DARLINGTON'S Andrew Wilson faces a late finish at his first Open Championship when he tees off at Royal Portrush on Thursday.

Wilson, who qualified from final qualifying last week a couple of weeks ago, has arrived in Northern Ireland and went for his first practice round on Tuesday morning.

The EuroPro Tour player, and former England amateur international, is gearing up for the first round with the best golfers in the world.

Wilson will tee off at 4.05pm on Thursday in the second last group along with Japan's Yoshinori Fujimoto and Korean Doyeob Mun.

Less than an hour before that Tiger Woods will be heading out.

Northern Ireland's Darren Clarke will hit the opening tee shot at Royal Portrush, with Rory McIlroy among the early starters.

Clarke, who won the 2011 Open and has a house overlooking the course, gets play under way at 6:35am.

McIlroy, who set the course record of 61 at Portrush aged 16, starts his quest to win a second Open at 10.09am.

Three-time champion Woods, who won his 15th major at the Masters in April, is out at 3.10pm.

First-round tee-off times

(a) denotes amateurs

6.35 Charley Hoffman (US), Darren Clarke (NI), James Sugrue (a) (Ire)

6.46 Emiliano Grillo (Arg), Sung Kang (Kor), Thomas Thurloway (a) (Eng)

6.57 Andy Sullivan (Eng), Christiaan Bezuidenhout (SA), Alexander Levy (Fra)

7.08 Zander Lombard (SA), Chan Kim (US), Brandon Wu (a) (US)

7.19 Richard Sterne (SA), Romain Langasque (Fra), Matthias Schmid (a) (Ger)

7.30 Matthew Fitzpatrick (Eng), Padraig Harrington (Irl), Andrew Putnam (US)

7.41 Eddie Pepperell (Eng), Bubba Watson (US), Rafael Cabrera-Bello (Spa)

7.52 Phil Mickelson (US), Shane Lowry (Ire), Branden Grace (SA)

8.03. Mike Lorenzo-Vera (Fra), Alex Noren (Swe), Sam Locke (Sco)

8.14 Webb Simpson (US), Sergio Garcia (Spa), Cheng-Tsung Pan (Tpe)

8.25 Ryan Palmer (US), Andrea Pavan (Ita), Dylan Frittelli (SA)

8.36 Kyle Stanley (US), Robert Macintyre (Sco), Andrew Johnston (Eng)

8.47 Mikko Korhonen (Fin), Oliver Wilson (Eng), Curtis Knipes (a) (Eng)

9.03 Sungjae Im (Kor), Ian Poulter (Eng), Kiradech Aphibarnrat (Tha)

9.14 Henrik Stenson (Swe), Xander Schauffele (US), Graeme McDowell (NI)

9.25 Haotong Li (Chn), Russell Knox (Sco), Bernd Wiesberger (Aut)

9.36 Connor Syme (Sco), Jason Kokrak (US), Austin Connelly (Can)

9.47 Zach Johnson (US), David Duval (US), Corey Conners (Can)

9.58 Bryson DeChambeau (US), Francesco Molinari (Ita), Adam Scott (Aus)

10.09 Gary Woodland (US), Rory McIlroy (NI), Paul Casey (Eng)

10.20 Rickie Fowler (US), Kevin Kisner (US), Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn)

10.31 Si Woo Kim (Kor), Jim Furyk (US), Jimmy Walker (US)

10.42 Luke List (US), Alexander Bjork (Swe), Paul Waring (Eng)

10.53 Shugo Imahira (Jpn), Nate Lashley (US), Benjamin Hebert (Fra)

11.04 Mikumu Horikawa (Jpn), Callum Shinkwin (Eng), Garrick Porteous (Eng)

11.15 Matthew Baldwin (Eng), Prom Meesawat (Tha), Jack Senior (Eng)

11.36 Joaquin Niemann (Chi), Tom Lehman (US), Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa)

11.47 Byeong-Hun An (Kor), Jorge Campillo (Spa), Chris Wood (Eng)

11.58 Joel Dahmen (US), Adri Arnaus (Spa), Dimitrios Papadatos (Aus)

12.09 Rory Sabbatini (Svk), Stewart Cink (US), Inn-choon Hwang (Kor)

12.20 Erik Van Rooyen (SA), Kurt Kitayama (US), Jake McLeod (Aus)

12.31 Shaun Norris (SA), Ryan Fox (NZ), Dong-kyu Jang (Kor)

12.42 Keith Mitchell (US), Tyrrell Hatton (Eng), Thomas Pieters (Bel)

12.53 Justin Thomas (US), Tommy Fleetwood (Eng), Thorbjorn Olesen (Den)

13.04 Louis Oosthuizen (SA), Brooks Koepka (US), Shubhankar Sharma (Ind)

13.15 Billy Horschel (US), Jazz Janewattananond (Tha), Aaron Wise (US)

13.26 Jordan Spieth (US), Marc Leishman (Aus), Danny Willett (Eng)

13.37 Cameron Smith (Aus), Adam Hadwin (Can), David Lipsky (US)

13.48 Chez Reavie (US), Paul Lawrie (Sco), Justin Harding (SA)

14.04 Tom Lewis (Eng), Takumi Kanaya (a) (Jpn), Brandon Stone (SA)

14.15 Lucas Glover (US), Joost Luiten (Ned), Nino Bertasio (Ita)

14.26 J.B. Holmes (US), Ernie Els (SA), Abraham Ancer (Mex)

14.37 Brandt Snedeker (US), Lee Westwood (Eng), Brian Harman (US)

14.48 Justin Rose (Eng), Tony Finau (US), Lucas Bjerregaard (Den)

14.59 Dustin Johnson (US), Jason Day (Aus), Keegan Bradley (US)

15.10 Tiger Woods (US), Matt Wallace (Eng), Patrick Reed (US)

15.21 Patrick Cantlay (US), Jon Rahm (Spa), Matt Kuchar (US)

15.32 Kevin Streelman (US), Doc Redman (US), Robert Rock (Eng)

15.43 Yuta Ikeda (Jpn), Adrian Otaegui (Spa), Isidro Benitez (Mex)

15.54 Patton Kizzire (US), Sang Hyun Park (Kor), Yuki Inamori (Jpn)

16.05 Yoshinori Fujimoto (Jpn), Doyeob Mun (Kor), Andrew Wilson (Eng)

16.16 Gunn Charoenkul (Tha), Yosuke Asaji (Jpn), Ashton Turner (Eng)