Presidents Cup: Thursday fourball matches, tee times at Royal Melbourne

The long wait for Presidents Cup action is nearly over, and for the final 24 hours, we can finally talk about the pairings set out for the five Thursday fourball matches by captains Ernie Els and Tiger Woods.

There was great anticipation for whether or not Woods would trot out Patrick Reed in the opening session, given how much Reed has been the focus of attention following his rules controversy from the Hero World Challenge. Well, Woods is playing Reed with Webb Simpson in the first round, going out fourth against Hideki Matsuyama and CT Pan. For Reed, finally, the chaos of questions will cede to his play on the course.

As for captain Woods, he’ll be playing with Justin Thomas in the first match out Thursday in Melbourne, around 9:30 local time, 5:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday in the States.. With that in consideration, Woods was required to name a captain in his place, who can offer advice to players on the course. That man will be Steve Stricker Thursday in Australia. You can check out the full list of matches below.

Not playing: Haotong Li, Cameron Smith, Matt Kuchar, Rickie Fowler

Match No. 1:

Marc Leishman & Joaquin Niemann vs. Justin Thomas & Tiger Woods

Match No. 2:

Adam Hadwin & Sungjae Im vs. Xander Schauffele & Patrick Cantlay

Match No. 3:

Adam Scott & Byeong Hun vs. Bryson DeChambeau & Tony Finau

Match No. 4:

Hideki Matsuyama & CT Pan vs. Webb Simpson & Patrick Reed

Match No. 5:

Abe Ancer & Louis Oosthuizen vs. Dustin Johnson & Gary Woodland

For more information on the Presidents Cup format and history, check out our guide here.

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