Announced this morning by ESPN, it will hit the air a half-hour earlier on Thursday and Friday morning to provide full coverage of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson on both days. Originally, ESPN said it would start at 5 a.m. ET on Thursday and Friday. Now that the tee times for Tiger and Lefty have been released, ESPN has decided to go 30 minutes earlier so early risers in the Eastern part of the country and night owls in the West can see the start of both men’s rounds.
Here’s the blurb from ESPN.
Open Championship Gets 30 Minute Earlier Start on ESPN
ESPN’s telecasts of the first and second rounds of The Open Championship on Thursday and Friday, July 19-20, will now start at 4:30 a.m. ET, 30 minutes earlier than originally scheduled, so that viewers can see the complete rounds of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. Woods tees off at 4:42 a.m. Thursday while Mickelson starts his round at 4:31 a.m. Friday. ESPN has live, four-round coverage of 152nd renewal of golf’s oldest major from Royal Lytham & St Annes in Lancashire, England.
Coming up next, a couple of SEC football announcements.
