Rory McIlroy Irish Open tee time set alongside recent DP World Tour winner at K Club

Another defending champion Shane Lowry will have US Ryder Cup rival Brooks Koepka for company over the first two rounds of the Amgen Irish Open.

Three of Ireland’s golfing heavyweights, Rory McIlroy, Padraig Harrington and Shane Lowry – all previous winners of the Irish Open – are set to tee off in consecutive groups at the K Club on Thursday morning, all commencing from the 10th tee on Thursday and the first tee on Friday on the Palmer Course.

Fresh from his Ryder Cup selection by European team captain Luke Donald, Shane Lowry is expected to relish the opportunity to compete alongside LIV Golf star Brooks Koepka in front of a home crowd, ahead of their Bethpage Black showdown later this month.

McIlroy, who achieved golf’s Grand Slam at the Masters in April, won the Irish Open at this venue nine years ago and is keen to find top form ahead of the Ryder Cup. He will be accompanied by Kristoffer Reitan and Thriston Lawrence, the South African who secured his fifth DP World Tour title on Sunday by outperforming the field at the Omega European Masters.

Offaly golfer Lowry, who famously clinched the Irish Open in Baltray as an amateur back in 2009, will be aiming for a more favourable result than his last outing with Koepka – when Lowry missed the cut at the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow in May.

Lowry and his American counterpart will commence their first round at 7.50am on Thursday (12.50pm on Friday), just 10 minutes after Harrington – who has claimed two senior majors this summer – tees off alongside Jhonattan Vegas and Adrien Saddier.

A total of 11 Irish golfers are set to compete, including Belfast’s Tom McKibbin, who is embarking on his fourth Irish Open at 12.50pm on Thursday, alongside China’s Haotong Li and England’s Laurie Canter.

Waterford’s Seamus Power will also be attracting a lot of local support, as he has been grouped with Englishmen Tyrrell Hatton and Marco Penge for the opening afternoon.

Royal Dublin’s Max Kennedy will be playing the first two rounds with former Masters champions Danny Willett and Patrick Reed, adding some star power to his game.

The schedule for the first two rounds (Thursday/Friday) is as follows:.

1st Tee/10th Tee.

07:30/12:30 Dan Bradbury (ENG), Robert Moran (IRL), Bernd Wiesberger (AUT).

07:40/12:40 Matteo Manassero (ITA), Jesper Svensson (SWE), Pablo Larrazábal (ESP).

07:50/12:50 Christiaan Bezuidenhout (RSA), Johannes Veerman (USA), Joakim Lagergren (SWE).

08:00/13:00 Brandon Wu (USA), Paul O’Hara (SCO), Deon Germishuys (RSA).

08:10/13:10 Alexander Knappe (GER), Gavin Green (MAS), Robin Williams (RSA).

08:20/13:20 Davis Bryant (USA), David Micheluzzi (AUS), MJ Daffue (RSA).

08:30/13:30 Jorge Campillo (ESP), Adrian Otaegui (ESP), Lucas Bjerregaard (DEN).

08:40/13:40 Oliver Lindell (FIN), Aaron Cockerill (CAN), Maximilian Kieffer (GER).

08:50/13:50 Sean Crocker (USA), Casey Jarvis (RSA), Jeff Winther (DEN).

09:00/14:00 Angel Ayora (ESP), David Ravetto (FRA), Dylan Frittelli (RSA).

09:10/14:10 Todd Clements (ENG), Yuto Katsugawa (JPN), Julien Guerrier (FRA).

09:20/14:20 Guido Migliozzi (ITA), Ryggs Johnston (USA), Darius Van Driel (NED).

09:30/14:30 Thomas Aiken (RSA), Martin Laird (SCO), Julien Brun (FRA).

12:30/07:30 Grant Forrest (SCO), Keita Nakajima (JPN), Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen (DEN).

12:40/07:40 John Parry (ENG), Thomas Detry (BEL), Connor Syme (SCO).

12:50/07:50 Laurie Canter (ENG), Tom McKibbin (NIR), Haotong Li (CHN).

13:00/08:00 Seamus Power (IRL), Tyrrell Hatton (ENG), Marco Penge (ENG).

13:10/08:10 Luke Donald (ENG), Erik Van Rooyen (RSA), Francesco Molinari (ITA).

13:20/08:20 Richard Mansell (ENG), Thorbjørn Olesen (DEN), Daniel Hillier (NZL).

13:30/08:30 Danny Willett (ENG), Max Kennedy (IRL), Patrick Reed (USA).

13:40/08:40 Rafa Cabrera Bello (ESP), Jacob Skov Olesen (DEN), Conor Purcell (IRL).

13:50/08:50 Andrea Pavan (ITA), Marcel Siem (GER), Yannik Paul (GER).

14:00/09:00 Frederic Lacroix (FRA), Brandon Robinson Thompson (ENG), Matti Schmid (GER).

14:10/09:10 Francesco Laporta (ITA), Clément Sordet (FRA), Tom Vaillant (FRA).

14:20/09:20 Marcus Armitage (ENG), Alfredo Garcia-Heredia (ESP), Nathan Kimsey (ENG).

14:30/09:30 Niklas Lemke (SWE), Ugo Coussaud (FRA), Jayden Schaper (RSA).

10th Tee/1st Tee.

07:30/12:30 Shaun Norris (RSA), Niklas Norgaard (DEN), Daniel Brown (ENG).

07:40/12:40 Padraig Harrington (IRL), Jhonattan Vegas (VEN), Adrien Saddier (FRA).

07:50/12:50 Shane Lowry (IRL), Brooks Koepka (USA), Martin Couvra (FRA).

08:00/13:00 Rory McIlroy (NIR), Thriston Lawrence (RSA), Kristoffer Reitan (NOR).

08:10/13:10 Jordan Smith (ENG), Eugenio Chacarra (ESP), Ryan Gerard (USA).

08:20/13:20 Adrian Meronk (POL), John Catlin (USA), Ross Fisher (ENG).

08:30/13:30 Calum Hill (SCO), Angel Hidalgo (ESP), Andy Sullivan (ENG).

08:40/13:40 Nacho Elvira (ESP), Nicolai Von Dellingshausen (GER), Alex Fitzpatrick (ENG).

08:50/13:50 Mikael Lindberg (SWE), Richard Sterne (RSA), Richie Ramsay (SCO).

09:00/14:00 Simon Forsström (SWE), Joost Luiten (NED), Ewen Ferguson (SCO).

09:10/14:10 John Doyle (IRL, amateur), Martin Trainer (USA), Andreas Halvorsen (NOR).

09:20/14:20 Dylan Naidoo (RSA), Sam Bairstow (ENG), Joel Girrbach (SUI).

09:30/14:30 Joe Dean (ENG), Matthew Jordan (ENG), Jordan Gumberg (USA).

12:30/07:30 Tapio Pulkkanen (FIN), Matthew Baldwin (ENG), Benjamin Hebert (FRA).

12:40/07:40 Mark Power (IRL), Kazuma Kobori (NZL), Ben Schmidt (ENG).

12:50/07:50 Masahiro Kawamura (JPN), Alexander Levy (FRA), Jens Dantorp (SWE).

13:00/08:00 Scott Jamieson (SCO), Ryan Brehm (USA), Pierre Pineau (FRA).

13:10/08:10 Elvis Smylie (AUS), Brandon Stone (RSA), Alejandro Del Rey (ESP).

13:20/08:20 Björn Åkesson (SWE), Jannik De Bruyn (GER), Troy Merritt (USA).

13:30/08:30 Matthias Schwab (AUT), Callum Shinkwin (ENG), Ivan Cantero (ESP).

13:40/08:40 Marcel Schneider (GER), Kiradech Aphibarnrat (THA), Jeong weon Ko (KOR).

13:50/08:50 Ricardo Gouveia (POR), Jason Scrivener (AUS), Manuel Elvira (ESP).

14:00/09:00 Shubhankar Sharma (IND), Andrew Wilson (ENG), Darren Fichardt (RSA).

14:10/09:10 Romain Langasque (FRA), Nicolas Colsaerts (BEL), Fabrizio Zanotti (PAR).

14:20/09:20 Dale Whitnell (ENG), Jack Senior (ENG), Joel Moscatel (ESP).

14:30/09:30 Alex Maguire (IRL), Hamish Brown (SCO), Zander Lombard (RSA).