Golf:US Open champion Graeme McDowell will tee up alongside Tiger Woods in the first and second rounds of the 2011 US Masters at Augusta National this weekend. The Portrush golfer and four-time champion Woods will be joined by Australian Robert Allenby on the first tee-box at 3.41pm (Irish time) on Thursday.
Woods is without a victory since November 2009, but at the Target World Challenge he led by four with a round to go before being caught and then beaten in a play-off by McDowell.
McDowell now goes into the opening major of the season as the world number five and Woods as the number seven following Phil Mickelson's win in Houston on Sunday.
Nearly 45 minutes McDowell tees off, Pádraig Harrington will open his tournament in the company of young Japanese golfer Ryo Ishikawa and American Bill Haas, but Rory McIlroy will be the first Irishman on course in something of a battle of the bright young things.
American Rickie Fowler, 22, and 23-year-old Australian Jason Day will accompany the Holywood youngster, himself only 21.
Mickelson will launch his title defence with fellow American Peter Uihlein and Australian Geoff Ogilvy in the penultimate group.
Mickelson, who completed his preparations for the season's opening major with victory at the Houston Open on Sunday, is scheduled to tee off at 6.48pm.
Former US. Open champion Ogilvy will be competing in his sixth Masters while US amateur champion Uihlein will be making his debut.
Another intriguing group will see German world number one Martin Kaymer, second-ranked Briton Lee Westwood and 10th-ranked American Matt Kuchar tee off two groups in front of McDowell and Woods.
2009 champion Angel Cabrera of Argentina will set off with Britain's Ian Poulter and American David Toms.
First off at 12.45am, following ceremonial tee shots by golfing greats Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, will be Americans Jonathan Byrd and Sean O'Hair and England’s Ross Fisher.
First Round Tee times (Thursday)
*Irish times
12.45
Jonathan Byrd, Ross Fisher (Eng), Sean O’Hair
12.56Sandy Lyle (Sco), Alex Cejka (Ger), David Chung
13.07Jerry Kelly, Camilo Villegas (Col), Jeff Overton
13.18Ben Crenshaw, Brandt Snedeker, Kevin Na
13.29Mark O'Meara, Anders Hansen (Den), Heath Slocum
13.40Dustin Johnson, Adam Scott (Aus), Nick Watney
13.51Vijay Singh (Fij), Tim Clark (Rsa), Aaron Baddeley (Aus)
14.02Carl Pettersson (Swe), Gregory Havret (Fra), Ryan Palmer
14.13Martin Laird (Sco), Mark Wilson, Bo Van Pelt
14.24 Rory McIlroy, Rickie Fowler, Jason Day (Aus)
14.35Mike Weir (Can), Hiroyuki Fujita (Jpn), Retief Goosen (Rsa)
14.57Ryo Ishikawa (Jpn), Pádraig Harrington, Bill Haas
15.08Larry Mize, Rory Sabbatini (Rsa), Jin Jeong (Kor)
15.19Lee Westwood (Eng), Martin Kaymer (Ger), Matt Kuchar
15.30Ernie Els (Rsa), Hunter Mahan, Francesco Molinari (Ita)
15.41Tiger Woods, Graeme McDowell, Robert Allenby (Aus)
15.52Arjun Atwal (Ind), Sergio Garcia (Spa), Robert Karlsson (Swe)
15.03Charl Schwartzel (Rsa), Stuart Appleby (Aus), Charley Hoffman
16.14Ian Woosnam (Wal), D.A. Points, Ben Crane
16.25Craig Stadler, Kevin Streelman, Nathan Smith
16.36Peter Hanson (Swe), Kyung-Tae Kim (Kor), Ryan Moore
16.47Angel Cabrera (Arg), Ian Poulter (Eng), David Toms
17.09Trevor Immelman (Rsa), Lucas Glover, Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn)
17.20Zach Johnson, Y.E. Yang (Kor), Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa)
17.31Davis Love III, Jose-Maria Olazabal (Spa), Lion Kim (Kor)
17.42Tom Watson, Ricky Barnes, Jason Bohn
17.53Fred Couples, Luke Donald (Eng), Steve Stricker
18.04Anthony Kim, Henrik Stenson (Swe), Steve Marino
18.15Paul Casey (Eng), Bubba Watson, Edoardo Molinari (Ita)
18.26Stewart Cink, Jim Furyk, Yuta Ikeda (Jpn)
18.37K J Choi (Kor), Justin Rose (Eng), Lodewicus Oosthuizen (Rsa)
18.48Geoff Ogilvy (Aus), Phil Mickelson, Peter Uihlein
18.59Jhonattan Vegas, Gary Woodland, Alvaro Quiros (Spa)
