Tee times have been released for the first two rounds of this week’s Shell Houston Open, and one of the featured groups includes two of the top six players in the Official World Golf Ranking, along with the defending champion.
No. 2 Lee Westwood and No. 6 Phil Mickelson will be part of a threesome that also includes Anthony Kim, who beat Vaughn Taylor in a playoff last year at Redstone. Kim is ranked No. 41 in the world. (PGATOUR.COM will have more on this featured group on Wednesday.)
The Westwood-Mickelson-Kim trio will tee off at 1:40 p.m. ET Thursday off the first tee. Click here for tee times.
Playing in the next group behind that threesome is Transitions Championship winner Gary Woodland, along with multiple-major winners Ernie Els and Padraig Harrington.
Local favorite Fred Couples, who played collegiately at the University of Houston, will be joined by Matt Kuchar and Hunter Mahan in a group that tees off at 8:50 a.m. ET off the 10th tee Thursday. Kuchar and Mahan are in line to be part of Couples’ U.S. team at this year’s Presidents Cup in Melbourne, Australia.
Jhonattan Vegas, the Bob Hope Classic winner, will be paired with Davis Love III and Jose Maria Olazabal, the two Ryder Cup captains in 2012. That threesome tees off immediately behind the Couples group in the first two rounds.
Other groups of interest:
Native Texans Justin Leonard, Scott Verplank and Johnson Wagner will tee off at 2 p.m. ET off the first tee Thursday. Wagner won the Shell Houston Open in 2008 and also won earlier this year at the Mayakoba Golf Classic at Riviera Maya-Cancun.
Long-hitting Robert Garrigus is paired with reigning British Open champ Louis Oosthuizen and Aaron Baddeley, who won the Northern Trust Open earlier this year. They tee off at 1:40 p.m. ET Thursday off the 10th tee.
International stars Stuart Appleby of Australia, Y.E. Yang of Korea and Francesco Molinari of Italy play in the next group at 1:50 p.m. ET. Yang is ninth in Presidents Cup points for the International team, while Appleby is 20th.
FEATURED GROUPS
| New Breed | Establishment | Rd. 1 tee time (tee) | Rd. 2 tee time (tee) |
| Matt Kuchar, Hunter Mahan | Fred Couples | 8:50 a.m. ET (10th) | 1:40 p.m. ET (1st) |
| Jhonattan Vegas | Davis Love, Jose M. Olazabal | 9 a.m. ET (10th) | 1:50 p.m. ET (1st) |
| Anthony Kim | Phil Mickelson, Lee Westwood | 1:40 p.m. ET (1st) | 8:50 a.m. ET (10th) |
| Gary Woodland | Ernie Els, Padraig Harrington | 1:50 p.m. ET (1st) | 9 a.m. ET (10th) |
See more here:
Tour Report: Key groups set for first two rounds (PGATOUR.com)