Woods, Mickelson, Watson Grouped for First 2 Rounds of U.S. Open

Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Bubba Watson will play in the same group for the first two rounds of next week’s U.S Open, the U.S. Golf Association announced.

Woods is a three-time U.S. Open champion, while Mickelson has five runner-up finishes in the event to go with three Masters Tournament titles and the 2005 PGA Championship crown. Watson won the Masters in April for his first major victory.

Golf’s second major tournament of the year is scheduled for June 14-17 at the Olympic Club’s Lake Course in San Francisco. The trio will begin first-round play at 7:33 a.m. local time and their second round at 1:29 p.m.

Defending champion Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland will play with England’s Luke Donald and Lee Westwood in a group featuring the top three players in the Official World Golf Ranking. Donald holds the No. 1 spot, followed by McIlroy and Westwood.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mike Buteau in Atlanta at mbuteau@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Sillup at msillup@bloomberg.net