For the third consecutive year, the top three players in the world rankings have been drawn together at the year’s second major, the US Open. PHOTO: AFP
World number one Tiger Woods, second-ranked Rory McIlroy and reigning Masters champion Adam Scott will play alongside each other in the first two rounds at next week’s 113th US Open.
The US Golf Association announced in a Twitter posting that Woods, a 14-time major champion chasing the all-time record 18 won by Jack Nicklaus, will join Scott and McIlroy off the first tee next Thursday.
Third-ranked Scott, who became the first Australian to win a green jacket when he captured the title in April at Augusta National, and McIlroy, the 2011 US Open and 2012 PGA Championship winner, join Woods off the 11th tee next Friday.
“Decent group for the first two rounds at Merion I see ...,” said Northern Ireland’s McIlroy in a Twitter posting of his own.
The tournament will open Thursday morning with American Cliff Kresge starting off the first tee.
Other groupings for the first two rounds that promise to command attention include the all-South African lineup of major winners Louis Oosthuizen, Charl Schwartzel and Tim Clark, off the 11th tee, and the trio behind them — Irishman Padraig Harrington, Spain’s Sergio Garcia and American Stewart Cink.
Americans Phil Mickelson, Steve Stricker and Keegan Bradley tee off two groups ahead of the South Africans, while Americans Brandt Snedeker and Matt Kuchar and England’s Justin Rose are in the group between.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 9th, 2013.
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