It's a rare sight, but the world's fifth and sixth ranked golfers, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, have been paired together for the opening rounds of PGA Tour events.
Around golf circles, it has become somewhat of a joke that these two superb golfers have never been paired together during preliminary PGA Tour events, even though the system is supposedly random. But this week, the tour is making it very clear that they want Woods and Mickelson paired together for the opening round of the WGC-Cadillac Championship, ESPN.com reports.
Woods and Mickelson will play with current US Open champion Graeme McDowell, who is ranked fourth in the world. Their tee time is set for 11:51 a.m. on Thursday from Doral's 10th tee, followed by a 12:54 p.m. start on Friday from the No. 1.
For this event, the top 21 players in the world have been grouped by rankings — hence Woods (fifth) and Mickelson's (sixth) pairing. Even though both are usually in the top tier, they have never been grouped together to start a tournament.
The last time these two met during a non-major championship was at the 2007 Deutsche Bank Championship. Before 2007, they were paired at the 2002 Tour Championship.
