Former Georgia Tech star Matt Kuchar and Korea’s K.J. Choi will be the playing partners of Tiger Woods during the first two rounds of the Masters. The threesome will tee off in Thursday’s first round at 1:42 p.m. ET in the penultimate group of the day. On Friday, the threesome will tee off at 10:35 a.m. ET.
Pairings were announced Tuesday, with much anticipation and speculation centering on which players will be selected to play with Woods as he makes his much-anticipated return to the PGA TOUR.
Other pairings of note:
- 10:13 a.m.-1:20 p.m.: Ernie Els, Anthony Kim, Ryo Ishikawa
- 10:24 a.m.-1:31 p.m.: Angel Cabrera, Jim Furyk, a-Byeong-Hun An
- 10:35 a.m.-1:42 p.m.: Phil Mickelson, Robert Allenby, Y.E. Yang
- 10:46 a.m.-1:53 p.m.: Retief Goosen, Hunter Mahan, Robert Karlsson
- 12:47 p.m.-9:29 a.m.: Zach Johnson, Henrik Stenson, a-Chang-won Han
- 12:58 p.m.-9:40 a.m.: Fred Couples, Sergio Garcia, Shingo Katayama
- 1:09 p.m.-10:02 a.m.: Miguel Angel Jimenez, Edoardo Molinari, Lucas Glover
- 1:20 p.m.-10:13 a.m.: Charl Schwartzel, Stewart Cink, Padraig Harrington
- 1:31 p.m.-10:24 a.m.: Yuta Ikeda, Ian Poulter, Steve Stricker
- 1:42 p.m.-10:35 a.m.: Tiger Woods, Matt Kuchar, K.J. Choi
- 1:53 p.m.-10:46 a.m.: Adam Scott, David Duval, Ricky Barnes
According to a story appearing on ESPN’s website, “Woods’ playing partners in their first round of the Masters have played to a scoring average of 74.71, or 2.71 shots above par. Only three times since Woods turned pro has a playing partner shot a lower score than him in the first round — Ricky Barnes in 2003, Darren Clarke in 2005 and Stewart Cink last year.”
The story also noted, “even more daunting is being in the group that plays directly in front of Woods. Those players have to constantly deal with spectators who are rushing ahead on the course to try to gain a prime vantage point for when Woods’ group arrives.”
