Tiger Woods is ready for the 113th U.S. Open championship from Merion and despite the weather wreaking havoc on the course, players are ready to tee off on Thursday and Woods will be in an all-star grouping with Rory McIlroy and Adam Scott for the first two rounds.
The defending champion is Webb Simpson and the tee times begin early in the morning before 7 AM and the USGA is hoping to get the full round in without any weather issues. The Merion Golf Club offers a tough challenge for players and the short course could mean some high scores and low scores depending on how they play the tees. The location has held a number of majors over the years and the attention will be on Woods as the favorite, as he is preparing to try and break his major drought after winning the U.S. Open back in 2008 in a Monday playoff.
The first two rounds will have players starting early from the first tee and the 11th tee and depending on the weather, some holes and scheduling could change, but the organizers are hoping to avoid that. The greens have already been flooded from rain during the weekend and that could make for some interesting putting as things move along. Woods has played very well on tour this season and despite playing poorly at the Memorial two weeks ago, he is ready to tray and add his fifth win of the season and his first major since getting back to the number one ranked golfer in the world.
Woods has won four times on Tour to lead all players and after taking the Farmers Insurance Open, he won the WGC Cadillac Championship, Players Championship and the Arnold Palmer Invitational and after coming in the top five at Augusta for the Masters, he will be looked at as favorite once again. Scott is coming off of a win at the Masters and a win at the Open would make him the first player to do that since Woods did it. Phil Mickelson will be looking for a good showing over the weekend, as will McIlroy, who has had a tough start to the year since winning one major each year over the past two.
The same players will be grouped for the first two rounds before the cuts are made and it marks the first time that Woods and Sergio Garcia will be playing together since they had drama at the Players and his racist joke. Garcia and Woods went back and forth about what happened when Garcia was distracted on the course and later he made a bad joke and apologized. He saw Woods on the course and they shook hands and Tiger was very mature about it while saying it was behind him and he is focusing on golf.
