The Open Championship 2003- Event Preview

Tuesday's draw sets up an intriguing re-run of their memorable 1999 U.S. PGA Championship final-day encounter when Garcia, playing in a different group, took Woods to the wire before losing to the American by a shot at Medinah.

Woods will be out for revenge himself on Garcia, though, after the Spaniard helped Europe to beat the United States in September's Ryder Cup at the Belfry.

Luke Donald, the fast-improving Briton who plays on the U.S. PGA Tour, is the third player in the match which tees off at 0809 GMT on Thursday.

"It should be fun," said Woods at a news conference on Tuesday. "As for Luke, I've had dinner with him a few times but never played with him. But he's a class act."

Ernie Els, the Open holder and winner of last week's Scottish Open, has been drawn with Japan's Shigeki Maruyama, who was tied for fifth in last year's championship, and David Toms, the 2001 U.S. PGA champion. They start at 1254 on Thursday.

The U.S Open champion Jim Furyk will tee off at 1316 with South African Trevor Immelman and Paul Casey of Britain, two of the brightest young talents on the European Tour.

Left-handed Canadian Mike Weir, who is the U.S. Masters champion, has a 0658 start on Thursday with Britain's leading amateur Gary Wolstenholme and the 1998 British Open champion Mark O'Meara.

Briton Iain Pyman has the honour in a 156-strong field of striking the first blow at Royal St George's at 0530 which is the earliest start of recent years after many first day late starters have been forced to finish in the twilight.

0530 1026 Iain Pyman, Hennie Otto (South Africa) Christopher Smith

0541 1037 David Lynn, Steve Flesch (U.S.), Gary Emerson

0552 1048 Stewart Cink (U.S.), Peter Lonard (Australia), S.K.Ho (South Korea)

0603 1059 Gary Evans, Fred Funk (U.S.), Stephen Leaney (Australia)

0614 1110 Tom Watson (U.S.), Sandy Lyle, Fred Couples (U.S.)

0625 1121 Angel Cabrera (Argentina), Charles Howell III (U.S.), Phillip Price

0636 1132 Davis Love III (U.S.), Darren Clarke, Shingo Katayama (Japan)

0647 1143 Jesper Parnevik (Sweden), Peter O'Malley (Australia), Duffy Waldorf (U.S.)

0658 1154 Mike Weir (Canada), a-Gary Wolstenholme (U.S.), Mark O'Meara (U.S.)

0709 1205 Robert Allenby (Australia), Katsuyoshi Tomori (Japan), Hal Sutton (U.S.)

0720 1216 Thomas Levet (France), Retief Goosen (South Africa), David Duval (U.S.)

0731 1227 Hideto Tanihara (Japan), Jrery Kelly (U.S.), Rory Sabbatini (South Africa)

0742 1238 Justin Leonard (U.S.), Greg Norman (Australia), Jose Maria Olazabal (Spain)

0758 1254 Toru Taniguchi (Japan), Mathias Gronberg (Sweden), Tom Byrum (U.S.)

0809 1305 Sergio Garcia (Spain), Tiger Woods (U.S.), Luke Donald

0820 1316 Kenny Perry (U.S.), Padraig Harrington (Ireland), Stuart Appleby (Australia)

0831 1327 Ian Poulter, Corey Pavin (U.S.), David Smail (New Zealand)

0842 1338 Nick Faldo, Tom Lehman (U.S.), Thomas Bjorn (Denmark)

0853 1349 Skip Kendall (U.S.), Brian Davis, Raphael Jacquelin (France)

0904 1400 Chris Riley (U.S.), Niclas Fasth (Sweden), Greg Owen

0915 1411 Chad Campbell (U.S.), Mark Roe, Mark Smith

0926 1422 Anders Hansen (Denmark), Jyoti Randhawa (India), John Rollins (U.S.)

0937 1433 Todd Hamilton (U.S.), Malcolm Mackenzie, Steen Tinning (Denmark)

0948 1444 Marco Ruiz (Paraguay), Cliff Kresge (U.S.), Robert Coles

0959 1455 Mark Foster, Cameron Percy (Australia), Paul Wesselingh

1010 1506 Euan Little, Peter Fowler (Australia), Marten Olander (Sweden)

1026 0530 Gary Murphy (Ireland), Rolf Muntz (Netherlands), Simon Wakefield

1037 0541 Ian Woosnam, Dudley Hart (U.S.), a-Scott Godfrey

1048 0552 Chris Smith (U.S.), Mark McNulty (Zimbabwe), Bradley Dredge

1059 0603 Mark Calcavecchia (U.S.), KJ Choi (South Korea), Fredrik Jacobson (Sweden)

1110 0614 Colin Montgomerie, Brad Faxon (U.S.), Steve Elkington (Australia)

1121 0625 Jay Haas (U.S.), Eduardo Romero (Argentina), Craig Parry (Australia)

1132 0636 Vijay Singh (Fiji), Rich Beem (U.S.), John Daly (U.S.)

1143 0647 Jeff Sluman (U.S.), Noboru Sagai (Japan), Alastair Forsyth

1154 0658 Phil Mickelson (U.S.), Paul Lawrie, Adam Scott (Australia)

1205 0709 Michael Campbell (New Zealand), Hirofumi Miyase (Japan), Scott McCarron (U.S.)

1216 0720 Nick Price (Zimbabwe), a-Ricky Barnes (U.S.), Justin Rose

1227 0732 Len Mattiace (U.S.), Ignacio Garrido (Spain), Jose Coceres (Argentina)

1238 0742 Chris Di Marco (U.S.), Nobuhito Sato (Japan), Lee Westwood

1254 0758 Shigeki Maruyama (Japan), Ernie Els (South Africa), David Toms (U.S.)

1305 0809 Paul Azinger (U.S.), Craig Perks (New Zealand), Charl Schwartzel (South Africa)

1316 0820 Jim Furyk (U.S.), Trevor Immelman (South Africa), Paul Casey

1327 0831 Scott Verplank (U.S.), Paul McGinley (Ireland), Nick O'Hern (Australia)

1338 0842 Bob Estes (U.S.), Bernhard Langer (Germany), Lee Janzen (U.S.)

1349 0853 JL Lewis (U.S.), David Howell, Robert-Jan Derksen (Netherlands)

1400 0904 Pierre Fulke (Sweden), Ben Curtis (U.S.), Anthony Wall

1411 0915 Philip Golding, Ben Crane (U.S.), Jarrod Moseley (Australia)

1422 0926 Jonathan Kaye (U.S.), Soren Hansen (Denmark), Steven Bowditch (Australia)

1433 0937 Soren Kjeldsen (Denmark), Andrew George, Andrew Raitt

1444 0948 Joe Durant (U.S.), Kenneth Ferrie, Markus Brier (Austria)

1455 0959 Adam Mednick (Sweden), Andrew Oldcorn, Adam Le Vesconte (Australia)

1506 1010 Matthew Goggin (Australia), Anthony Sproston, Charles Challen

Email this page to a friend | Return to top of page