England’s David Howell will make his Masters Tournament debut in the very first group when the season’s first Major Championship gets underway on Thursday.
The Ryder Cup player will tee off at 8.05 ET alongside Americans Jonathan Kaye and Ted Purdy.
The draw for the first two rounds has pitched some notable names together including World Number One Vijay Singh of Fiji and England’s Lee Westwood, the two European Tour Members setting off at 10.49 ET along with American Chad Campbell.
Westwood’s ISM stablemate Darren Clarke is also in one of the marquee groups late in the day with the Ulsterman in the third last group at 1.33 ET alongside World Number Two Tiger Woods and Paraguayan Carlos Franco.
They will be followed by European Number One and last year’s runner-up Ernie Els of South Africa as the World Number Three launches his bid for the Green Jacket at 1.44 ET in the group that includes fellow European Tour Member Adam Scott of Australia and American David Toms.
Swede Joakim Haegmann, who like Howell will be experiencing the magic of Augusta National for the first time, lines up with England’s Ian Poulter at 9.16ET.
Another debutant, Australian left hander Nick O’Hern, will partner fellow European Tour Member Retief Goosen, who will be aiming to go one better than his second place finish in 2002 to add a Green Jacket to his two US Open Championship titles, when they set off at 9.49 with American Stewart Cink.
Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell will tee off at 12.22 alongside double Masters Champion Ben Crenshaw and South African Tim Clark while Luke Donald of England will strike his first tee shot in the Masters at 1.00 when his threeball gets underway.
José Maria Olazábal, Masters Champion in 1994 and 1999, will be looking to build on his runner-up finish in last week;s BellSouth Classic, when he tees off with Dane Thomas Bjorn and American Justin Leonard at 10.27ET.
Phil Mickelson begins his title defence with US Amateur Champion Ryan Moore and Australian Stuart Appleby for company. They go out at 10.38am.
