Click Here for Groupings and Starting Times for Rounds 1 and 2.
The PGA of America released tee times for the first two rounds of the 2021 PGA Championship today, which tees off at Kiawah Island's Ocean Course on Thursday morning.
Here's a look at three groups to watch:
Lee Westwood, Viktor Hovland, Xander Schauffele
Tee times: 8:22 a.m. Thursday (10th tee); 1:47 p.m. Friday (1st tee)
Notes: A feisty veteran in Lee Westwood, joined by two young guns in Viktor Hovland and Xander Schauffele -- three players who we could very well see competing at Whistling Straits in the Ryder Cup this September... A major championship victory is the only thing that eludes Westwood in what has been a stellar career, highlighted by 25 victories on the European Tour and two on the PGA Tour. This is the Englishman's 86th career major championship start. In the previous 85, he's made the cut 65 times with 19 top-10 finishes with two of those coming in the PGA Championship (T3 in 2009; T8 in 2011). He missed the cut at Kiawah in 2012. Westwood, 48, is not to be overlooked this week. He's enjoyed a resurgence this year on the PGA Tour with back-to-back runner-up finishes at Bay Hill and in the Players Championship... Hovland, just 23 years old, has two PGA Tour victories so far, including the 2020 Mayakoba Golf Classic in December. The Norwegian is the No. 11-ranked player in the world at the moment and comes to the PGA Championship on the strength of consecutive T3 finishes in his last two starts at the Valspar Championship and the Wells Fargo Championship... Schauffele is a 27-year-old, four-time PGA Tour winner. Though his last win was in 2019 at the Sentry Tournament of Champions, he's one of those players who it feels like could breakthrough any week now -- including in the majors. Remarkably, Schauffele has already racked up 10 top-10 finishes in just 15 major championship starts. A win is right around the corner.
Collin Morikawa, Bryson DeChambeau, Hideki Matsuyama
Tee times: 8:44 a.m. Thursday (10th tee); 2:09 p.m. Friday (1st tee)
Notes: Talk about a MAJOR threesome. This trio accounts for the winners of the last three majors played... Collin Morikawa is at Kiawah Island as the defending PGA Champion, having won at Harding Park last August in his PGA Championship debut. A month later, DeChambeau claimed his first major by winning the U.S. Open at Winged Foot. Matsuyama is the latest major champion. He became the first Japanese-born player to win the Masters back in April. Currently ranked No. 6 in the world, Morikawa has been solid since his win last August, adding a fourth victory to his career total at the WGC-Workday Championship in February to go along with three other top-10 finishes in 2021. Morikawa will come in well rested having last played in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans (a team event) in April... Ranked No. 5 in the OWGR, DeChambeau has been the best player on the PGA Tour so far this season. Along with the U.S. Open victory, he also won the Arnold Palmer Invitational and finished T3 at the Players Championship (a Pete Dye course, which is something to keep in mind this week at Kiawah Island). DeChambeau finished T4 in the 2020 PGA Championship... Hideki Matsuyama will be at Kiawah Island with a boatload of confidence after his impressive Masters victory. He returned to Japan to celebrate the historic win and made his first start since winning last week at the AT&T Byron Nelson, where he tied for 39th. Matsuyama has eight career top 10s in the majors, including two in the PGA Championship -- T4 in 2016 and T5 in 2017.
Webb Simpson, Will Zalatoris, Jordan Spieth
Tee times: 1:58 p.m. Thursday (1st tee); 8:33 a.m. Friday (10th tee)
Notes: Webb Simpson is consistently one of the PGA Tour's elite players and is annoyingly good at everything, particularly his ball striking (so important at Kiawah). Zalatoris had his coming out party with a runner-up finish at the Masters and Spieth has busted out of a slump in a big way in 2021... Simpson is just so consistently good. The North Carolina native counts the 2011 U.S. Open and 2018 Players Championship among his seven career PGA Tour wins. In 13 starts this season, he's finished among the top 25 nine times, including his last two starts with a T25 at the Masters and a T9 at the RBC Heritage. He did withdraw from his hometown Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow (where he's a member) two weeks ago citing a minor neck strain, so that's something to keep an eye on... Zalatoris, 24 years old, has made three career major championship starts. Two of them have yielded top-10 finishes: T6 at the 2020 U.S. Open and second at the 2021 Masters. It wouldn't be surprising at all to see Zalatoris make his first career PGA Tour victory a major... Spieth, a three-time major winner, needs only a PGA Championship victory to complete the career grand slam. A fun storyline, no doubt, but even more fun when you consider he's a legitimate favorite this week. Spieth slipped into a serious slump following his 2017 Open Championship win, but had been showing significant progress starting with a T4 at the Waste Management Phoenix Open in February. Three more top 10s would follow before culminating with his first win in four years at the Valero Texas Open. And he hasn't slowed since. Spieth finished T3 at the Masters the following week and then -- just last week, after revealing he had battled COVID -- Spieth was T9 at the AT&T Byron Nelson.
