It’s finally time for the last major championship of the year.

The British Open begins Thursday morning at the Royal Liverpool Club in Hoylake, England. The last time the course hosted the British Open was in 2014, which coincidentally was Rory McIlroy’s last major tournament win.

McIlroy, who won the Genesis Scottish Open last week, will battle it out with John Rahm and Justin Rose before 10 a.m. ET on Thursday. McIlroy again chose not to speak with reporters this week, which he did before finishing runner-up at the US Open in Los Angeles last month.

Jordan Spieth and Matthew Fitzpatrick will play Jason Day in the first wave, and he will start playing about half an hour ahead of Patrick Cantlay, Brooks Koepka, Scotty Scheffler and others. Koepka, who has achieved five major titles in his career, won the PGA Championship earlier this season and finished second at the Masters. Colin Morikawa, Max Homma and Phil Mickelson will trail McIlroy’s group in the late wave on Thursday.

The British Open is offering a record $16.5 million in prize money this week, with $3 million going to the winner on Sunday afternoon. This prize pool is actually the smallest among the major leagues. R&A prepared for demonstrations in session this week as well, although there was no direct intelligence that anything was planned.

Can Cam Smith successfully defend his title and retain the claret pitcher? Is it finally time for McIlroy to take over his fifth major? Catch up on all the action on Thursday with Yahoo Sports: