The Facts

* What: 130th British Open golf championship.

* When: Today-Sunday.

* Defending champion: Tiger Woods.

* Site: Royal Lytham & St. Annes Golf Club in Lytham St. Annes, England.

* Length: 6,905 yards.

* Par: 71.

* Format: 72 holes (18 daily) stroke play.

* Playoff, if necessary: Four holes, stroke play.

* Purse: $4.62 million.

* Winner’s share: $840,000.

* Last year: Tiger Woods made history at the home of golf, becoming the youngest player (24) to complete the career Grand Slam with an eight-stroke victory at St. Andrews. Woods never hit into a bunker on the Old Course, and his 19-under 269 was the lowest score in relation to par at a major championship. Thomas Bjorn and Ernie Els tied for second. Els made his own history, as the first player to be runner-up in three consecutive majors.

* Previous Open champions at Lytham: Bobby Jones (1926), Bobby Locke (1952), Peter Thomson (1958), Bob Charles (1963), Tony Jacklin (1969), Gary Player (1974), Seve Ballesteros (1979, 1988), Tom Lehman (1996).

* Noteworthy: The only players to win the British Open in consecutive years since 1960 are Americans--Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino and Tom Watson.

* Quoteworthy: “There’s nothing not to like about him, except for the fact that he’s smoking all of us.”--Paul Azinger on Tiger Woods (Azinger withdrew because of flu).

* Television (all times PDT): Today-Friday, 5-11 a.m., ESPN; Saturday, 6-11:30 a.m., Channel 7; Sunday, 5-10:30 a.m., Channel 7.

TEE TIMES

All Times PDT

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Today Friday Group 11:00* 3:46 Hidemichi Tanaka, David Howell, Des Smyth 11:11* 3:57 Mark Roe, Roger Chapman, Jean Hugo 11:22* 4:08 Joe Durant, Neil Cheetham, Simon Dyson 11:33* 4:19 Thomas Bjorn, Brad Faxon, Carlos Franco 11:44* 4:30 Shingo Katayama, Dennis Paulson, Justin Rose 11:55* 4:41 Mark Calcavecchia, Phillip Price, Steve Stricker 12:06 4:52 Padraig Harrington, John Huston, Shigeki Maruyama 12:17 5:03 Ernie Els, Ian Woosnam, Dudley Hart 12:28 5:14 Justin Leonard, Miguel A. Jimenez, a-Michael Hoey 12:39 5:25 Scott Henderson, Mark O’Meara, Paul McGinley 12:50 5:36 Bernhard Langer, Steve Flesch, Brett Rumford 1:01 5:47 Angel Cabrera, Tiger Woods, Thomas Levet 1:12 5:58 Andrew Coltart, Michael Campbell, J.P. Hayes 1:23 6:09 David Duval, Jose Maria Olazabal, Steve Elkington 1:34 6:20 Stuart Appleby, Fred Couples, Colin Montgomerie 1:45 6:31 Jim Furyk, Darren Clarke, Peter O’Malley 1:56 6:42 Paul Lawrie, David Toms, Gary Player 2:07 6:53 Rocco Mediate, Pierre Fulke, David Frost 2:18 7:04 Brian Gay, Daren Lee, Stephen Leaney 2:29 7:15 Billy Andrade, Fredrik Jacobson, Greg Turner 2:40 7:25 Dinesh Chand, Geoff Ogilvy, Gordon Brand Jr. 2:51 7:37 Nobuhito Sato, Olle Karlsson, Alexandre Balicki 3:01 7:48 Mark Wiebe, Gary Birch, a-John Kemp 3:13 7:59 Dean Wilson, Wayne Riley, Mark Sanders 3:24 8:10 Carl Paulson, a-David Dixon, Paul Curry 3:35 8:21 Mark Pilkington, Markus Brier, Graham Rankin 3:46 11:00** Niclas Fasth, Jerry Kelly, Toru Taniguchi 3:57 11:11** Jean Van de Velde, Alex Cejka, Juan Carlos Aguero 4:08 11:22** Scott Hoch, Jesper Parnevik, Toshiaki Odate 4:19 11:33** Nick Price, Lee Westwood, a-Jeff Quinney 4:30 11:44** John Daly, Taichi Teshima, Eduardo Romero 4:41 11:55** Phil Mickelson, Robert Allenby, Nick Faldo 4:52 12:06 Mark Brooks, Mike Weir, Raphael Jacquelin 5:03 12:17 Retief Goosen, Frank Lickliter II, Barry Lane 5:14 12:28 Loren Roberts, Andrew Oldcorn, Peter Lonard 5:25 12:39 Vijay Singh, Tom Watson, Adam Scott 5:36 12:50 Jose Coceres, Tom Lehman, Robert Karlsson 5:47 1:01 Chris Perry, Steve Jones, Rory Sabbatini 5:58 1:12 Sergio Garcia, Bob May, John Bickerton 6:09 1:23 Corey Pavin, Bradford Vaughan, Mathias Gronberg 6:20 1:34 Davis Love III, Gary Orr, Billy Mayfair 6:31 1:45 Sandy Lyle, Duffy Waldorf, Mark McNulty 6:42 1:56 Stewart Cink, Bob Estes, Soren Kjeldsen 6:53 2:07 Seve Ballesteros, Chris DiMarco, Aaron Baddeley 7:04 2:18 Scott Verplank, Henrik Stenson, Bob Charles 7:15 2:29 Matt Gogel, Tony Jacklin, Jeff Maggert 7:26 2:40 Brandel Chamblee, Greg Owen, Simon Vale 7:37 2:51 Joe Ogilvie, Soren Hansen, Matthew Cort 7:48 3:02 Joe Ozaki, a-Matthew Griffiths, Matthew McGuire 7:59 3:13 Kevin Sutherland, Mikko Ilonen, Nathan Green 8:10 3:24 David Smail, Stuart Callan, a-Stuart Wilson 8:21 3:35 Richard Green, Robert Coles, Nicolas Vanhootegem

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a-amateur *-Wednesday night **Tonight