Set your alarm clocks, golf fans — Tiger Woods gets his U.S. Open started early this year.
Woods is set to begin the championship at 8:07 a.m. local time Thursday morning, meaning unless you are on the East Coast, it could be an up-before-the-sun type of day if you hope to get a glimpse of his opening tee shot. He’s paired with fellow all-world ball strikers Collin Morikawa and Justin Thomas for the first two days, and the trio will go off on No. 1 for the opening round.
With an early-late draw, Woods will have plenty of time to rest and recover before the second round as the grouping is scheduled to go off No. 10 at 1:27 p.m on Friday. That extra recovery time could be a huge advantage for the 15-time major winner, especially considering the kind of brutish conditions that are expected at Winged Foot this week. The extended time off between rounds could play a pivotal role if his aging body feels any ill effects after Round 1.
Although Woods won the Masters just 17 months ago, the time since then has been uneven at best. Woods added another win at the inaugural Zozo Championship last fall and looked sharp in a Presidents Cup win, but he’s also fallen out of contention before the weekend more than he’d have liked. Since Zozo, he has just one top 25 (T9 at Torrey Pines in January) as his trusty Scotty has not been as dialed in as is customary.
In his most recent major appearance at the PGA Championship, Woods managed to make the cut, but putting woes plagued him throughout as he settled for a T37 finish. He’s teed it up twice since then, though the results were much the same as he never gathered any momentum and was much of an afterthought on the leaderboard.
Tee times for the entire field are listed below.
Tee No. 1
6:50 a.m. – Brandon Wu, Curtis Luck, Ryan Fox 7:01 a.m. – Joel Dahmen, Rasmus Hojgaard, J.T. Poston 7:12 a.m. – Chez Reavie, Sung Kang, Kevin Streelman 7:23 a.m. – Jazz Janewattananond, Kevin Na, Matt Wallace 7:34 a.m. – Brendon Todd, Harris English, Davis Thompson (a) 7:45 a.m. – Paul Waring, Victor Perez, Christiaan Bezuidenhout 7:56 a.m. – Hideki Matsuyama, Patrick Reed, Jordan Spieth 8:07 a.m. – Collin Morikawa, Justin Thomas, Tiger Woods 8:18 a.m. – Matt Kuchar, Lucas Glover, Graeme McDowell 8:29 a.m. – Charles Howell III, Ryo Ishikawa, Max Homa 8:40 a.m. – Kurt Kitayama, Robert MacIntyre, Sandy Scott (a) 8:51 a.m. – Eddie Pepperell, Troy Merritt, Sami Valimaki 12:10 p.m. – Shaun Norris, Rory Sabbatini, Chan Kim 12:21 p.m. – Adam Long, Eduard Rousaud (a), Mike Lorenzo-Vera 12:32 p.m. – Lukas Michel (a), Lucas Herbert, Matt Jones 12:43 p.m. – Ryan Palmer, Si Woo Kim, Rafa Cabrera Bello 12:54 p.m. – Joaquin Niemann, Sungjae Im, Cameron Champ 1:05 p.m. – Gary Woodland, Andy Ogletree (a), Shane Lowry 1:16 p.m. – Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, Tony Finau 1:27 p.m. – Phil Mickelson, Paul Casey, Jon Rahm 1:38 p.m. – Rickie Fowler, Matthew Wolff, Viktor Hovland 1:49 p.m. – Romain Langasque, Davis Riley, Will Zalatoris 2:00 p.m. – Matthias Schwab, Cole Hammer (a), Alex Noren 2:11 p.m. – Connor Syme, Paul Barjon, Marty Jertson
Tee No. 10
6:50 a.m. – Daniel Balin, Greyson Sigg, J.C. Ritchie 7:01 a.m. – Ricky Castillo, (a) Brian Harman, Andy Sullivan 7:12 a.m. – Tom Lewis, Preston Summerhays (a), Jason Kokrak 7:23 a.m. – Martin Kaymer, Jimmy Walker, John Augenstein (a) 7:34 a.m. – Tyler Duncan, Thomas Detry, Erik van Rooyen 7:45 a.m. – Tyrrell Hatton, Henrik Stenson, Danny Willett 7:56 a.m. – Webb Simpson, Sergio Garcia, Jason Day 8:07 a.m. – Rory McIlroy, Adam Scott, Justin Rose 8:18 a.m. – Ian Poulter, Patrick Cantlay, Steve Stricker 8:29 a.m. – Adam Hadwin, Mackenzie Hughes, Corey Conners 8:40 a.m. – Sebastian Munoz, Chun An Yu (a), Justin Harding 8:51 a.m. – Scott Hend, Dan McCarthy, Ryan Vermeer 12:10 p.m. – Richy Werenski, Taylor Pendrith, Renato Paratore 12:21 p.m. – Jim Herman, John Pak (a), Thomas Pieters 12:32 p.m. – Michael Thompson, Andrew Putnam, Chesson Hadley 12:43 p.m. – Bernd Wiesberger, Marc Leishman, Cameron Smith 12:54 p.m. – Lee Westwood, James Sugrue (a), Bubba Watson 1:05 p.m. – Matt Fitzpatrick, Daniel Berger, Branden Grace 1:16 p.m. – Tommy Fleetwood, Kevin Kisner, Abraham Ancer 1:27 p.m. – Louis Oosthuizen, Zach Johnson, Keegan Bradley 1:38 p.m. – Billy Horschel, Xander Schauffele, Brandt Snedeker 1:49 p.m. – Shugo Imahira, Byeong Hun An, Takumi Kanaya (a) 2:00 p.m. – Danny Lee, Mark Hubbard, Lanto Griffin 2:11 p.m. – Stephan Jaeger Lee Hodges Adrian Otaegui
Zephyr Melton is an assistant editor for GOLF.com where he spends his days blogging, producing and editing. Prior to joining the team at GOLF, he attended the University of Texas followed by stops with the Texas Golf Association, Team USA, the Green Bay Packers and the PGA Tour. He assists on all things instruction and covers amateur and women’s golf. He can be reached at zephyr_melton@golf.com.