The 2012 U.S. Open beings Thursday morning on an immaculate track of land nestled between Lake Merced and the Pacific Ocean. The toughest week in golf will be held at the Lake Course at The Olympic Club, a layout that rivals Oakmont for the most difficult setup in the Open rota.
The USGA is renowned for creating quirky and interesting groups, extrapolating out to find the most random or small commonalities to put three players together for the first two days. Local favorite Hunter Mahan will be playing alongside two more of the bright young stars of the game. Martin Kaymer was the best player in the world until he decided to alter his swing for the 2011 Masters and Justin Rose has been heralded as the next big thing in British golf for nearly 15 years (a potential which has come into full bloom over the past two seasons). Mahan, of course, is one of the top American golfers in the world and one of three two-time winners on Tour this year. Both Mahan and Rose captured the season's first two WGC events, and all three could be in contention on Sunday.
They will tee off the No. 9 tee at 4:25 p.m. ET in the afternoon wave. The USGA is using an atypical split-tee system for the first two days because of Olympic's layout. The No. 10 tee does not abut the clubhouse and the re-routing of fans to start players on that tee created a logistical problem. Thus, Mahan will go off No. 9 tee, which is located just below the men's locker room at Olympic.
The complete list of tee times and pairings for Thursday's first round is below. All times are Eastern.
Morning wave off No. 1 tee:
10:15 a.m.: Scott Langley, Steve Lebrun, Beau Hossler (a)
10:26 a.m.: Jason Bohn, Raphael Jacquelin, J. B. Park
10:37 a.m.: Michael Thompson, Colt Knost, Steve Marino
10:48 a.m.: Brendan Jones, George Coetzee, Gregory Bourdy
10:59 a.m.: Patrick Cantlay (a), Jonathan Byrd, Kyle Stanley
11:10 a.m.: Retief Goosen, Vijay Singh, Zach Johnson
11:21 a.m.: Paul Casey, Hiroyuki Fujita, Mark Wilson
11:32 a.m.: Adam Scott, Keegan Bradley, Webb Simpson
11:43 a.m.: Tim Clark Toru Taniguchi, Rod Pampling
11:54 a.m.: Francesco Molinari, Bo Van Pelt, Peter Hanson
12:05 p.m.: D. A. Points, Dong-Hwan Lee, Kevin Streelman
12:16 p.m.: Edward Loar, Paul Claxton, Alistair Presnell
12:27 p.m.: Mark McCormick, Nick Sherwood (a), Cole Howard
Morning wave off No. 9 tee:
10 a.m.: Shane Bertsch, Martin Flores, Tommy Biershenk
10:11 a.m.: Scott Piercy, Matthew Baldwin, Matt Bettencourt
10:22 a.m.: Thomas Bjorn, Kevin Na, Branden Grace
10:33 a.m.: Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods, Bubba Watson
10:44 a.m.: Joe Ogilvie, Stephen Ames, Tim Herron
10:55 a.m.: Davis Love III, Padraig Harrington, David Toms
11:06 a.m.: Carl Pettersson, Charl Schwartzel, Charles Howell III
11:17 a.m.: Robert Karlsson, Bob Estes, Robert Rock
11:28 a.m.: K. J. Choi, Y. E. Yang, K. T. Kim
11:39 a.m.: Fredrik Jacobson, Robert Garrigus, Alexander Noren
11:50 a.m.: Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, Sang-Moon Bae, Rafael Cabrera-Bello
12:01 p.m.: Marc Warren, Anthony Summers, Michael Allen
12:12 p.m.: Hunter Hamrick, Tim Weinhart, Scott Smith
Afternoon wave off No. 1 tee:
3:45 p.m.: Casey Martin, Cameron Wilson (a), Dennis Miller
3:56 p.m.: Jim Herman, William Lunde, David Mathis
4:07 p.m.: Nicolas Colsaerts, Charlie Wi, Simon Dyson
4:18 p.m.: Alvaro Quiros, Gary Woodland, John Senden
4:29 p.m.: Rory McIlroy, Luke Donald, Lee Westwood
4:40 p.m.: Jim Furyk, Sergio Garcia, Graeme McDowell
4:51 p.m.: Stewart Cink, Trevor Immelman, Lucas Glover
5:02 p.m.: Ernie Els, Geoff Ogilvy, Angel Cabrera
5:13 p.m.: Martin Laird, Ben Crane, Anders Hansen
5:24 p.m.: Matteo Manassero, Aaron Baddeley, Miguel Angel Jimenez
5:35 p.m.: Brian Harman, Spencer Levin, Mikko Ilonen
5:46 p.m.: Brice Garnett, Justin Hicks, Jesse Mueller
5:57 p.m.: Brian Rowell, Alberto Sanchez (a), Brian Gaffney
Afternoon wave off No. 9 tee:
3:30 p.m.: John Peterson, Morgan Hoffmann, Aaron Watkins
3:41 p.m.: Jeff Curl, Nicholas Thompson, Casey Wittenberg
3:52 p.m.: Soren Kjeldsen, Chez Reavie, Peter Lawrie
4:03 p.m.: Michael Campbell, Olin Browne, Joe Durant
4:14 p.m.: Bill Haas, Nick Watney, Brandt Snedeker
4:25 p.m.: Martin Kaymer, Hunter Mahan, Justin Rose
4:36 p.m.: Steve Stricker, Ian Poulter, Matt Kuchar
4:47 p.m.: Jason Day, Louis Oosthuizen, Jason Dufner
4:58 p.m.: Rickie Fowler, Ryo Ishikawa, Dustin Johnson
5:09 p.m.: Hunter Haas, Tadahiro Takayama, Lee Slattery
5:20 p.m.: Alex Cejka, Kevin Chappell, Blake Adams
5:31 p.m.: James Hahn, Darron Stiles, Roberto Castro
5:42 p.m.: Brooks Koepka (a), Kyle Thompson, Samuel Osborne
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