The Memorial Tournament 2015: Tee times, pairings for Thursday’s round

Tiger Woods begins a busy summer that is a hopeful return to relevance and competitive golf on Thursday at the Memorial. After a lost 2014 season to injury and inconsistency, the first half of his 2015 campaign has been a messy mix of swing alterations, short game disasters, and non-competitive golf. When he finished four rounds at The Players, it was the first time in almost 600 days that he completed the final round in two straight PGA Tour starts. Now he’ll begin a stretch where he could play seven of the next 11 weeks, which might be easy work for most commoners, but is an inordinately busy summer for Woods.

As is the case with so many of these non-majors on the annual PGA Tour schedule, the Memorial is an event where Tiger feels instantly comfortable. He missed those spots through first quarter of the year, withdrawing at Torrey Pines and skipping both Bay Hill and Doral on the Florida swing. His dominance at the Memorial is not as significant as at those venues, but he still has five career wins here -- three more than Jack Nicklaus, the course’s architect and the host who lords over everything at this tournament.

Tiger last won here in 2012, when he authored that incredible chip shot that prompted Nicklaus to say, “I don’t think under the circumstances I’ve ever seen a better shot.” So Woods has good memories and vibes around Muirfield Village. That’s likely part of the reason he didn’t bother to get into town until late Tuesday night after spending a few days out in Seattle getting acquainted with Chambers Bay. But this is definitely a different Woods, one who is trying to sort through another swing alteration, avoid further injury at an advanced age, and scrambling just to keep the ball in play.

Woods will get it started bright and early, playing in the morning draw of the first round with Patrick Reed and Jason Day. They’re set to go off No. 10 at 8:15 a.m. ET.

This is an event notorious for having terrible weather that constantly interrupts play and destroys the schedule. But after a menacing early-week forecast, things actually look okay for the next four days. Thursday’s round should be relatively clean and Tiger should finish up well before the Golf Channel broadcast goes live at 2:30 p.m. He will, however, play on the PGATour.com featured groups stream that will be up and running for his tee time in the morning.

Tiger’s tee time and the group right behind him, featuring Jordan Spieth, should suck up most of the oxygen on the morning side. The afternoon draw and TV broadcast will feature Phil Mickelson. Tiger and Phil are almost never placed on the same side of the tee sheet. They were at TPC Sawgrass last month, a startling indication that the Tour felt comfortable enough with some of the young guns now carrying things. But Phil will anchor things in the afternoon, playing with defending champ Hideki Matsuyama and Players Champion Rickie Fowler at 1:16 p.m. ET.

Here’s the full tee sheet for the opening round at Muirfield Village.