US Open Preview:Pádraig Harrington will get his US Open campaign under way at Bethpage on Thursday in illustrious company alongside defending champion Tiger Woods and Masters champion Angel Cabrera.

Harrington has dropped from last year’s high of number three to 11 in the world rankings, thanks in no small part to his poor run of form in the first half of the year. The 37-year-old has missed four of his last five cuts, including last week’s St Jude’s Classic.

Since January he has missed six cuts in 14 starts plus a first round exit at the World Matchplay in Arizona. As part of his dedicated assault on this year’s majors, the three-time major winner focused the early part of the year competing in the States but he missed the cut at the AT&T at Pebble Beach and the Northern Trust Open followed by defeat to American Pat Perez in the Matchplay.

After a frustrating week at Augusta, where he tied a lowly 35th, he went on to miss the cut at the Quail Hollow Championship. Last month he returned home for the Irish Open but had the weekend off at Baltray. Shortly after it was back to the States where he missed the cut at the Memorial and again at last week’s tune-up for the US Open at the St Jude’s Classic.

Harrington will hope he can rekindle the sort of form that saw him win last year’s British Open at Birkdale in such imperious fashion, before adding the US PGA title to his major haul less than a month later.

On Thursday he sets off from the first tee at 1.06pm (Irish time) alongside Cabrera and Woods, who is in a rich vein of form after the world number one put on a masterclass, including two closing birdies, to win the Memorial last time out. He practically won last year’s US Open from a play-off against Rocco Mediate at Torrey Pines while playing on one leg due to his injured knee.

The three other Irishmen in the field at Bethpage tee off from the 10th on the opening day. Graeme McDowell will set off at 12.33pm alongside Ben Curtis and Chad Campbell. Darren Clarke will be in the same group as David Duval and David Toms at 6.03pm, while Rory McIlroy is in the group behind (6.14pm) alongside Anthony Kim and Dustin Johnson.

The week of majors carries a different, heightened type of pressure for golfers, and this was clearly felt by South African debutante James Kamte, whose first big call at Bethpage was to decide if he could cope with Woods’ invitation to play at practice round at the Black Course.

Although initially apprehensive about taking up the invitation, Kamte decided the opportunity was too good to turn down.

"It was unbelievable," said the 26-year-old, who played nine holes with Woods. "At first I was nervous and didn't want to play with him but I thought it would be a bit embarrassing to get a chance and then not use it.

"So I thought I would just play and see what happened, and I actually I played pretty well. It was a great experience.

"I just wanted to see how Tiger approaches the game and stuff. For me to be associated with him and to play next to him I couldn't have asked for anything better."

Kamte, nicknamed 'Cobra' from his days as a young and speedy striker in soccer, last year became the first black South African player in more then two decades to earn full playing rights on the European Tour.

He first met Woods at the European Tour's Dubai Desert Classic last year, and the pair reunited at the Memorial tournament two weeks ago, with Woods claiming his 67th PGA Tour title and Kamte missing the cut in his first appearance on the US circuit.

Kamte is a three-times winner on his native Southern African Tour and clinched his first title on the Asian Tour in his rookie season at the Asian Tour International in Thailand in February.

The long-hitter booked his US Open place after 36 holes of sectional qualifying in Columbus, Ohio last week, and described his Bethpage expectations as "not that big".

"I'm just going to go out and enjoy myself. If I feel comfortable on the golf course, I think I could do pretty well around here."

Meanwhile Kenny Perry says he has learned a lot from his collapse at the Masters two months ago and is hungrier than ever to win his first major.

The PGA Tour veteran led the Masters by two shots with two holes to play before bogeys at 17 and 18 dropped him into a playoff with fellow American Campbell and Cabrera.

Perry's bid to become the oldest player to win a major, aged 48, ended when he hit a poor approach shot on the second extra hole at Augusta, his bogey being trumped by Cabrera's par for victory.

"I know I can do it," said Perry after yesterday’s practice round. "It's just I've got to rethink it a little bit when I'm coming down the last couple of holes and not get ahead of myself. But I look forward to the challenge."

This week Perry and the rest of the field will have to tackle one of the longest layouts of all time at a major championship.

Bethpage's Black Course, which first staged the US Open in 2002 which Woods won, will measure 7,426 yards off the back tees and features seven par-four holes in excess of 450 yards.

"It all depends how they want to set the tees," added Perry. "They have got a lot of options out there to make the golf course play any way they want it to play."

-additional reporting agencies

First Round tee-times
(USA unless stated, Irish in bold,all times Irish):
(x) denotes amateurs

First Hole
12.00 Casey Wittenberg, Rickie Fowler, Bo Van Pelt
12.11 Drew Weaver, Angelo Que (Phi), Simon Khan (Eng)
12.22 David Horsey (Eng), John Mallinger, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa)
12.33 Martin Kaymer (Ger), Rory Sabbatini (Rsa), Ryuji Imada (Jpn)
12.44 Vijay Singh (Fij), Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind), K J Choi (Kor)
12.55 Justin Leonard, Ian Poulter (Eng), Robert Allenby (Aus)
13.06 Angel Cabrera (Arg), Pádraig Harrington (Irl), Tiger Woods
13.17 Ryan Moore, Ben Crane, Eric Axley
13.28 Zach Johnson, Lee Westwood (Eng), Shingo Katayama (Jpn)
13.39 Bubba Watson, Johan Edfors (Swe), John Merrick
13.50 Francesco Molinari (Ita), George McNeill, Simon Dyson (Eng)
14.01 Cameron Tringale, Sean Farren, Andrew Parr (Eng)
14.12 Vaughn Snyder, Ryan Spears, Mike Miles
17.30 Peter Tomasulo, James Nitties (Aus), Martin Laird (Sco)
17.41 David Smail (Nzl), Cameron Beckman, Steve Allan (Aus)
17.52 J J Henry, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa), Briny Baird
18.03 Lucas Glover, Kyle Stanley, D.J. Trahan
18.14 J.B. Holmes, Alvaro Quiros (Spa), Nick Watney
18.25 Camilo Villegas (Col), Sergio Garcia (Spa), Adam Scott (Aus)
18.36 Sean O'Hair, Justin Rose (Eng), Ross Fisher (Eng)
18.47 Rocco Mediate, Kenny Perry, Tom Lehman
18.58 Oliver Wilson (Eng), Hunter Mahan, Brandt Snedeker
19.09 Billy Mayfair, Matt Kuchar, Ricky Barnes
19.20 Darron Stiles, Shintaro Kai (Jpn), Matthew Jones (Aus)
19.31 Tyson Alexander, Charlie Beljan, Ryan Blaum
19.42 Shawn Stefani, Matt Nagy, Doug Batty (Nzl)

10th Hole

12.00 Greg Kraft, J.P. Hayes, Jeff Brehaut
12.11 Drew Kittleson, Sang-moon Bae (Kor), Michael Sim (Aus)
12.22 Heath Slocum, Charlie Wi (Kor), Richard Bland (Eng)
12.33 Graeme McDowell (NIrl), Ben Curtis, Chad Campbell
12.44 Henrik Stenson (Swe), Andrew Svoboda, Steve Stricker
12.55 Jim Furyk, Geoff Ogilvy (Aus), Paul Casey (Eng)
13.06 Trevor Immelman (Rsa), Luke Donald (Eng), Tim Clark (Rsa)
13.17 Andres Romero (Arg), Eduardo Romero (Arg), Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa)
13.28 Boo Weekley, Michael Campbell (Nzl), Rodney Pampling (Aus)
13.39 Kevin Sutherland, Dudley Hart, Ken Duke
13.50 Bronson Burgoon, Craig Bowden, Chris Kirk
14.01 Ben Martin, Josh McCumber (Ae), Kevin Silva
14.12 Trevor Murphy, Josh Brock, Nathan Tyler
17.30 James Kamte (Rsa), Matt Bettencourt, Kaname Yokoo (Jpn)
17.41 Nick Taylor, Scott Gutschewski, Gary Woodland
17.52 Azuma Yano (Jpn), Carl Pettersson (Swe), Charl Schwartzel (Rsa)
18.03 David Duval, David Toms, Darren Clarke (NIrl)
18.14 Anthony Kim, Rory McIlroy (NIrl), Dustin Johnson
18.25 Soren Kjeldsen (Den), Soren Hansen (Den), Peter Hanson (Swe)
18.36 Retief Goosen (Rsa), Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els (Rsa)
18.47 Fred Funk, Stuart Appleby (Aus), Todd Hamilton
18.58 Mike Weir (Can), Stephen Ames (Can), Stewart Cink
19.09 Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra), Thomas Levet (Fra), Raphael Jacquelin (Fra)
19.20 Andrew McLardy (Rsa), Chris Stroud
19.31 Clark Klaasen, Colby Beckstrom, Cameron Yancey
19.42 Kyle Peterman, Michael Welch (Eng), Courtland Lowe