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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.”

In case you missed it, below is a transcript of the Tiger Woods press conference, held Monday, April 5th, 2PM EST at Augusta National.

CRAIG HEATLEY: Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon, and a very warm welcome to you all. My name is Craig Heatley and I’m the chairman of the Masters Media Committee. It’s my pleasure to welcome everyone to Augusta National Golf Club and to the 2010 Masters Tournament.

I would also like to welcome Tiger Woods, our four time Masters Champion. This is Tiger’s 16th Masters Tournament.

Tiger, we are delighted to have you here with us, and what a beautiful day out there to start Masters week. Are there any comments that you would like to make before we invite questions from the floor?

TIGER WOODS: Sure. Well, today I got a chance to play with Craig there or, sorry, Craig; Freddie, and then Jim joined us on the 13th hole, and it was just what a great day today.

Coming into today, I didn’t know what to expect with regards to the reception, and I tell you what, the galleries couldn’t be nicer. I mean, it was just incredible. The encouragement that I got, it was just it blew me away to be honest with you, it really did. And the people here over the years, I know they are extremely respectful, but today was just something that really touched my heart pretty good.

I would also like to I guess make another little comment before we start. I know that the players over the past few months have been bombarded with questions by all of you and the public, as well, and I would like to tell all of the players, hopefully after today, after answering questions at this press conference, the players can be left alone to focus on the Masters and focus on their game, not only for this week, but going forward, as well. And certainly apologize to all of them for having to endure what they have had to endure the past few months.

A lot has happened in my life over the past five months, and I’m here at the Masters to play and compete. And just really excited about doing that. I missed the competition. I missed seeing the guys out here. A lot of my friends, I haven’t seen in a while. It was great to play golf again with Freddie and Jim, two of my best friends out here, and I played with Mark yesterday for nine holes and I’m playing with him again tomorrow, as well as Steve Stricker.

So it’s been just an incredible experience so far here at the Masters.

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Earlier this week, it was announced that Fred Couples and Greg Norman would be returning as captains of the U.S. and International Teams, respectively, for The Presidents Cup 2011 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, at Royal Melbourne Golf Club — site of the 1998 event. Couples, who is competing in this week’s PGA TOUR event, joined PGA TOUR Commissioner Tim Finchem in the media center for the announcement, while Norman joined via teleconference from Europe.

“There could be no better choices to serve as captains of The Presidents Cup 2011 than Fred Couples and Greg Norman,” said Finchem. “Fred and Greg bring not only their extensive experience as Presidents Cup participants to the table, but also what they learned in 2009 as captains. They stepped into their roles last year with a strong passion and commitment to elevating this international competition and handled their responsibilities with ease. I am confident they will once again showcase the incredible sportsmanship, leadership and camaraderie that is the hallmark of The Presidents Cup.”

The Presidents Cup 2011 is scheduled for November 14-20, 2011. The Americans currently hold an all-time 6-1-1 lead in the competition.

The New York Times is reporting that test footage shot recently at Augusta National to demonstrate 3-D looks pretty darn good.  Richard Sandomir wrote, “One look at Augusta in 3-D will make high-definition seem obsolete.”

Too bad many of us don’t own the equipment to see it for ourselves.  Anyway, the article describes what works and what doesn’t.  On the plus side:

• putts moving toward a camera;
• a chip shot flying out of a bunker with the individual grains of sand moving into a new dimension in front of the golfer;
• yellow flags fluttering at the hole in the foreground while water courses through a creek in the background;
• the slow panning of the most topographically interesting holes to show the changing elevations.

Sandomir  remarked, “The closer the cameras get to the action, the better the picture. It may be too much to expect the 3-D cameras to get close enough for a driver to look as if it is coming through the screen.”

As for flaws:

• When the sun glinted off water, the picture blurred.
• When trees or bushes came into view too quickly, it was visually jarring.
• When a camera panned the grass too rapidly, the effect was dizzying.

Seems to me that if this experiment works, golf clubs may have a new potential revenue stream — hosting viewing parties.