The first and second round tee times and pairings for the Masters have been released — which are never that exciting, like they are at, say, the U.S. Open, but hey, it’s the season’s first major, and as you may have heard once or twice, the tournament doesn’t start until the back nine on Sunday.
World no. 1 Rory McIlroy has drawn three-time Masters champion Phil Mickelson, along with Ryan Moore (which seems kind of random) at 10:41am in the opening round.
Tiger Woods, who will make his return to competitive golf and his chase for his elusive 15th major, is paired with Jimmy Walker and Jamie Donaldson — the threesome tees off in the penultimate group at 1:48pm Thursday.
Defending champion Bubba Watson will play alongside Justin Rose and 2014 U.S. Amateur champion Gunn Yang.
Now, I got a laugh out of this trio of European and American Ryder Cup members: Ian Poulter, Patrick Reed and Keegan Bradley. Could the Masters tournament committee be messing with Poulter a bit?? No!
If you’re not going to watch Rory or Tiger, I’d follow red-hot Jordan Spieth and the past two FedExCup champs Billy Horschel and Henrik Stenson. Another intriguing pairing is the last group of the day — Sergio Garcia, Rickie Fowler and Jason Day. Oh, those two are some fantastic trios to watch!
Here’s the full list of Thursday’s first round pairings and starting times (EST):
7:45 a.m. — Charley Hoffman, Brian Harman
7:56 a.m. — Larry Mize, Danny Willett, Byron Meth
8:07 a.m. — Tom Watson, Gary Woodland, Camilo Villegas
8:18 a.m. — Mike Weir, Ben Crane, Corey Conners
8:29 a.m. — Vijay Singh, Russell Henley, Darren Clarke
8:40 a.m. — Jose Maria Olazabal, Brendon Todd, Kevin Na
8:51 a.m. — Jonas Blixt, Kevin Streelman, Stephen Gallacher
9:02 a.m. — Patrick Reed, Keegan Bradley, Ian Poulter
9:13 a.m. — Miguel Angel Jimenez, Lee Westwood, Anirban Lahiri
9:24 a.m. — Bubba Watson, Justin Rose, Gunn Yang
9:35 a.m. — Adam Scott, Dustin Johnson, Antonio Murdaca
9:57 a.m. — Morgan Hoffmann, Steve Stricker, Matt Every
10:08 a.m. — Ben Crenshaw, Bill Haas, Jason Dufner
10:19 a.m. — Webb Simpson, Hideki Matsuyama, Paul Casey
10:30 a.m. — Charl Schwartzel, Joost Luiten, Sangmoon Bae
10:41 a.m. — Phil Mickelson, Rory McIlroy, Ryan Moore
10:52 a.m. — J.B. Holmes, Martin Kaymer, Brandt Snedeker
11:03 a.m. — Ian Woosnam, Erik Compton, Marc Leishman
11:14 a.m. — Trevor Immelman, Kevin Stadler, Scott Harvey
11:25 a.m. — Ben Martin, Robert Streb, Cameron Tringale
11:36 a.m. — Sandy Lyle, Seung-yul Noh, Bradley Neil
11:47 a.m. — Bernhard Langer, Bernd Wiesberger, Geoff Ogilvy
12:09 p.m. — Zach Johnson, Jim Furyk, Ernie Els
12:20 p.m. — Angel Cabrera, Louis Oosthuizen, Matias Dominguez
12:31 p.m. — Mark O’Meara, Chris Kirk, Shane Lowry
12:42 p.m. — Padraig Harrington, Ryan Palmer, Thomas Bjorn
12:53 p.m. — James Hahn, Mikko Ilonen, Hunter Mahan
1:04 p.m. — Matt Kuchar, Brooks Koepka, Graeme McDowell
1:15 p.m. — Jordan Spieth, Henrik Stenson, Billy Horschel
1:26 p.m. — Fred Couples, Branden Grace, Thongchai Jaidee
1:37 p.m. — Luke Donald, Victor Dubuisson, John Senden
1:48 p.m. — Tiger Woods, Jamie Donaldson, Jimmy Walker
1:59 p.m. — Jason Day, Sergio Garcia, Rickie Fowler
*******
Can you feel the magic yet? The tradition unlike any other??
