Golf:US Open champion Rory McIlroy will be in familiar company when he opens the defence of his title at the Olympic Club in San Francisco. McIroy, who is currently in action in Memphis as he fine tunes his preparations has been grouped with world number one Luke Donald and Lee Westwood.
Tiger Woods, Bubba Watson and Phil Mickelson will play alongside each other in another star-studded grouping. The three Americans are all winners of the US Masters after Watson triumphed at Augusta National in April and will start on the ninth tee next Thursday.
Players normally start their rounds from the first and 10th tees but tournament officials decided to send players off on the first and ninth holes for logistical reasons as the ninth tee is closer to the clubhouse. The last time Woods was paired with Mickelson for the first two rounds of a US Open was in 2008 when he won the tournament for the third time.
Padraig Harrington will play alongside US Ryder Cup captain Davis Love III and David Toms. Graeme McDowell, the 2010 champion, is paired with Jim Furyk and Sergio Garcia while Peter Lawrie will have Soren Kjeldsen and Chez Reavie for company.
Three of the sport's rising stars, Japan's Ryo Ishikawa and Americans Dustin Johnson and Rickie Fowler, were also paired together. South African Ernie Els, a two-time US Open champion, will tee off alongside Australia's Geoff Ogilvy, the 2006 winner, and Argentina's Angel Cabrera, who won the following year.
John Merrick, meanwhile, bogeyed the 18th hole to fall into a tie with Jeff Maggert for the lead at the St Jude Classic in Memphis. Merrick and 2006 tournament winner Maggert registered four-under-par 66s on a day that grew increasingly windy and featured a crowded leaderboard with 15 players within two strokes of the leaders.
Alone atop the leaderboard at five-under, late finisher Merrick hit his tee shot at the last hole into the water on his way to a bogey. Tied for third were Jeff Overton and JJ Henry, along with India's Arjun Atwal and Noh Seung-yul of South Korea.
McIlroy of Northern Ireland, trying to make the cut for the first time in four tournaments, and Harrington were among 11 players bunched on two under. McIlroy was pleased with his round, saying: "I felt like that was about the best round of golf I played in a while. It could have been a lot better.
"Off to a decent start, definitely. Lot of good signs out there. I'm getting the club in a better position. From there you have a little bit of freedom. You're not trying to protect against a bad shot. You're trying to hit the shot you can see."
US Open tee times (all times local)
Thursday No. 1/Friday No. 9
7:15 a.m./12:30 p.m. - Scott Langley, Steve Lebrun, a-Beau Hossler
7:26 a.m./12:41 p.m. - Jason Bohn, Raphael Jacquelin, J.B. Park
7:37 a.m./12:52 p.m. - Michael Thompson, TBD, Steve Marino
7:48 a.m./1:03 p.m. - Brendan Jones, George Coetzee, Gregory Bourdy
7:59 a.m./1:14 p.m. - a-Patrick Cantlay, Jonathan Byrd, Kyle Stanley
8:10 a.m./1:25 p.m. - Retief Goosen, Vijay Singh, Zach Johnson
8:21 a.m./1:36 p.m. - Paul Casey, Hiroyuki Fujita, Mark Wilson
8:32 a.m./1:47 p.m. - Adam Scott, Keegan Bradley, Webb Simpson
8:43 a.m./1:58 p.m. - Tim Clark, Toru Taniguchi, Rod Pampling
8:54 a.m./2:09 p.m. - Francesco Molinari, Bo Van Pelt, Peter Hanson
9:05 a.m./2:20 p.m. - D.A. Points, Dong-Hwan Lee, Kevin Streelman
9:16 a.m./2:31 p.m. - Edward Loar, Paul Claxton, Alistair Presnell
9:27 a.m./2:42 p.m. - Mark McCormick, a-Nick Sherwood, Cole Howard
Thursday No. 9/Friday No. 1
7 a.m./12:45 p.m. - Shane Bertsch, Martin Flores, Tommy Biershenk
7:11 a.m./12:56 p.m. - Scott Piercy, Matthew Baldwin, Matt Bettencourt
7:22 a.m./1:07 p.m. - Thomas Bjorn, Kevin Na, Branden Grace
7:33 a.m./1:18 p.m. - Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods, Bubba Watson
7:44 a.m./1:29 p.m. - Joe Ogilvie, Stephen Ames, Tim Herron
7:55 a.m./1:40 p.m. - Davis Love III,
Padraig Harrington,David Toms
8:06 a.m./1:51 p.m. - Carl Pettersson, Charl Schwartzel, Charles Howell III
8:17 a.m./2:02 p.m. - Robert Karlsson, Bob Estes, Robert Rock
8:28 a.m./2:13 p.m. - K.J. Choi, Y.E. Yang, K.T. Kim
8:39 a.m./2:24 p.m. - Fredrik Jacobson, Robert Garrigus, Alexander Noren
8:50 a.m./2:35 p.m. - Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, Sang Moon Bae, Rafael Cabrera -Bello
9:01 a.m./2:46 p.m. - Marc Warren, Anthony Summers, Michael Allen
9:12 a.m./2:57 p.m. - Hunter Hamrick, Tim Weinhart, Scott Smith
Thursday No. 1/Friday No. 9
12:45 p.m./7 a.m. - Casey Martin, a-Cameron Wilson, Dennis Miller
12:56 p.m./7:11 a.m. - Jim Herman, William Lunde, David Mathis
1:07 p.m./7:22 a.m. - Nicolas Colsaerts, Charlie Wi, Simon Dyson
1:18 p.m./7:33 a.m. - Alvaro Quiros, Gary Woodland, John Senden
1:29 p.m./7:44 a.m. -
Rory McIlroy,Luke Donald, Lee Westwood
1:40 p.m./7:55 a.m. - Jim Furyk, Sergio Garcia,
Graeme McDowell
1:51 p.m./8:06 a.m. - Stewart Cink, Trevor Immelman, Lucas Glover
2:02 p.m./8:17 a.m. - Ernie Els, Geoff Ogilvy, Angel Cabrera
2:13 p.m./8:28 a.m. - Martin Laird, Ben Crane, Anders Hansen
2:24 p.m./8:39 a.m. - Matteo Manassero, Aaron Baddeley, Miguel Angel Jimenez
2:35 p.m./8:50 a.m. - Brian Harman, TBD, Mikko Ilonen
2:46 p.m./9:01 a.m. - Brice Garnett, TBD, Jesse Mueller
2:57 p.m./9:12 a.m. - Brian Rowell, a-Alberto Sanchez, Brian Gaffney
Thursday Hole 9/Friday Hole 1
12:30 p.m./7:15 a.m. - John Peterson, Morgan Hoffmann, Aaron Watkins
12:41 p.m./7:26 a.m. - Jeff Curl, Nicholas Thompson, Casey Wittenberg
12:52 p.m./7:37 a.m. - Soren Kjeldsen, Chez Reavie,
Peter Lawrie
1:03 p.m./7:48 a.m. - Michael Campbell, Olin Browne, Joe Durant
1:14 p.m./7:59 a.m. - Bill Haas, Nick Watney, Brandt Snedeker
1:25 p.m./8:10 a.m. - Martin Kaymer, Hunter Mahan, Justin Rose
1:36 p.m./8:21 a.m. - Steve Stricker, Ian Poulter, Matt Kuchar
1:47 p.m./8:32 a.m. - Jason Day, Louis Oosthuizen, Jason Dufner
1:58 p.m./8:43 a.m. - Rickie Fowler, Ryo Ishikawa, Dustin Johnson
2:09 p.m./8:54 a.m. - Hunter Haas, Tadahiro Takayama, Lee Slattery
2:20 p.m./9:05 a.m. - Alex Cejka, Kevin Chappell, Blake Adams
2:31 p.m./9:16 a.m. - James Hahn, Darron Stiles, Roberto Castro
2:42 p.m./9:27 a.m. - a-Brooks Koepka, TBD, Samuel Osborne
