The Open: Shane Lowry paired with Jordan Spieth

Honorary member Colin Montgomerie will hit the first shot of the 145th Open Championship at Royal Troon on Thursday.

Montgomerie, who is making his first appearance in the Open since 2010 after coming through final qualifying, tees off at 6.35am alongside former world number one Luke Donald and Australia’s Marc Leishman.

The 53-year-old, whose father James was club secretary for more than 20 years and will soon take over as president, finished 24th and 25th respectively the last time Troon staged the Open in 1997 and 2004.

Speaking ahead of last week’s Scottish Open, Montgomerie said he would probably not have entered the 36-hole qualifying event if the Open had not been at Troon.

“Because it was Royal Troon I thought I’ll give it a go and it was quite a big deal to qualify,” the former European number one said. ”It was more of a relief than anything because I’d come so close at Sunningdale last year to winning the British Seniors and I knew the winner got an invite into Troon.

”Having qualified, next week’s goal is to be there on Sunday and that has changed, no question. Back in the 90s, I was going to The Open to win it. That has changed of course. You have to be realistic.”

World number three Jordan Spieth gets his campaign for a third major title under way at 9.03am alongside former US Open champion Justin Rose and Ireland's Shane Lowry, who let slip a four-shot lead in the final round at Oakmont last month.

Masters champion Danny Willett, who was sixth last year, tees off at 9.25am with Rickie Fowler and world number one Jason Day, who missed out on the three-man play-off at St Andrews 12 months ago by a single shot.

In the group behind, 2014 champion Rory McIlroy — ruled out last year by an ankle injury — will play the first two rounds alongside Japan's Hideki Matsuyama and two-time Masters winner Bubba Watson.

The last three Open champions at Troon — Todd Hamilton, Justin Leonard and Mark Calcavecchia — tee off together at 12.31pm, with defending champion Zach Johnson, Adam Scott and Henrik Stenson out at 2.15pm.

US Open champion Dustin Johnson gets his bid for back-to-back titles under way 11 minutes earlier alongside Germany’s Martin Kaymer and Scotland’s Russell Knox.

Tee-off times in the first round of the The 145th Open Championship — Royal Troon Golf Club, Troon, South Ayrshire, Scotland

Starting at hole 1

6.35am Marc Leishman (Aus), Colin Montgomerie, Luke Donald

6.46am Steven Alker (Nzl), Marcus Fraser (Aus), Sang-hee Lee (Kor)

6.57am Jeunghun Wang (Kor), Jon Rahm (Spa), Ryan Palmer (USA)

7.08am Scott Gregory (a), Sandy Lyle, David Duval (USA)

7.19am Richie Ramsay, Danny Lee (Nzl), Harris English (USA)

7.30am Steven Bowditch (Aus), Alex Noren (Swe), Kevin Chappell (USA)

7.41am Thorbjorn Olesen (Den), Darren Clarke, Jim Furyk (USA)

7.52am Justin Thomas (USA), David Lingmerth (Swe), Kiradech Aphibarnrat (Tha)

8.03am Patrick Reed (USA), Branden Grace (Rsa), Byeong-Hun An (Kor)

8.14am Paul Lawrie, Brandt Snedeker (USA), Thongchai Jaidee (Tha)

8.25am Padraig Harrington, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa), Jamie Donaldson

8.36am Scott Piercy (USA), Paul Dunne, Jamie Lovemark (USA)

8.47am Victor Dubuisson (Fra), Jimmy Walker (USA), Scott Hend (Aus)

9.03am Justin Rose, Jordan Spieth (USA), Shane Lowry

9.14am Ross Fisher, Steve Stricker (USA), Vijay Singh (Fij)

9.25am Danny Willett, Rickie Fowler (USA), Jason Day (Aus)

9.36am Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn), Rory McIlroy, Bubba Watson (USA)

9.47am Gary Woodland (USA), James Morrison, Soomin Lee (Kor)

9.58am Chris Kirk (USA), Smylie Kaufman (USA), George Coetzee (Rsa)

10.09am Matthew Fitzpatrick, Billy Horschel (USA), Hideto Tanihara (Jpn)

10.20am Matteo Manassero (Ita), Shugo Imahira (Jpn), Russell Henley (USA)

10.31am Robert Rock, Kodai Ichihara (Jpn), William McGirt (USA)

10.42am Brendan Steele (USA), Richard Sterne (Rsa), Matt Jones (Aus)

10.53am Patton Kizzire (USA), Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel), Rod Pampling (Aus)

11.04am Dave Coupland, Nathan Holman (Aus), Phachara Khongwatmai (Tha)

11.15am Rikard Karlberg (Swe), Scott Fernandez (Spa), Haydn Porteous (Rsa)

11.36am Kristoffer Broberg (Swe), Greg Chalmers (Aus), Clement Sordet (Fra)

11.47am David Howell, Seung-Yul Noh (Kor), Tony Finau (USA)

11.58am Jordan Niebrugge (USA), Nick Cullen (Aus), Robert Streb (USA)

12.09am Stefano Mazzoli (a) (Ita), Ben Curtis (USA), John Daly (USA)

12.20am Francesco Molinari (Ita), Kevin Kisner (USA), K.T. Kim (Kor)

12.31am Justin Leonard (USA), Todd Hamilton (USA), Mark Calcavecchia (USA)

12.42am Lasse Jensen (Den), Soren Kjeldsen (Den), Bill Haas (USA)

12.53am Paul Casey, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa), Kevin Na (USA)

1.04pm Joost Luiten (Ned), Emiliano Grillo (Arg), Charley Hoffman (USA)

1.15pm Graeme McDowell, Matt Kuchar (USA), Andrew Johnson (USA)

1.26pm Phil Mickelson (USA), Lee Westwood, Ernie Els (Rsa)

1.37pm Satoshi Kodaira (Jpn), James Hahn (USA), Andrew Sullivan

1.48pm Bernd Wiesberger (Aut), Ryan Moore (USA), Tommy Fleetwood

2.04pm Martin Kaymer (Ger), Dustin Johnson (USA), Russell Knox

2.15pm Zach Johnson (USA), Adam Scott (Aus), Henrik Stenson (Swe)

2.26pm Yusaku Miyazato (Jpn), Chris Wood, Mark O’Meara (USA)

2.37pm Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa), Jason Dufner (USA), Marc Warren

2.48pm Anirban Lahiri (Ind), Sergio Garcia (Spa), Keegan Bradley (USA)

2.59pm Webb Simpson (USA), Yuta Ikeda (Jpn), Thomas Pieters (Bel)

3.10pm Rafael Cabrera-Bello (Spa), J.B. Holmes (USA), Brandon Stone (Rsa)

3.21pm Matthew Southgate, Marco Dawson (USA), Yosuke Tsukada (Jpn)

3.32pm Jack Senior, James Heath, Brian Gay (USA)

3.43pm Fabian Gomez (Arg), Jim Herman (USA), Anthony Wall

3.54pm Paul Howard (Gbr), Daniel Summerhays (USA), Colt Knost (USA)

4.05pm Oskar Arvidsson (Swe), Harold Varner III (USA), Tyrrell Hatton

4.16pm Ryan Evans, Callum Shinkwin, Zander Lombard (Rsa)

(x) denotes amateurs