Ernie Els and Colin Montgomerie, winner and joint runner-up respectively after a play-off for the 1994 US Open at Oakmont Country Club, Pennsylvania, will tee off at the same venue 13 years on and just 11 minutes apart in Thursday’s opening round of the 2007 Championship.
Els, who won the first of his two US Opens after defeating Montgomerie and Loren Roberts over 18 holes in 1994, will launch his latest Major title assault from the tenth tee at 7.44 a.m. local time in the company of new Masters Champion Zach Johnson and Ireland’s Padraig Harrington.
Montgomerie, meanwhile, sets out on another US Open quest 11 minutes earlier alongside American Chris DiMarco and South African Tim Clark. Just 12 months ago, the Scot had his best chance yet to break his Major duck but double bogeyed the final hole to lose out to Australian Geoff Ogilvy.
In keeping with US Open tradition, Ogilvy partners the Open Champion, Tiger Woods, and US Amateur Champion, Richie Ramsay of Scotland, from the first tee at 8.06 a.m.
Henrik Stenson, the current European Tour Order of Merit leader, goes out in the company of Fiji’s Vijay Singh and American Davis Love III from the first tee at 1.14 p.m. while there are some intriguing all-European Tour three-balls over the opening two days.
Spain’s latest professional – and European Tour champion – Pablo Martin makes his debut alongside fellow Spaniards Sergio Garcia and José Maria Olazábal from the first tee at 7.55 a.m. while two-time Champion Retief Goosen of South Africa plays with England’s Luke Donald and Angel Cabrera of Argentina.
