Home hopes Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry and Pádraig Harrington will all be among a stacked morning wave as the Amgen Irish Open commences on Thursday morning at The K Club in County Kildare.
The major winning trio will tee off in three consecutive groups off the 10th tee, starting with Harrington at 7.40am at the Straffan course.
The Dubliner, who claimed his third senior major back in July, gets the blockbuster run of groups underway, alongside Venezuelan Jhonattan Vegas and Frenchman Adrien Saddier.
That group will be followed by Lowry at 7.50am, alongside five-time major winner Brooks Koepla and Martin Couvra.
It will be Koepka's first start at the event, despite starting his professional career in Europe, with the American keen to shake off his disappointment on missing out on Ryder Cup selection.
As for Lowry, he will be looking to add to his 2009 conquest up at Baltray, and his impressive run of top-15 finishes in each of the last three editions of the event, including finishing third here at the K Club back in 2023.
Then at 8am, Masters champion McIlroy will looks to repeat his success of 2016, starts his week alongside the in-form duo of Thriston Lawrence of South Africa and Kristoffer Reitan of Norway.
McIlroy came agonisingly close to victory up at Royal County Down last September, being pipped at the death by his former Ryder Cup team-mate Rasmus Hogaard. He will be hoping to keep his good form going in front of what is sure to be a boisterous home crowd.
The afternoon wave will also be headlined by Irish and European Ryder Cup names.
Tom McKibbin, who now plies his trade on the LIV Golf Tour, will tee off at 12.50pm from the first tee, alongside England’s Laurie Canter and China’s Haotong Li.
Tyrrell Hatton, a team-mate of McKibbin on the 'Legion XIII’ LIV team, gets his week under way from 1pm, alongside Waterford’s Seamus Power and England’s Marco Penge, who has won twice on tour this season.
Hatton is the third Ryder Cup member to feature at this week’s event, having qualified automatically off the back of four cuts made at the majors and a win in Dubai back in January.
Dublin golfer Max Kennedy has been grouped with two former Masters champions in Danny Willett and Patrick Reed, as they take to the Palmer North Course at 1.30pm.
Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald (1.10pm) and Ireland’s Conor Purcell (1.40pm) will also bring some further local interest to the evening’s play.
In total, there are 11 Irish in the field, including amateur John Doyle, who tees off from the 10th hole at 9.10am on Thursday morning.
Harrington, Lowry and McIlroy will again be the marquee band as they tee off one after the other from 12.40pm on Friday afternoon.
Selected tee times for Thursday and Friday (* denotes 10th tee start):
7:30 / 12:30*: Robert Moran (Ire), Dan Bradbury (Eng), Bernd Wiesberger (Aus)
7:40* / 12:40: Pádraig Harrington (Ire), Jhonattan Vegas (Ven), Adrien Saddier (Fra)
7:50* / 12:50: Shane Lowry (Ire), Brooks Koepka (USA), Martin Couvra (Fra)
08:00* / 13:10: Rory McIlroy (NI), Thriston Lawrence (RSA), Kristoffer Reitan (Nor)
9:10* / 14:10: John Doyle (Ire), Martin Trainer (Fra), Andreas Halvorsen (Nor)
12:40* / 7:40: Mark Power (Ire), Kazuma Kobori (NZ), Ben Schmidt (Eng)
12:50 / 7:50*: Tom McKibbin (NI), Laurie Canter (Eng), Haoton Li (Chi)
13:00 / 8:00*: Seamus Power (Ire), Tyrell Hatton (Eng), Marco Penge (Eng)
13:30 / 8:30*: Max Kennedy (Ire), Danny Willett (Eng), Patrick Reed)
13:40 / 8:40*: Conor Purcell (Ire), Rafa Cabrera Bello (Spa), Jacob Skov Olesen (Den)
14:30* / 9:30: Alex Maguire (Ire), Hamish Brown (Den), Zander Lombard (RSA)
Watch the Amgen Irish Open with RTÉ Sport. Live coverage on Thursday and Friday available on RTÉ2, with Saturday and Sunday on RTÉ One. All four days live on RTÉ Player
