(Reuters) – The opening round of the U.S. Open began under sunny skies on Thursday at Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina where many top contenders, including tournament favourite Scottie Scheffler, were still hours from teeing off.
Masters champion and world number one Scheffler, fresh off Sunday’s one-shot triumph at the Memorial Tournament, will head out in a high-profile threesome with Rory McIlroy and Xander Schauffele at 1:14 p.m ET (1714 GMT) at Pinehurst No. 2.
Scheffler enters a major that is considered the toughest test in golf riding high as the first player to win five times in a season on the PGA Tour before the U.S. Open since Tom Watson in 1980.
“I’m not thinking about my wins anymore. All I’m focused on is this week and getting ready to play,” Scheffler said pre-tournament. “Just because I won last week doesn’t give me any shots against the field this week.”
World number two Schauffele, who has six top-10 finishes at the U.S. Open, will be looking to build on his PGA Championship victory last month while Northern Irishman McIlroy, third in the rankings, is aiming to end his 10-year major drought this week.
Among the notable early starters is Tiger Woods, the injury-ravaged three-time U.S. Open champion who accepted a special exemption to play in the year’s third major.
Woods, one of only three players in the field this week who competed in the 1999 U.S. Open at Pinehurst, will start from the back nine at 7:29 a.m. in the company of 2022 champion Matt Fitzpatrick and former runner-up Will Zalatoris.
Major champions Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa and Brooks Koepka will start from the first tee at 7:40 a.m. while six-time runner-up Phil Mickelson, who needs a win this week to complete the career Grand Slam, will be a further group back.
Bryson DeChambeau, one of 12 LIV Golf players in the 156-player field this week and less than a month after his runner-up finish at the PGA Championship, will head out from the 10th hole at 1:25 p.m. with Viktor Hovland and Max Homa.
Defending champion Wyndham Clark, eager to jump-start a season in which he has missed the cut at the first two majors, will be one group behind Scheffler’s threesome and playing with Nick Dunlap and reigning British Open champion Brian Harman.
The last five winners of the U.S. Open were all first-time major champions.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto; Editing by Toby Davis)
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