It's McIlroy Mickelson and Moore

Rory McIlroy has been paired with three-time champion Phil Mickelson and Ryan Moore for the first two rounds of the Masters.

The world number one will be seeking to become just the sixth player complete a Major grand slam this week at Augusta and will get the bid underway at 10.41am (3.41pm Irish time) on Thursday.

Darren Clarke will be the first Irish golfer in action when he tees off at 1.29pm Irish time along with 2000 winner Vijay Singh and 25 year-old American Russell Henley.

Shane Lowry will tee off with American pair Chris Kirk & Mark O'Meara, while Graeme McDowell will have Matt Kuchar and Brooks Koepka for company when he lines up at the first tee at 6.04pm Irish time on Thursday.

Padraig Harrington is paired with Thomas Bjorn and Ryan Palmer in Group 26 and tees off at 12.42pm (5.42pm Irish time)

Tiger Woods, seeking a 15th major, faces a lengthy wait before he can begin his bid for a fifth Masters title when the year's first major championship gets under way on Thursday. He will play the first 36 holes at Augusta National with fellow American Jimmy Walker and Wales's Jamie Donaldson.

With 98 players in the field, Charley Hoffman and Brian Harman make up the first group out in the tournament proper at 7:45am, with Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer again acting as honorary starters five minutes earlier.

The legendary trio hitting tee shots on the par-four first before retiring to the clubhouse.

Defending champion Bubba Watson is paired with Justin Rose and Gunn Yang.

Selected tee-off times and pairings for Thursday's first round and Friday's second round

8.29am (1.29pm Irish time) Darren Clarke, Vijay Singh, Russell Henley

10.41am (3.41pm Irish time) Phil Mickelson, Rory McIlroy, Ryan Moore

12.31pm (5.51pm Irish time) Shane Lowry, Chris Kirk and Mark O'Meara

12.42pm (5.42pm Irish time) Padraig Harrington, Thomas Bjorn, Ryan Palmer

1.04pm (6.04pm Irish time) Graeme McDowell, Matt Kuchar, Brooks Koepka

1.48pm (6:48pm Irish time) Tiger Woods, Jamie Donaldson, Jimmy Walker

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Faldo Feels McIlroy Retains Focus

Photo @AP

Sir Nick Faldo feels the return of Tiger Woods to this year’s Masters will not distract Rory McIlroy from his Grand Slam target.

World No 1 McIlroy requires an Augusta win to complete victories in all four majors, a feat which has been achieved by just five players in the Masters era.

One of the names in that particular hall of fame is Tiger Woods, who has dropped out of the top 100 in the rankings this year and shot a career-worst 82 in his second and most recent event of 2015.

Woods, though, will seek to revitalise his career at the Masters this week, a decision which has attracted a large amount of media coverage.

But Faldo is confident McIlroy’s focus will be firmly on the tournament.

“Everyone knows that he (Woods) is just coming back just to play well,” Faldo, who won the Masters in 1989, 1990 and 1996, told Sky Sports. “It is amazing that someone who had total domination is now in a position where he just wants that.

“Rory has been on this mission ever since the PGA (Championship) last year. He’s spoken about it in interviews that he wants the Masters to complete the Grand Slam.

“So, no, I think he will have prepared well and will be on countdown to the first tee on Thursday now.”

Faldo was both an inspiration and a direct coaching mentor for McIlroy as a youngster and the two shared many fairways during the latter’s formative years.

The master feels the missing ingredient in his apprentice’s game then – and one which has now been discovered – was the ‘X factor’.

“I’ve known Rory since he was 12 and I spent some time with him then; he had the swing and everything but he didn’t have the X factor,” he said.

“I played a practice round with him at Carnoustie in the pouring rain and I was wimping out and he produced a wonderful swing in full waterproofs. I thought, ‘this guy’s good’.

“He is phenomenal. To win four majors at his age, 25, is incredible.”

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Harrington Masters Hard Yardage

Photo @padraig_h 

Padraig Harrington has shared a picture from his yardage book for Augusta National.

Answers on a postcard please.....

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McIlroy Not Yet Woods - McGinley

Paul McGinley believes Rory McIlroy has a long way to go before he deserves to be compared to Tiger Woods.

The two players head to Augusta for the Masters in starkly contrasting form, with McIlroy needing to win a first green jacket to complete the career grand slam and Woods having only confirmed his participation in the year's first major championship on Friday.

Woods has started just two events in 2015, shooting a career-worst score of 82 to miss the cut in the first of them and withdrawing through injury after just 11 holes of the second.

However, McGinley experienced first hand how much Woods dominated the game in the early part of his career to amass 14 major titles, including the 'Tiger Slam' of US Open, Open Championship and US PGA in 2000, as well as the 2001 Masters to hold all four major titles at once.

"Rory is evolving as a player and he's evolving as a person too. He's not the finished article," McGinley said. "Even now at 25 it's not right to compare him to Tiger Woods.

"What Tiger Woods has done in his career is a yardstick. Rory is still evolving towards that and every year he is getting better and better, but he still has a long way to go to meet the standards that Tiger set.

"Also, the great thing about Tiger was the way and the varying conditions that he won in. You see him win at Augusta obviously, but you see him winning at the Open in Hoylake (in 2006), on a firm, bouncy golf course. He showed two disciplines there; he showed massive ball control, b ut secondly to be able to play an examination paper like Hoylake, it's all about patience. And he exemplified that there.

"A nd that's one of the things that Rory knows he has to improve, that level of patience, if he wants to evolve to the heights that Tiger set."

McIlroy's lack of patience got the better of him when he threw his three iron into a lake at Doral following a poor shot in the WGC-Cadillac Championship in March, with the pressure of Augusta perhaps already beginning to tell.

The world number one is well aware he is on the verge of joining Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Woods in an exclusive club by winning all four majors, but McGinley believes he does have one thing in his favour.

"What's been clever about what Rory's done is that he hasn't put a number on the number of majors he wants to win," added McGinley, who will be at the Masters in Augusta commentating for Sky Sports, the only place to watch all four days live. " He's not chasing anybody's record. And that's been very clever.

"To a large extent I wonder if that has hindered Tiger more than anything else, because everyone is relating him to Jack Nicklaus (Nicklaus has 18 majors, Woods 14). And if he doesn't reach Jack Nicklaus' level then some people will say, 'Well he didn't get quite as good as Nicklaus.'

"And that would be a shame considering the career Tiger has had. Rory hasn't done that, he's just said I'm going to keep on playing and whatever number of titles I end up with at the end of my career, I end up with."

Almost forgotten amongst the focus on winning the career grand slam is that McIlroy is also aiming to win his third major title in succession after the Open and US PGA last year.

A dramatic victory in near-darkness at Valhalla saw McIlroy pushed the hardest in any of his four major wins and McGinley believes the Northern Irishman will benefit from similar challenges in the future.

"A rival will be good for Rory," McGinley added. "If Dustin (Johnson) steps up to the plate like some people are expecting him to, or Jordan Spieth, or Rickie Fowler... some of those guys step up and win a major, that'll only be good for him because Rory has reacted well to adversity and guys challenging him in the past.

" The biggest challenge that Rory has got is keeping the fire lit in his heart. That's what made Tiger phenomenal, being at the top for as long as he was. At the moment Rory's had it for a number of years, he's got that incredible passion. Keeping that lit for another 20 years is another question."

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Portrush Plans on The Open

Royal Portrush could host the Open Championship as early as 2019 after a planning application for renovations to the course was approved.

The R&A, the sport's governing body, confirmed the County Antrim links as an Open venue last June, subject to infrastructure work being completed.

"I've seen the renovation plans - they look amazing," said Portrush native and 2010 US Open winner Graeme McDowell.

The Open is due to return to Northern Ireland for the first time since 1951.

The renovation includes the building of two new holes to make way for corporate hospitality marquees and spectator villages.

"I can't wait to see the plans evolve and playing the course in major championship-ready conditions," added McDowell.

"It's exciting that the planning permission has come through. My little brother is on the green staff at Portrush and I know they can't wait to get their teeth into the renovations.

"With visitors coming over it will be a huge boost to the economy and so many great things will come out of this opportunity."

The decision to bring the tournament to Portrush followed the successfulstaging of the Irish Open in 2012.

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