Draw for men’s Olympic golf revealed

The draw for the first and second rounds of the Men’s Golf Competition at Rio 2016 has been announced. At 7.30am local time on Thursday 11th August, history will be made when Brazilian, Adilson da Silva, hits the opening tee shot and golf’s return to the Olympic Games will be complete.

Three-time major champion Padraig Harrington from Ireland and Italy’s Matteo Manassero, both of whom formed part of the International Golf Federation’s delegation that presented golf’s case for inclusion in the Games at the 2009 IOC Session in Copenhagen, will play together in the second group out at 7.41am. The Irishman and Italian will be joined by New Zealand’s Danny Lee.

Other notable tee times include 2016 Masters champion Danny Willett from Great Britain who will play with American Matt Kuchar and China’s Haotong Li at 9.03am. Two-time Masters winner, Bubba Watson, will tee off at 9.14am in the same group as former US Open champion Martin Kaymer from Germany and India’s Anirban Lahiri. Siddikur Rahman, who carried Bangladesh’s flag during the Opening Ceremony, will begin their first round at 10.14am in a group with the Netherlands’ Joost Luiten and Ricardo Melo Gouveia from Portugal.

At 10.58am, world number seven Rickie Fowler from the USA, former US Open champion Justin Rose, from Great Britain, and last month’s winner of the Canadian Open, Jhonattan Vegas, will begin their bid for Olympic gold. At 11.09am The Open champion and world number five Henrik Stenson will play alongside Thailand’s Thongchai Jaidee and Rafa Cabrera Bello at in Thursday’s final group. All tee times are in local time for Rio de Janeiro.