BMW Championship 2014: Tee times, pairings for Thursday's round at Cherry Hills

Let's watch the best golfers bomb drives through the Colorado air before the NFL season kicks off.

The FedEx Cup rolls on in Denver as the BMW Championship tees off Thursday morning at Cherry Hills Country Club. The third leg of the postseason comes just two days after that late Monday finish at TPC Boston, when there would often be a week off during the four-event playoff run. But the Ryder Cup, which rapidly approaches in just over three weeks, forced the PGA Tour to play the FedEx Cup over four consecutive weeks. It will end in Atlanta next weekend, and then the 12 USA Ryder Cup team members will be off to Scotland on Saturday the 20th.

So that schedule at the back-end of the month has forced this quick turnaround following a trip across country from Boston to Denver. The BMW usually stops in the Chicagoland area, taking over the spot in the schedule reserved for the once-prestigious Western Open. But instead of stopping at Cog Hill, or Conway Farms, the Tour opted to head west to the rockies and visit an an old classic in Cherry Hills. The trip was not ideal for the short week, but these players all fly private at this point so it's hard to sympathize with their plight of having to play golf four straight weeks in four different US cities.

The short week is also made slightly easier by the fact that tee times won't start until late morning on Thursday in Denver. The first time is not until 11:20 a.m. local in Denver, or 1:20 p.m. ET. Now that we've made two separate cutdowns at the first two postseason events, only 70 players remain in the FedEx Cup field. That provides for the late start, especially with the Tour following the usual first round format and keeping the players in groups of three of split tees. Condensing the players like that allows for the entire field to get out on the course at once, the tee times spanning just two hours in the afternoon.

There's a host of marquee players this deep in the postseason, but they're not necessarily all grouped together like a normal Thursday on Tour. Instead, tee times are organized by where a player falls in the FEC standings so you get some unnatural and odd groups. The headliners will be the top three, Chris Kirk, Rory McIlroy, and Hunter Mahan, who tee off No. 10 at 1:53 p.m. ET.

Playing in the thin air of Colorado, Rory is probably going to put on a show this week. The Tour doesn't get to Colorado much anymore, so it will be fascinating to see how far these guys bomb it with the newest equipment. Rory, the longest and best driver in the world right now, reportedly hit multiple 400-yard drives in his Wednesday practice round and also blasted a 370-yard 3-wood. That should add a fun element to the coverage this week, which will start later than normal at 4 p.m. ET on Golf Channel. McIlroy and company should be making the turn right around then, so their entire back nine should fall within the coverage window.

Here's the full tee sheet for Thursday's opening round:

Off Cherry Hills CC No. 1 tee:

Tee Time	Players
1:20 PM	Ernie Els	Steven Bowditch	J.B. Holmes
1:31 PM	Stuart Appleby	Justin Rose	Keegan Bradley
1:42 PM	Webb Simpson	Billy Horschel	Kevin Na
1:53 PM	Adam Scott	Russell Henley	Martin Kaymer
2:04 PM	Phil Mickelson	Chesson Hadley	Will MacKenzie
2:15 PM	Erik Compton	Freddie Jacobson	Jason Bohn
2:26 PM	Kevin Streelman	Matt Every	Russell Knox
2:37 PM	Kevin Stadler	Brian Harman	Ryan Moore
2:48 PM	Rickie Fowler	Zach Johnson	Patrick Reed
2:59 PM	Jimmy Walker	Matt Kuchar	Bubba Watson
3:10 PM	William McGirt	Tim Clark	Charl Schwartzel
3:21 PM	Morgan Hoffmann	Ben Crane	Jerry Kelly

Off Cherry Hills CC No. 10 tee:

Tee Time	Players
1:20 PM	Marc Leishman	George McNeill	Brian Stuard
1:31 PM	Gary Woodland	Hideki Matsuyama	Harris English
1:42 PM	Jason Day	Jim Furyk	Jordan Spieth
1:53 PM	Chris Kirk	Rory McIlroy	Hunter Mahan
2:04 PM	Angel Cabrera	Daniel Summerhays	Kevin Chappell
2:15 PM	K.J. Choi	Carl Pettersson	Matt Jones
2:26 PM	Charley Hoffman	Chris Stroud	Graham DeLaet
2:37 PM	Charles Howell III	Seung-Yul Noh	Ryan Palmer
2:48 PM	Sergio Garcia	Geoff Ogilvy	Brendon Todd
2:59 PM	John Senden	Bill Haas	Cameron Tringale
3:10 PM	Graeme McDowell	Camilo Villegas	Henrik Stenson

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