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
