Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson paired up at US Open

Published on 08/06/2012 03:39

Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Masters champion Bubba Watson will play in the same group for the opening two rounds of the US Open.

It will be the first time Woods and Mickelson have been paired in the event since the USGA grouped players off the world ranking at Torrey Pines in 2008. The rankings were used for another group – Luke Donald, Rory McIlroy and Lee Westwood.

Woods is coming off a win at the Memorial, making him one of the favourites next week at The Olympic Club. Mickelson has been US Open runner-up a record five times. In a bizarre coincidence, the US Open champion has twice played with Mickelson in the opening rounds – Woods in 2008, McIlroy last year at Congressional.

McIlroy does not usually play tournament golf the week before a major championship.

But he could make that policy a thing of the past should he flourish in Memphis at the St. Jude Classic, which got under way last night.

Having missed the cut in his last three tournaments worldwide, the 23-year-old decided to add the Memphis event to his PGA Tour schedule in a bid to sharpen his game for his title defence at the US Open.

“Getting here and playing the course this morning, and seeing how excited people are just to have us here, I’m really happy to be here,” Northern Irishman McIlroy said after the pro-am competition.