Tiger Woods is the early favorite for the Masters at Augusta National starting this week and as he goes for another green jacket he will be paired along with Luke Donald and Scott Piercy for the first major event on the PGA Tour this season.
According to ESPN.com, Woods will be playing in his 19th Masters at Augusta and he will be playing with Luke Donald and Scott Piercy in the first round of the tournament, starting off at 10:45 AM ET, ahead of Rory McIlroy and Phil Mickelson. Woods heads to Augusta as the number one golfer in the world after winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational two weeks ago, taking the top spot from McIlroy and putting him in prime position to win his first major since 2008 at the US Open.
Woods is playing with the duo on Friday as well when he tees off in the afternoon and he is going for his fifth title and his first since 2005 at Augusta and he has won three tournaments ahead of the Masters for the first time since then. Following Woods later on is McIlroy, who is ranked number two in the world, and he will play along with Keegan Bradley and Fredrik Jacobson in the afternoon Thursday and in the morning Friday.
There are 93 players in the field this year at Augusta and things will get started off with Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player before 8:00 AM on Thursday. Bubba Watson, who is the defending champion, will play with U.S. Amateur champion Steve Fox and Ian Poulter at 10:34 AM, while China's Tianlang Guan, a 14-year-old qualifier, will be playing with Ben Crenshaw and Matteo Manassero ahead of Phil Mickelson.
Lefty will be playing with Louis Oosthuizen and Martin Kaymer, while the final group of the day will be Jason Dufner, Matt Kuchar and Bill Haas at around 2 PM. McIlroy has struggled most of the season, but he came in second by two strokes at the Texas open and he appears to have his swagger back.
