As Justin Thomas and Rory McIlroy can attest, playing with a revived Tiger Woods in a PGA Tour event may be a wicked awesome experience, but the fan frenzy surrounding any grouping that includes the 14-time major winner can also be frustrating and exhausting for even the best golfers in the world.
Valspar Championship 2018: Tiger Woods’ tee time, plus full pairings for Thursday
One by one, the millennial upstarts are getting their shot at playing with living legend Tiger Woods.
After Tiger-mania at Riviera drove McIlroy to the aspirin bottle and led Thomas to shrug it off (“You get used to it,” he said after the second round of the Genesis Open), this week it’s Jordan Spieth’s turn inside the crucible at the Valspar Championship. The world No. 4 will try to tune out the hysteria and attempt to win his 12th tour title; Henrik Stenson rounds out the marquee threesome.
As usual whenever and wherever Tiger appears, all eyes will be on the Woods-Spieth-Stenson trio, which has a 12:46 p.m. ET tee time off the first tee on Thursday and a 7:56 a.m. start on Friday off No. 10.
As the tour swings back to Florida after a quick stop in Mexico, Thursday will mark the Valspar debut of Woods, who had a week off after finishing 12th at the Honda Classic and needs competitive reps ahead of the Masters in April. Spieth, for his part, beat Patrick Reed in a playoff for the tourney title in 2015.
It will be McIlroy’s first Valspar as well, and he’ll navigate the track in the company of Justin Rose and Gary Woodland. The Ulsterman will once again be on the opposite side of the draw from Woods (7:45 a.m. Thursday off No. 10, 12:35 p.m. on the first), which is to McIlroy’s liking, since his stint with Woods at Riviera gave him a headache.
In another star-studded group, reigning Masters champ Sergio Garcia will start the Valspar at 7:56 a.m. on No. 10 on Thursday/12:46 p.m on off No. 1 on Friday with Adam Scott and Matt Kuchar. Garcia is coming off a T7 finish at the WGC-Mexico Championship while Scott’s 2018 has been a disappointment so far.
Here are all the tee times for round 1 at the Valspar:
Off No. 1 tee:
- 6:50 a.m.: Chris Couch, Martin Flores, Beau Hossler
- 7:01 a.m.: Ben Martin, Whee Kim, Michael Kim
- 7:12 a.m.: Jason Kokrak, Luke List, Patrick Rodgers
- 7:23 a.m.: Ryan Moore, Davis Love III, Charles Howell III
- 7:34 a.m.: Rod Pampling, William McGirt, Stewart Cink
- 7:45 a.m.: Billy Horschel, D.A. Points, Brian Gay
- 7:56 a.m.: Grayson Murray, Patrick Reed, Chris Kirk
- 8:07 a.m.: Charley Hoffman, Webb Simpson, Steve Stricker
- 8:18 a.m.: J.J. Henry, Danny Lee, Keegan Bradley
- 8:29 a.m.: Troy Merritt, Robert Garrigus, Ross Fisher
- 8:40 a.m.: Corey Conners, Zecheng Dou, Rod Perry
- 8:51 a.m.: Abraham Ancer, Ben Silverman, Ty Strafaci
- 11:40 a.m.: Chez Reavie, Jamie Lovemark, Kevin Tway
- 11:51 a.m.: Retief Goosen, Martin Piller, Brandon Harkins
- 12:02 p.m.: Chad Campbell, Bob Estes, Tom Hoge
- 12:13 p.m.: Cameron Smith, Smylie Kaufman, Padraig Harrington
- 12:24 p.m.: Austin Cook, Bryson DeChambeau, Brian Stuard
- 12:35 p.m.: Adam Hadwin, Tony Finau, Charl Schwartzel
- 12:46 p.m.: Henrik Stenson, Jordan Spieth, Tiger Woods
- 12:57 p.m.: Jimmy Walker, Graeme McDowell, Sangmoon Bae
- 1:08 p.m.: John Huh, Tyrone Van Aswegen, Ryan Blaum
- 1:19 p.m.: Kevin Streelman, Lucas Glover, Sung Kang
- 1:30 p.m.: Brice Garnett, Sam Ryder, T.J. Vogel
- 1:41 p.m.: Aaron Wise, Xinjun Zhang, Dylan Meyer
Off No. 10 tee:
- 6:50 a.m.: J.B. Holmes, Chesson Hadley, Louis Oosthuizen
- 7:01 a.m.: Scott Brown, Rory Sabbatini, Richy Werenski
- 7:12 a.m.: Byeong Hun An, Harold Varner III, Kelly Kraft
- 7:23 a.m.: Ryan Armour, Jason Dufner, Peter Malnati
- 7:34 a.m.: Fabián Gómez, David Lingmerth, Luke Donald
- 7:45 a.m.: Gary Woodland, Justin Rose, Rory McIlroy
- 7:56 a.m.: Sergio Garcia, Adam Scott, Matt Kuchar
- 8:07 a.m.: Aaron Baddeley, Billy Hurley III, Ernie Els
- 8:18 a.m.: Camilo Villegas, Bud Cauley, Blayne Barber
- 8:29 a.m.: Robert Streb, Harris English, C.T. Pan
- 8:40 a.m.: Seamus Power, Stephan Jaeger, Sam Burns
- 8:51 a.m.: Jonathan Randolph, Tom Lovelady, Jack Maguire
- 11:40 a.m.: Alex Cejka, Scott Stallings, Sean O’Hair
- 11:51 a.m.: Ian Poulter, Colt Knost, Derek Fathauer
- 12:02 p.m.: Bill Haas, Geoff Ogilvy, Matthew Fitzpatrick
- 12:13 p.m.: Russell Knox, Nick Watney, Paul Casey
- 12:24 p.m.: Ted Potter, Jr., Mackenzie Hughes, Greg Chalmers
- 12:35 p.m.: Branden Grace, Brandt Snedeker, Jim Furyk
- 12:46 p.m.: Vaughn Taylor, Shane Lowry, Zach Johnson
- 12:57 p.m.: Si Woo Kim, Hudson Swafford, Matt Every
- 1:08 p.m.: Nick Taylor, Martin Laird, Kevin Na
- 1:19 p.m.: Ryan Palmer, Ollie Schniederjans, Dominic Bozzelli
- 1:30 p.m.: Sam Saunders, Nicholas Lindheim, Jimmy Stanger
1:41 p.m.: Trey Mullinax, Talor Gooch, Tyler Duncan
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