Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: At 7.30 am local time on Thursday, August 11, history will be made when Brazilian Adilson da Silva strikes the opening tee shot and golf’s return to the Olympic Games will be complete.
Two further Olympic connections are celebrated in the first group. Canada’s Graham DeLaet, whose countryman George Lyon won the Olympic gold medal in 1904, the last time golf was part of the Olympic programme, will tee off second.
And Korean ‘Ben’ An Byeong-hun, the son of two Olympic table tennis medallists at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, will complete the group.
Three-time Major champion Padraig Harrington and 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 7.41 am.
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 Li Haotong at 9.03 am.
American Bubba Watson, a two-time Masters winner, will tee-off at 9.14 am in the same group as former US Open champion Martin Kaymer from Germany and Indian Anirban Lahiri.
Siddikur Rahman, who carried Bangladesh’s flag during the Opening Ceremony, will begin his first round at 10.14 am in a group with the Netherlands’ Joost Luiten and Ricardo Melo Gouveia from Portugal.
At 10.58 am, world number seven Rickie Fowler from the United States, 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.
And, at 11.09 am The Open champion and world number five Henrik Stenson will play alongside Thailand’s Thongchai Jaidee and Rafa Cabrera Bello in Thursday’s final group.
Nielsen Follows Friis as J&J Regional Director for Turf & Irrigation
Singapore: Michael Nielsen, formerly Managing Director for Jebsen & Jessen Technology in Indonesia, has assumed the position of Regional Director for Jebsen & Jessen Technology’s Turf & Irrigation Division.
