At the 2010 U.S. Senior Open Media Day Outing, Billy Rodgers paired me with two guys from the University of Washington team because he knew I was a former collegiate golfer. And my friends from GolfingMyWay.com that went to the University of Oregon played with a fellow Duck alumni.

That said, I shouldn’t have been surprised last Thursday when I first saw the U.S. Open pairings for Bethpage. (To be honest, I’d just never paid close enough attention until this year.) My first reaction? LMAO. I thought, is this a joke? Nope! It appears the U.S.G.A. is known to put together groups that will draw interest or a good chuckle – there’s a method to their madness.

Ryan Ballengee over at Waggle Room mentioned that U.S. Open set-up chief Mike Davis had announced the week prior that the top three golfers in the world would not be grouped together like last year at Torrey Pines. Instead, we’ll get to see Tiger Woods, Angel Cabrera and Padraig Harrington, the reigning champions of the four majors, tee-up the first two rounds together.

Here are some of the groups that immediately caught my eye:

• Sergio Garcia, Camilo Villegas and Adam Scott: Who does the best “blue steel” look? This one? Naw. Maybe this? This takes the cake. We know which group will have the largest following of ladies. It was announced last week that Sergio stole Camilo’s regular caddie is now looping for Sergio. Will that be awkward? Camilo is getting the better end of the deal though. As for Adam, well, I’m crossing my fingers that he makes the cut. Same goes for Serg. Hopefully he’s manned up.
• Vijay Singh, Jeev Milkha Singh and K.J. Choi: Singh-Singh. «ba-dum-ching!» No relation, duh.
• Andres Romero, Eduardo Romero and Miguel Angel Jimenez: Same as above. Also, both Romeros are from Argentina. I’ll bet that if Cabrera wasn’t the Masters champ, he would have taken Jimenez’s spot.
• Geoff Ogilvy, Jim Furyk and Paul Casey: Two U.S. Open champs and the third best golfer in the world at the moment. Solid group. I’d say all three have a shot at the title.
• Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els and Retief Goosen: It goes without saying that everyone is pulling for Phil. Ernie and Retief are both two-time U.S. Open champs.
• Anthony Kim, Rory Mcilroy and Dustin Johnson: Young guns! AK and Rory were paired together at the Masters for the first two rounds as well. Perhaps AK will break a record at Bethpage Black. It wouldn’t be a bad trend.

Which group will you follow in the first two rounds? Or which would you follow if you could?