Matt Fitzpatrick begins title defence alongside Cameron Smith and Sam Bennett; World No 1 Scottie Scheffler grouped with Collin Morikawa and Max Homa; Watch the opening round live on Thursday from 3pm on Sky Sports Golf
Tuesday 13 June 2023 15:50, UK
Rory McIlroy has been grouped alongside reigning PGA Championship winner Brooks Koepka and former Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama for the first two rounds of the 123rd US Open.
McIlroy has been handed a late-early draw for his latest bid to end his major drought, with the world No 3 set to tee off at 1.54pm local time (9.54pm BST) on Thursday before going out at 8.24am on Friday at Los Angeles Country Club.
The 2011 US Open champion missed out on a third consecutive RBC Canadian Open victory on Sunday, finishing tied-ninth after a level-par 72, with McIlroy now focused on earning a fifth major title and first since his PGA Championship success in 2014.
Koepka followed a runner-up finish at The Masters by claiming a fifth major victory last month at Oak Hill, with the LIV player having the chance in California this week to join Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods as the only players to have both won the PGA Championship and US Open three times.
World No 1 Scottie Scheffler - who has finished no worse than 12th in every PGA Tour start this season - headlines the morning action when he starts his bid at 8.13am local time with two-time major champion Collin Morikawa and home favourite Max Homa.
Victory for Morikawa would move him three-quarters of the way to the career Grand Slam, having won the PGA Championship in 2020 and The Open in 2021, while Homa set the course record at LA Country Club in his Pac-12 win in 2013 and is chasing a maiden major title.
Masters champion Jon Rahm - winner of the US Open in 2021 - is also out early and partners Ryder Cup team-mate Viktor Hovland and Xander Schauffele, both inside the world's top six and searching for their major breakthrough.
Defending champion Matt Fitzpatrick starts his title defence in the afternoon on the opening day, with reigning Open winner Cameron Smith and US Amateur champion Sam Bennett - who just turned professional - completing his group.
Two-time PGA champion Justin Thomas has a threeball with Shane Lowry and Tommy Fleetwood, who was beaten in an epic play-off in Canada on Sunday, while Phil Mickelson begins his Grand Slam bid with former major winners Padraig Harrington and Keegan Bradley.
USA unless stated; *denotes starting at Hole 10
1540 Shane Lowry (Irl), Justin Thomas, Tommy Fleetwood
1540* Bryson DeChambeau, Francesco Molinari (Ita), Tyrrell Hatton
1613 Collin Morikawa, Max Homa, Scottie Scheffler
1924 Xander Schauffele, Viktor Hovland (Nor), Jon Rahm (Esp)
2059* Phil Mickelson, Padraig Harrington (Irl), Keegan Bradley
2132 Cameron Smith (Aus), Sam Bennett, Matt Fitzpatrick (Eng)
2144* Tony Finau, Jordan Spieth, Patrick Cantlay
2154 Brooks Koepka, Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn), Rory McIlroy (NIrl)
Sky Sports is once again the home of the US Open, with over 45 hours of live coverage from the four tournament days and a host of extra tournament programming throughout the week.
Coverage begins from 3pm over the first two rounds and 6pm on Saturday, with the action getting under way from 5.30pm on the final day and following the tournament through to its conclusion.
There will be a daily one-hour highlights show to look back at the best of the previous rounds' action on Sky Sports Golf and Sky Sports News will offer regular live updates, while you can download the Sky Sports App to get news, interviews, highlights, clips, leaderboard scores and a dedicated blog.
Who will win the US Open? Watch the third men's major of the year exclusively live from Thursday at 3pm on Sky Sports Golf!
