World’s top three grouped together

The three leading players in the Rolex Rankings – Jinyoung Ko, Minjee Lee and Nelly Korda – will play together in the standout group for rounds one and two of the 2022 AIG Women’s Open at Muirfield.

Ko, Lee and Korda will begin their bids for glory at 12:38pm BST on Thursday, before returning to the course for a 7:58am start time on Friday.

The top-ranked trio, who boast five major titles between them, will be followed on each day by defending Champion Anna Nordqvist, who also has pedigree company in the form of fellow major winners Patty Tavatanakit and Yuka Saso.

There will also be an eye-catching group playing in front of Ko, Lee and Korda, with Lydia Ko, Nasa Hataoka and Leona Maguire out at 12:27pm on Thursday and 7:47am on Friday.

Catriona Matthew will have the honour of hitting the first shot of the Championship at 6:30am on Thursday morning. The Champion of 2009 will play alongside Louise Duncan – last year’s Smyth Salver winner who has now turned professional – and Sophia Schubert, the runner-up at last month’s Evian Championship.

Four notable groups are out in succession on Thursday morning.

Sophia Popov, the Champion at Royal Troon in 2020, will go out alongside Nanna Koerstz Madsen and teenage amateur Savannah De Bock at 7:25am, before two more AIG Women’s Open Champions – Inbee Park and Hinako Shibuno – tee off alongside 2022 Chevron Championship winner Jennifer Kupcho.

They will be followed by Atthaya Thitikul, Brooke Henderson and Lexi Thompson, who sit fifth, sixth and seventh in the Rolex Rankings, while Georgia Hall – another former winner of the AIG Women’s Open – starts her campaign alongside In Gee Chun and Jessica Korda at 7:58am.

Dame Laura Davies, the Champion 36 years ago at Royal Birkdale, is also in an intriguing group alongside Women’s Amateur Champion Jess Baker and rising star Linn Grant, who dominated a field of male and female golfers to record an historic triumph at the Scandinvian Mixed earlier this year.

Along with De Bock and Baker, fellow amateurs Anna Davis, Rose Zhang and Caley McGinty will also play alongside AIG Women’s Open Champions in the form of Stacy Lewis, Ariya Jutanugarn and In-Kyung Kim respectively.

You can view the full list of tee times for rounds one and two here.