Rory McIlroy with his dad, Gerry, on the practice range at Pinehurst on Wednesday. (Getty)
The U.S. Open starts Thursday morning at Pinehurst, and we’ve got all the info you need to follow along.
The tournament starts bright and early Thursday at 6:45 a.m. Eastern time, with TV coverage starting at 9 a.m. ESPN has the first six hours of TV coverage, which you can watch online at WatchESPN.com or on the Watch ESPN app on your smart phone or tablet if you have a cable subscription that includes ESPN. You’ll just have to select your provider and enter your log-in info.
You can also watch a livestream here on the U.S. Open website for free.
ESPN’s coverage goes until 3 p.m., when NBC takes over. NBC has a similar livestream setup to ESPN for its coverage. Go to NBCSports.com or to the NBC Sports Extra app, and put in your cable provider and log-in info.
ESPN2 picks up the TV coverage from 5 top 6 p.m. Eastern, with ESPN taking the final hour of Round 1 from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. ESPN2’s coverage is available at WatchESPN.com and on the WatchESPN app along with the mothership’s coverage.
ESPN Radio has coverage of the Open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
TV coverage Friday is identical to Thursday, with one exception: Coverage from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. will be on ESPN, rather than ESPN2.
NBC has the TV coverage to itself on Saturday and Sunday, beginning at noon, with coverage on ESPN Radio both of those days beginning at 2.
Rory McIlroy, the 2011 Open champ, tees off at 7:40 a.m. Thursday Graeme McDowell and Webb Simpson. Phil Mickelson tees of 11 minutes later along with Justin Rose and Matthew Fitzpatrick.
Check out the full list of groupings and tee times at the U.S. Open site.
McIlroy is the favorite to win the tournament, with 10/1 odds at Bovada, via OddsShark.com. Adam Scott, the world’s Number 1 player, is next at 12/1, followed by Mickelson at 14/1 and Masters champion Bubba Watson at 18/1. OddsShark has a full rundown of odds here.
