Charley Hull has been grouped alongside world No 1 Nelly Korda and defending champion Lilia Vu for the first two rounds of the AIG Women’s Open at St Andrews.
Korda won the Chevron Championship earlier this season as part of a run of six LPGA Tour victories in seven starts, while Vu looks to become the first back-to-back winner of the event since Yani Tseng in 2011 after last year’s six-shot victory over Hull.
Hull’s runner-up finish at Walton Heath was one of two in majors last year, with the world No 10 looking to become the first Englishwoman to win a major since Georgia Hall’s victory at this event in 2018.
Nelly Korda and Charley Hull were also grouped together for last year’s AIG Women’s Open at Walton Heath
The star-studded trio have been given a late-early draw for the opening two days around the iconic Old Course, with their group scheduled to tee off at 1.10pm for Thursday’s first round before starting at 7.55am on Friday.
A two-tee start is being used for the first two days at St Andrews, with Lexi Thompson among the early starters from the tenth tee as she begins what is possibly her final AIG Women’s Open appearance.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Lexi Thompson announced at the US Women’s Open that she intends to step back from full-time golf at the end of the season
Thompson tees off at 7.44am on Thursday with Australia’s Minjee Lee and Scotland’s Gemma Dryburgh, who needs a strong week on home soil to boost Solheim Cup qualification hopes, with 2018 champion Georgia Hall out in the next group alongside Rose Zhang and Evian Championship winner Ayaka Furue.
Olympic champion Lydia Ko is in the afternoon wave alongside France’s Celine Boutier and American Ally Ewing, while former AIG Women’s Open champions Ashleigh Buhai and Jin Young Ko have Ireland’s Leona Maguire in their threeball.
Can Lydia Ko claim a third major title this week and first since 2016?
Play is scheduled to begin at 7am over the first two days, with 144 players in the field, while the final groups will begin on both days at 2.16pm.
Selected R1 tee times (all times BST)
USA unless stated; * denotes starting from 10th tee
*0744 Minjee Lee (Aus), Lexi Thompson, Gemma Dryburgh (Sco)
*0755 Georgia Hall (Eng), Ayaka Furue (Jpn), Rose Zhang
1226 Celine Boutier (Fra), Lydia Ko (Nzl), Ally Ewing
1237 Ashleigh Buhai (Rsa), Jin Young Ko (Kor), Leona Maguire (Irl)
1310 Lilia Vu, Nelly Korda, Charley Hull (Eng)
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Ahead of the AIG Women’s Open, Charley Hull surprises a nine-year-old fan and invites her to play the first hole around the Old Course at St Andrews!
When is the AIG Women’s Open on Sky?
Sky Sports will have extended live coverage from the final women’s major of the year, with seven hours of live action for each tournament day from midday and daily one-hour highlights to look back at the best of the previous rounds’ action on Sky Sports Golf.
You can download the Sky Sports App to get news, interviews, highlights, clips, leaderboard scores and a dedicated blog, while other special AIG Women’s Open programming will be available to download via Sky Sports On Demand.
Sky Sports+ which has officially launched and will be integrated into Sky TV, streaming service NOW and the Sky Sports app, giving Sky Sports customers access to over 50 per cent more live sport this year at no extra cost. Find out more here.