RORY McIlroy faces a lengthy wait before beginning his bid to complete a career Grand Slam at the Masters on Thursday.
The Holywood man will not tee off his opening round at Augusta until 1.41pm local time (6.41pm Irish time) in one of the last groups of the day, alongside Spain’s Jon Rahm and Japan’s Hideto Tanihara.
World number one Dustin Johnson will be kicking his heels for even longer as he goes off the first tee in the last group as he bids for his fourth straight victory and a second major title.
Johnson will be the penultimate player in the 94-man field to hit his opening tee shot after being drawn in the final group at 7.03pm along with double Masters winner Bubba Watson and US PGA champion Jimmy Walker for the opening two rounds.
And defending champion Danny Willett, who is looking to join Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Nick Faldo in winning back-to-back titles, gets his campaign under way at 6.24pm Irish time alongside Matt Kuchar and Australian amateur Curtis Luck.
Jordan Spieth, the 2015 champion, will start beside Matt Fitzpatrick and former world number one Martin Kaymer.
Spieth held a five-shot lead with nine holes to play 12 months ago, but bogeyed the 10th and 11th before running up a quadruple-bogey seven on the 12th.
