Aussies paired with champions as blockbuster groups revealed for Masters first round

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Defending champion Rory McIlroy will tee off alongside third-ranked Cameron Young and US Amateur winner Mason Howell on Thursday in first-round tee times for the 90th Masters.

McIlroy, the world number two from Northern Ireland who completed a career Grand Slam last year with his first Masters title, starts in Thursday’s 15th group at 10:31am (12:31am AEST). Young won last month’s Players Championship while fellow American Howell captured last year’s US Amateur at The Olympic Club in San Francisco aged 18.

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Former Open championship winner Cameron Smith is first off for the Australians, at 11:19pm AEST on Thursday. Then comes Jason Day (11:43pm), 2013 Masters winner Adam Scott (2:03am Friday) and Min Woo Lee (2:15am Friday).

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Adam Scott of Australia plays a shot from the third tee during a practice round prior to the 2026 Masters Tournament at Augusta National.Source: AFP

In other groupings, top-ranked Scottie Scheffler is in the 30th and penultimate group alongside fellow American Gary Woodland and Scotsman Robert MacIntyre.

Two-time Masters winner Scheffler, the reigning PGA Championship and British Open champion, won at LaQuinta earlier this year.

Woodland took an emotional PGA Houston Open victory two weeks ago, his first triumph since the 2019 US Open. Earlier last month, Woodland revealed he still fights anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder following 2023 brain surgery.

MacIntyre, last year’s US Open runner-up, was second in last week’s Texas Open. Following ceremonial starters Jack Nicklaus, Gary Players and Tom Watson, are the twosome of American John Keefer and China’s Li Haotong.

Americans Bryson DeChambeau and Xander Schauffele and England’s Matt Fitzpatrick are paired, with Americans Collin Morikawa and Russell Henley joining Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama 12 minutes later in the group just ahead of McIlroy’s trio.

Other later groups include Spain’s Jon Rahm, Sweden’s Ludvig Aberg and American Chris Gotterup, followed by England’s Justin Rose and Americans Brooks Koepka and Jordan Spieth.

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Cameron Smith of Australia hits out of a greenside bunker on the second hole during a practice round.Source: Getty Images

AUSTRALIAN PLAYERS’ GROUPS (local time, AEST)

9:19am/11:19pm — Cameron Smith, Sam Burns, Jake Knapp

9:43am/11:43pm — Dustin Johnson, Shane Lowry, Jason Day

12:03pm/2:03am — Adam Scott, Daniel Berger, Brian Harman

12:15pm/2:15am — Fred Couples, Min Woo Lee, Fifa Laopakdee (a)

Rory McIlroy watches his tee shot on the 17th hole during a practice round.Source: AP

FEATURED GROUPS (local time, AEST)

9:55am/11:55pm — Patrick Reed, Tommy Fleetwood, Akshay Bhatia

10:07am/12:07am — Bryson DeChambeau, Matt Fitzpatrick, Xander Schauffele