben Willman 15:59 (10.48) Maarten Lafeber, Tjaart van der Walt, Lloyd Campbell 16:10 (10.59) Alastair Forsyth, Hunter Mahan, Lewis Atkinson 16:21 (11.10) Nicolas Colsaerts, Grant Muller, Anthony Millar |
