Tiger paired with Day, Homa for first two rounds at the Masters

AUGUSTA, Ga. — 5-time Masters champion Tiger Woods‘ return to Augusta Nationwide Golf Membership will start Thursday in a featured group with Jason Day and Max Homa.

Woods, 48, will likely be trying to interrupt the Masters report along with his twenty fourth consecutive made minimize. He’ll tee off in Thursday’s first spherical at 1:24 p.m. ET and at 10:18 a.m. ET within the second spherical on Friday.

That is likely to be a break for Woods, who struggled to stroll in moist and chilly circumstances after making the minimize on the 2023 Masters. He battled plantar fasciitis in his proper foot earlier than withdrawing previous to the weather-delayed third spherical resuming.

Thursday’s climate forecast requires a 95% likelihood of thunderstorms within the morning, adopted by scattered storms within the afternoon.

Defending champion Jon Rahm is taking part in in one other featured group with reigning U.S. Novice champion Nick Dunlap and England’s Matt Fitzpatrick. They will tee off at 10:30 a.m. ET within the first spherical and 1:36 p.m. ET within the second.

Rahm, who’s now taking part in within the LIV Golf League, will try to turn into the primary back-to-back Masters winner since Woods in 2001-02. He could be the primary Masters champion from LIV Golf.

World No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler is taking part in with Rory McIlroy and Xander Schauffele. They tee off at 10:42 a.m ET on Thursday and 1:48 p.m. ET on Friday.

McIlroy, the No. 2 golfer on the earth, will try to finish the tenth profession Grand Slam by profitable a inexperienced jacket. He would turn into solely the sixth participant in males’s golf to perform the feat, becoming a member of Woods, Ben Hogan, Gene Sarazen, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Participant.

“No query, he’ll do it sooner or later,” Woods stated Tuesday. “Rory’s too gifted, too good. He will be taking part in this occasion for a really very long time. He’ll get it finished. It is only a matter of when. However, sure, I believe that Rory will likely be an ideal Masters champion sooner or later, and it might be this week. You by no means know.”

Reigning U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark, 2023 FedEx Cup winner Viktor Hovland and LIV Golf League captain Cameron Smith are taking part in in a featured group that tees off at 10:54 a.m. ET Thursday and a couple of:00 p.m. ET on Friday.

The opposite featured group contains former Masters champion Dustin Johnson, two-time main winner Collin Morikawa and Tommy Fleetwood. That trio tees off at 2 p.m. ET Thursday and 10:54 a.m. ET Friday.