'Golf Emperor' Woods to Play Alongside Hoblan and Shopli

'Myungin Yeoljeon' Masters Groupings Announced
Im Sungjae Paired with Matsuyama, Kim Juhyung with McIlroy

‘Golf Emperor’ Tiger Woods (USA) will play alongside Viktor Hovland (Norway) and Xander Schauffele (USA) at the 87th Masters Tournament.

Augusta National Golf Club announced the pairings for rounds 1 and 2 on the 4th (local time). Woods, who has won the Masters five times, will play with Hovland and Schauffele.

Tiger Woods is smiling during a practice round at the Masters. [Augusta (USA) = Reuters·Yonhap News]

Hovland is ranked 9th in the world. He is Norway’s first PGA Tour champion with a total of three wins. He is widely known among domestic fans as a Taekwondo black belt. In November last year, he achieved back-to-back victories at the ‘special event’ Hero World Challenge hosted by the Tiger Woods Foundation. Hovland’s best major finish was a tie for 4th at last year’s Open Championship.

Schauffele, ranked 7th in the world, joined the PGA Tour in 2017 and claimed his first victory at the Greenbrier Classic in July. Two months later, he won the Tour Championship, the final event of the Playoffs (PO), earning him the Rookie of the Year title. Since then, he has collected five more trophies, totaling seven wins. He won the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics in July 2021. He has yet to win a major, finishing runner-up at the 2018 Open Championship and the 2019 Masters.

Im Sung-jae, runner-up at the 2020 Masters, is grouped with Hideki Matsuyama (Japan), the first Asian player to wear the ‘Green Jacket’ in 2021, and Cameron Smith (Australia), who won the Open Championship last year before moving to LIV Golf. Kim Joo-hyung will start round 1 with world No. 2 Rory McIlroy (Northern Ireland), who is pursuing a ‘Career Grand Slam,’ and Sam Burns (USA). Kim Si-woo is paired with LIV Golf’s star Phil Mickelson (USA) and Tom Hoge (USA).

Lee Kyoung-hoon will play rounds 1 and 2 with Jeff Straka (Austria) and Harold Varner III (USA). Defending champion and world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler is grouped with Max Homa and amateur Sam Bennett (both USA). This year’s Masters will be held over four days from the 6th at Augusta National Golf Club (Par 72, 7,545 yards) in Augusta, Georgia, USA.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.