Rory McIlroy and Bob MacIntyre will be joined by defending champion Chris Gotterup in a star-studded trio for the opening two days of the Genesis Scottish Open at the Renaissance Club. The last three champions of the event will play together as a threeball on both Thursday and Friday.
Tee Times and Pairings
The group, featuring Grand Slam icon and Masters champion McIlroy, home hero MacIntyre, and Gotterup, who won the crown 12 months ago, will kick off on Thursday morning from the 10th tee at 8:28am. They will then play Friday's second round from the first tee with a start time of 1:43pm.
Gotterup expressed his excitement about the pairing, saying: "It will be fun. There will be a bunch of people out there I would assume. Hopefully I feel a few more fans rooting for me than against me than last time! Obviously those two are beloved here and I'm excited for the opportunity. It's been nice to get in the mix a little bit with these big groups and just get more comfortable in that scenario. That's what you want. You want to be in the big groups and I'll be looking forward to that on Thursday."
Gotterup's Reflections on Last Year's Victory
Gotterup reflected on the Scottish crowd's support for McIlroy during last year's final round, adding: "I definitely think if you asked everyone in the crowd, 99.9 percent would say the guy I was playing with, they were probably rooting for him to win. Understandably so. If I was from Europe, I probably would be, too. But I was happy to spoil that a little bit."
He also spoke fondly of the tournament: "There's a lot of cool moments that I have from this tournament and we're biased to the places that we play well at. I'm obviously biased towards here now, being a champion. I really do enjoy coming over here. I'm on my fourth week in a row, but I was saying to people I feel like when I come over here it's a fresh start because it's so different from what we are used to. It's a lot of fun walking into town every night and walking North Berwick to the course. A different change of pace for us."
Other Notable Pairings
Fans will pour onto the East Lothian course to attend all four days of the championship, with the entire field of 156 players in action over days one and two. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler is paired with English duo Tommy Fleetwood and Matt Fitzpatrick through the opening 36 holes, starting on Thursday off the first at 1:43pm and 8:28am from the 10th on Friday.
US Open champion Wyndham Clark will play with Viktor Hovland and Eugenio Chacarra at 8:39am from the 10th. Scots ace Grant Forrest tees off alongside Brooks Koepka and former Renaissance champion Min Woo Lee at 7:44am, also beginning on the back nine.
