Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson have been paired together for the opening two rounds of the US Open due to get under way at Torrey Pines, California next week.
Australian Adam Scott is the third member of the marquee group as the USGA decided to group the top 12 players in the world together and spread them over four time slots.
The decision was confirmed by Mike Davis, senior director of rules and competition for the USGA, and means Ernie Els, Geoff Ogilvy and Justin Rose will be in the same group, while Steve Stricker, Jim Furyk and K.J. Choi will comprise another, and Vijay Singh, Sergio Garcia and Stewart Cink will play together.
Davis said the USGA has been thinking about a major change over the past few months and decided to give it a try.
"Why not put them in the same wave?" said Davis. "The heck with what TV wants. Let's do what we want for the championship."
British Open champion Pádraig Harrington is one of two Irishman in the field and is certainly the better known of the two. Harrington is joined by Ballymena native Chris Devlin, who secured one of the six places at qualifying in Columbus, Ohio on Monday.
Devlin, who lives in Alabama and competes on the Hooters Tour, shot rounds of 68, 67 for a 135 aggregate to tie for fourth to book his place at the second major of the year. Rory McIlroy and Paul McGinley attempted to qualify at Walton Heath in Surrey earlier in the week, but both came up short.
The last time Woods and Mickelson played together in the early rounds of a major was at the 2006 US PGA Championship, which traditionally groups the three major champions of that year - Mickelson won the Masters, Geoff Ogilvy the US Open and Woods the British Open.
Woods and Mickelson played together once before at the US Open, in the third round at Pinehurst in 1999. The late Payne Stewart won that year, with Mickelson second and Woods third. This will be Woods' first competitive outing since the Masters at Augusta after being sidelined with surgery on his left knee. The world number one only started hitting balls again in recent days.
"This year we got to thinking, 'Isn't it kind of crummy that we've never had the two guys ranked one and two in the world in the same wave?"' Davis added. "Weather can affect outcomes in the US Open. It could be windy in the morning, or firm in the afternoon."
The US Open traditionally groups the defending champion, the Open champion and the US Amateur champion together. That would not be affected with Angel Cabrera at 22 in the world rankings, Harrington at 14 and Amateur champion Colt Knost not in the field because he turned professional.
Davis added that there was some trepidation among USGA officials that the idea would create havoc with so many spectators wanting to watch one particular three-ball, but he felt it was worth trying.
"In absolute honestly, it was never done for promotional reasons," he said. "It was done because these guys never get to play together. They always want them separate because of TV. We hope it's positive
The USGA will release the full groupings later today.
Additional reporting PA
