Golf Talk Today: U.S. Open Round 1, Tee Times, Pinehurst No. 2 takes center stage

Welcome to Playing Through’s new morning ritual — Golf Talk Today.

Each morning will feature a Golf Talk Today, where the crew will discuss various elements from the PGA Tour, LPGA, LIV Golf, and more.

The U.S. Open begins Thursday at Pinehurst No. 2, the famous Donald Ross layout with some of the most difficult putting surfaces in the world.

The course has hosted three U.S. Opens before, most recently in 2014, and only four players combined have finished under par. It’s certainly a challenge, but perhaps no player’s game matches up to this course better than Scottie Scheffler’s.

Scheffler arrives as an overwhelming favorite at 3-to-1 odds, an astonishing figure not seen since the days of prime Tiger Woods. He has won five times already this year, including at the Memorial last week. He also won the Masters by four, relying on his exquisite ball-striking and world-class short game to plot around Augusta National.

This has only happened once before on the PGA Tour, as Tom Watson had five wins before the U.S. Open in 1980.

Anyhow, Scheffler will begin their first round at 1:14 p.m. ET with Rory McIlroy and reigning PGA Champion Xander Schauffele. It’s a powerful trio of the three best players in the world.

The other tee times for the first round follow below, but before getting to those, check out some stories that will help get you ready for the 124th U.S. Open:

Top 50 players at Pinehurst No. 2, ranked by best chances of winning U.S. Open

SB Nation staff makes U.S. Open picks, predictions for Pinehurst No. 2

Rory McIlroy needs to do these 3 things to snap major drought, win 2024 U.S. Open

3 reasons why Tiger Woods will make U.S. Open cut at Pinehurst No. 2

Scottie Scheffler talk of Pinehurst; PGA Tour, LIV Golf pros praise World No. 1 at U.S. Open

Photo by Tracy Wilcox/PGA Tour via Getty Images

U.S. Open Round 1 Tee Times (ET):

* — Denotes 10th hole start

6:45 a.m. – Michael McGowan, Carter Jenkins, Logan McAllister

6:45 a.m.* – Rico Hoey, Tom McKibbin, Matteo Manassero

6:56 a.m. – Frederik Kjettrup, Christopher Petefish, (a) Parker Bell

6:56 a.m.* – Dean Burmester, Rikuya Hoshino, Seamus Power

7:07 a.m. – (a) Omar Morales, Max Greyserman, Casey Jarvis

7:07 a.m.* – S.H. Kim, Justin Lower, Tim Widing

7:18 a.m. – Corey Conners, Stephan Jaeger, Emiliano Grillo

7:18 a.m.* – Lucas Glover, Sam Burns, Cameron Smith

7:29 a.m. – Ryo Ishikawa, Francesco Molinari, Sergio Garcia

7:29 a.m.* – Will Zalatoris, Matt Fitzpatrick, Tiger Woods

7:40 a.m. – Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Brooks Koepka

7:40 a.m.* – Patrick Cantlay, Matt Kuchar, Russell Henley

7:51 a.m. – Rickie Fowler, Adam Hadwin, Phil Mickelson

7:51 a.m.* – Tony Finau, Ludvig Åberg, Dustin Johnson

8:02 a.m. – Min Woo Lee, Sahith Theegala, Nicolai Højgaard

8:02 a.m.* – Justin Rose, Gary Woodland, Webb Simpson

8:13 a.m. – Si Woo Kim, Matthieu Pavon, Sungjae Im

8:13 a.m.* – Daniel Berger, Ryan Fox, David Puig

8:24 a.m. – Nico Echavarria, Robert Rock, (a) Neal Shipley

8:24 a.m.* – Byeong Hun An, Sam Bennett, Edoardo Molinari

8:35 a.m. – Takumi Kanaya, (a) Stewart Hagestad, Mac Meissner

8:35 a.m.* – Austin Eckroat, Adrian Meronk, Cam Davis

8:46 a.m. – Isaiah Salinda, (a) Bryan Kim, Jim Herman

*8:46 a.m. – Aaron Rai, Davis Thompson, Zac Blair

8:57 a.m. – Carson Schaake, Charles Reiter, (a) Colin Prater

8:57 a.m.* – Willie Mack III, Richard Mansell, (a) Ashton McCulloch

12:30 p.m. – Jason Scrivener, Brandon Robinson Thompson, (a) Brendan Valdes

12:30 p.m.* – Greyson Sigg, Grant Forrest, (a) Wells Williams

12:41 p.m. – Santiago de la Fuente, Sam Bairstow, Eugenio Chacarra

12:41 p.m.* – Chesson Hadley, Mark Hubbard, Adam Svensson

12:52 p.m. – Kurt Kitayama, Taylor Moore, Christiaan Bezuidenhout

12:52 p.m.* – Beau Hossler, Victor Perez, Adam Schenk

1:03 p.m. – Jason Day, Harris English, Tom Kim

1:03 p.m.* – Robert MacIntyre, Nick Taylor, Mackenzie Hughes

1:14 p.m. – Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, Scottie Scheffler

1:14 p.m.* – Tyrrell Hatton, Tommy Fleetwood, Tom Hoge

1:25 p.m. – Brian Harman, Nick Dunlap, Wyndham Clark

1:25 p.m.* – Bryson DeChambeau, Viktor Hovland, Max Homa

1:36 p.m. – Hideki Matsuyama, Jon Rahm, Jordan Spieth

1:36 p.m.* – Sepp Straka, Peter Malnati, J.T. Poston

1:47 p.m. – Shane Lowry, Keegan Bradley, Martin Kaymer

1:47 p.m.* – (a) Gordon Sargent, Jake Knapp, Cameron Young

1:58 p.m. – Akshay Bhatia, Eric Cole, Erik van Rooyen

1:58 p.m.* – Chris Kirk, Billy Horschel, Adam Scott

2:09 p.m. – Brendon Todd, Taylor Pendrith, Alex Noren,

2:09 p.m.* – Ben Kohles, Denny McCarthy, (a) Ben James

2:20 p.m. – Thomas Detry, Brian Campbell, (a) Jackson Buchanan

2:20 p.m.* – Frankie Capan III, Andy Svoboda, (a) Luke Clanton

2:31 p.m. – Taisei Shimizu, (a) Gunnar Broin, Maxwell Moldovan

2:31 p.m.* – Harry Higgs, (a) Hiroshi Tai, Brandon Wu

2:42 p.m. – Sung Kang, Riki Kawamoto, John Chin

2:42 p.m.* – Joey Vrzich, Chris Naegel, Otto Black

Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.