Early start for holder Harrington at Open

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Padraig Harrington will launch the defense of his Open golf title in the company of 1997 winner Justin Leonard and twice U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen at Royal Birkdale on Thursday.

Irishman Harrington, conqueror of Sergio Garcia in a play-off at Carnoustie last July, starts at 7.58am -- 88 minutes after Australian Craig Parry is scheduled to strike the first blow of the 137th championship.

England's Justin Rose tees off at 7.36am on his return to the course where, as a 17-year-old amateur, he finished a spectacular fourth 10 years ago.

Rose is joined by five-time champion Tom Watson, winner at Birkdale in 1983, and Australian Aaron Baddeley for the opening two rounds.

Spain's Garcia and South African Ernie Els are the favorites in the absence through injury of world number one Tiger Woods.

Els is another early starter, going out at 8.31am with American Scott Verplank and rising German star Martin Kaymer, but Garcia has to wait until 2.31pm to begin his bid.

The Spaniard, runner-up in the European Open two weeks ago, has Japan's Ryuji Imada and American Sean O'Hair for company.

Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell, winner of the Scottish Open at the weekend, partners 2004 winner Todd Hamilton of the U.S. and South African Rory Sabbatini at 12.36pm.

Colin Montgomerie plays with Canadian left-hander Mike Weir and American Boo Weekley at 9.31am and Lee Westwood is just over half an hour earlier than that with 2003 champion Ben Curtis and Korean KJ Choi.

Paul Casey is paired again with Phil Mickelson. Four years ago at Royal Troon the pair were also drawn together and Casey shot a five under par 66 to be the joint first round leader. Japan's Hideto Tanihara is the third member of the group.

Draw for the opening two rounds of the 137th Open Championship at Royal Birkdale with Thursday's starting times (GMT + 1):

06:30- Craig Parry (AUS), Lucas Glover (U.S.), Simon Dyson (ENG)

06:41- Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (FR), Pat Perez (U.S.), Peter Fowler (AUS)

06:52- Soren Kjeldsen (DEN), Brendan Jones (AUS), Matt Kuchar (U.S.)

07:03- Darren Fichardt (SA), Jerry Kelly (U.S.), Damian McGrane (IRL)

07:14- Graeme Storm (ENG), Scott Strange (AUS), Sandy Lyle (SCO)

07:25- Mark Calcavecchia (U.S.), Richard Green (AUS), Anders Hansen (DEN)

07:36- Justin Rose (ENG), Tom Watson (U.S.), Aaron Baddley (ENG)

07:47- Geoff Ogilvy (AUS), Oliver Wilson (ENG), Davis Love III (U.S.)

07:58- Padraig Harrington (IRL), Retief Goosen (SA), Justin Leonard (U.S.)

08:09- Richard Sterne (SA), Henrik Stenson (SWE), Jeff Quinney (U.S.)

08:20- Hunter Mahan (U.S.), Vijay Singh (FIJ), Reinier Saxton (NED -a)

08:31- Martin Kaymer (GER), Scott Verplank (U.S.), Ernie Els (SA)

08:42- JB Holmes (U.S.), David Howell (ENG), Andres Romero (ARG)

08:58- KJ Choi (KOR), Lee Westwood (ENG), Ben Curtis (U.S.)

09:09- Nick O'Hern (AUS), Ian Poulter (ENG), Paul Goydos (U.S.)

09:20- Phil Mickelson (U.S.), Hideto Tanihara (JPN), Paul Casey (ENG)

09:31- Colin Montgomerie (SCO), Boo Weekley (U.S.), Mike Weir (CAN)

09:42- Toru Taniguchi (JPN), Richard Finch (ENG), John Daly (U.S.)

09:53- Simon Khan (ENG), David Duval (U.S.), David Frost (SA)

10:04- Pelle Edberg (SWE), Rich Beem (U.S.), Thomas Sherreard (ENG -a)

10:15- Michio Matsumura (JPN), Tom Gillis (U.S.), Barry Hume (SCO)

10:26- Tim Petrovic (U.S.), Shintaro Kai (JPN), David Horsey (ENG)

10:37- Ariel Canete (ARG), Craig Barlow (U.S.), Phillip Archer (ENG)

10:48- Jamie Elson (ENG), Rohan Blizard (AUS -a), Jon Bevan (ENG)

10:59- Adam Blyth (AUS), Jamie Howarth (ENG), Joshua Cunliffe (SA)

11:10- Gary Boyd (ENG), Thomas Aiken (SA), Bradley Lamb (AUS)

11:41- Steve Webster (ENG), Jean Van de Velde (FR), Andrew Tampion (AUS)

11:52- Philip Walton (IRL), David Smail (NZL), Michael Letzig (U.S.)

12:03- Paul Waring (ENG), Hennie Otto (RSA), Kevin Stadler (USA)

12:14- Rocco Mediate (U.S.), Paul Lawrie (SCO), Angel Cabrera (ARG)

12:25- Niclas Fasth (SWE), Mark O'Meara (U.S.), Michael Campbell (NZ)

12:36- Rory Sabbatini (SA), Graeme McDowell (NIR), Todd Hamilton (U.S.)

12:47- Nick Dougherty (ENG), Jim Furyk (U.S.), Camilo Villegas (COL)

12:58- Robert Karlsson (SWE), Greg Norman (AUS), Woody Austin (U.S.)

13:09- Steve Stricker (U.S.), Robert Allenby (AUS), Benjamin Hebert (FR -a)

13:20- Adam Scott (AUS), Zach Johnson (USA), Pablo Larrazabal (ESP)

13:31- Gregory Havret (FR), Tim Clark (SA), Stewart Cink (U.S.)

13:42- Liang Wen-Chong (CHN), Fredrik Jacobsen (SWE), Jeff Overton (U.S.)

13:53- Soren Hansen (DEN), Trevor Immelman (SA), Anthony Kim (U.S.)

14:09- Stephen Ames (CAN), Miguel Angel Jimenez (SP), Charles Howell (U.S.)

14:20- Peter Hanson (SWE), Bart Bryant (U.S.), Rod Pampling (AUS)

14:31- Sergio Garcia (SP), Ryuji Imada (JPN), Sean O'Hair (U.S.)

14:42- Stuart Appleby (AUS), Brandt Snedecker (U.S.), Ross Fisher (ENG)

14:53- Azuma Yano (JPN), Johan Edfors (SWE), Tom Lehman (USA)

15:04- Simon Wakefield (ENG), Jay Williamson (U.S.), James Kingston (SA)

15:15- Gregory Bourdy (FR), Danny Chia (MAS), John Rollins (U.S.)

15:26- Chris Wood (ENG -a), Prayad Marksaeng (THA), Scott McCarron (U.S.)

15:37- Anthony Wall (ENG), Alexander Noren (SWE), Ewan Porter (AUS)

15:48- Hiroshi Iwata (JPN), Peter Baker (ENG), Alex Cejka (GER)

15:59- Doug Labelle (U.S.), Lam Chih-Bing (SIN), Jose-Filipe Lima (POR)

16:10- Martin Wiegele (AUS), Angelo Que (PHI), Douglas McGuigan (SCO)

16:21- Jon Lomas (ENG), Yoshinobu Tsukada (JPN), Peter Appleyard (ENG)