By Mark Lamport-Stokes
Aug 3 (Reuters) – Four-times winner Tiger Woods has been
drawn to play alongside holder Keegan Bradley and former
champion Martin Kaymer in the first two rounds of next week’s
PGA Championship, organisers announced on Friday.
American Woods, who clinched the most recent of his titles
in 2007, is scheduled to tee off with compatriot Bradley and
Germany’s Kaymer from the 10th hole at 8:30 a.m. ET (1230 GMT)
in Thursday’s opening round at Kiawah Island.
Bradley won his first major title as a PGA Tour rookie at
last year’s PGA Championship in Atlanta while Kaymer triumphed
in the year’s final major at Whistling Straits in 2010.
In keeping with tradition, this season’s first three major
winners have been grouped together – South African Ernie Els
(British Open), Webb Simpson (U.S. Open) and fellow American
Bubba Watson (Masters).
Els and company are set to start on the first tee at 1:20
p.m. at the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island in South Carolina.
In other high-profile groupings, former winners Padraig
Harrington (2008), Phil Mickelson (2005) and U.S. Ryder Cup
captain Davis Love III (1997) will play together while 2011 U.S.
Open champion Rory McIlroy has been grouped with Americans
Dustin Johnson and Jim Furyk.
British world number one Luke Donald will set off in the
opening round in the company of two more Americans, Brandt
Snedeker and Zach Johnson.
David Toms, who won the 2001 PGA Championship at Atlanta
Athletic Club, has been paired with fellow Americans Shaun
Micheel and John Daly, both former winners.
(Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes in Akron, Ohio; Editing by
Frank Pingue)
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