By Frank Pingue
AUGUSTA, Georgia (Reuters) – Jon Rahm will launch his Masters title defence on Thursday alongside Matt Fitzpatrick and Nick Dunlap while pre-tournament favourite Scottie Scheffler will be in a high-profile group with Rory McIlroy and Xander Schauffele.
LIV Golf’s Rahm, bidding to become the fourth player to repeat as Masters champion, will go out in the 13th group at 10:30 a.m. ET (1430 GMT) when forecasts are predicting a 90% chance of showers and thunderstorms.
McIlroy, who this week is looking to complete the career Grand Slam of winning golf’s four major championships, will be trailing one group behind with 2022 Masters champion Scheffler and reigning Olympic champion Schauffele.
Five-times Masters champion Tiger Woods, in only his second event this season given nagging injury issues, will go out in the fourth-to-last group at 1:24 p.m. ET alongside Australian Jason Day and world number 11 Max Homa.
Former Masters champion Dustin Johnson, one of 13 players from the Saudi-backed LIV Golf circuit in the field at Augusta National this week, will head out in the day’s final group with Collin Morikawa and England’s Tommy Fleetwood.
Among other notable LIV Golf players at the year’s first major is reigning PGA Championship winner Brooks Koepka, who will play the opening two rounds with 2023 British Open champion Brian Harman and South Korea’s Tom Kim.
LIV Golf’s Phil Mickelson, a three-times Masters winner who finished runner-up last year after an impeccable final round, will go out among the early starters on Thursday alongside fellow American Tony Finau and Austria’s Sepp Straka.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue; Editing by Ken Ferris)
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