For the second straight week, Jordan Spieth will headline the field at an early-season event. Here are a few marquee, early-round groupings to keep an eye on in Mexico, as Spieth makes his tournament debut at Mayakoba alongside a pair of former champs (all times ET):
7:30 a.m. Thursday, 12 p.m. Friday: Rickie Fowler, Aaron Wise, Emiliano Grillo
Fowler returns to the Mexican shore after narrowly missing out on the title a year ago, finishing second by a shot. He closed with a 63 on Sunday in his season debut in Las Vegas, and he’ll be joined by the newly-minted Rookie of the Year in Wise, who tied for 15th last week, and Grillo, who was a runner-up last month in Malaysia.
7:40 a.m. Thursday, 12:10 p.m. Friday: Billy Horschel, Zach Johnson, Matt Kuchar
This group includes a trio of seasoned veterans, including Horschel who is making his fourth start of the young season. Johnson is teeing it up for the first time since the BMW Championship, having finished T-23 at Mayakoba last year, while Kuchar is in search of his first worldwide top-10 finish since The Open.
Mayakoba Golf Classic: Articles, photos and videos
12 p.m. Thursday, 7:30 a.m. Friday: Jordan Spieth, Patton Kizzire, Pat Perez
Spieth continues his two-week stretch of new fall events, having started hot last week in Vegas before fading to a T-55 finish. He’ll play the first two rounds alongside Kizzire, who earned his maiden victory here last year before adding the Sony Open title a few weeks later, and Perez, who captured the title in 2016.
12:10 p.m. Thursday, 7:40 a.m. Friday: Cameron Champ, Tony Finau, Jhonattan Vegas
The layout at Mayakoba is fraught with hazards, but this grouping should still feature plenty of firepower off the tee. Champ broke through for his first PGA Tour win two weeks ago in Mississippi and finished T-28 last week in Las Vegas, while Finau lost a playoff a couple of weeks ago at the WGC-HSBC Champions in China. Rounding out the trio will be Vegas, who missed out on some of the Asian Swing because of passport issues that impacted his travel plans.
Source: Internet
