2015 U.S. Open tee times: Pairings and start time for Friday’s round

Tiger Woods will have little time to recover from his career-worst U.S. Open round. The 14-time major winner posted his opening 80, met with the media, and then hustled away from Chambers Bay around 8 p.m. local. He’ll return to the course early in the morning on Friday, work through his warm-up routine, and then head back out for more punishment at 8:28 a.m. local time.

Woods will play with Rickie Fowler and Louis Oosthuizen. Their star power aside, that trio was probably the worst group on the entire course on Thursday and most of the damage came from the two biggest names -- Rickie and Tiger. Fowler was even worse with an 11-over 81 that put him all by himself in second-to-last place. Only club pro Rich Berberian, Jr. posted a worse number.

Both Tiger and Rickie are seven to eight shots below the cut line. Crazier things have happened, and they could make it respectable with their round on Friday. But they’re likely headed home so look on the bright side -- at least that early tee time lets them get the hell out of the Pacific Northwest by lunchtime on Friday. The private jets are probably already on alert and making preparations.

The U.S. Open is always one of the bigger logistical challenges of the season. Unlike the Masters, which takes great pains to keep their field exclusive and under 100 players, the season’s second major sends out 156 invites. It requires sun-up to sun-down golf and 52 groups of three going off split tees. When the event is usually held back in the northeast, the mid-June date often delivers heavy thunderstorms that throw the schedule off by a day or two.

But despite Seattle’s reputation for always being rainy, the weather this week has been perfect. It’s the best time of the year in this area, and the forecast has held true all week. Friday was thought to be the one day that the course could take on some rain but that threat has receded significantly. There’s only a 20 percent chance for rain, and it should not be the kind of lightning and heavy stuff that delays the U.S. Open.

So everything should stay on schedule heading into the weekend and the cut down on Friday night. Tiger and Rickie are a few of the big names playing in the morning, but the group ahead of them, featuring Jordan Spieth and Jason Day, are the ones posting championship-competitive scores. Both Day and Spieth are T7 after opening with 2-under 68s, and they’ll go back out at 8:17 a.m. local.

On the other side of the draw, world No. 1 Rory McIlroy and six-time U.S. Open runner-up Phil Mickelson will enter the spotlight of primetime golf back east. One of the big benefits of these occasional west coast opens is the late coverage across all four days. It’s something the USGA has embraced in the past decade or so for Sunday finishes, but it’s unavoidable in the first two rounds when there are still 156 players to get through 36 holes.

Mickelson will go first at 1:33 p.m. local, setting up a finish around 9:30 or 10 p.m. back in the east given the brutally slow pace of play. Rory is in the Tiger spot from Thursday, teeing off at 5:28 p.m. ET and finishing around 11 p.m. on FOX.

Here’s the full tee sheet for Friday’s second round (all times ET):

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