The 2012 U.S. Open at the Olympic Club in San Francisco, Ca., gets underway on Thursday with a solid field of golfers looking to capture what is perhaps the toughest major championship. Rory McIlroy broke through last year for his first major championship at the U.S. Open.
Colorado St. alum Martin Laird is looking for his first major championship victory after either not qualifying or missing the cut in the majority of his starts in majors. He has failed to make the cut at the U.S. Open in three of his five previous starts, including last year's.
On Thursday, Laird begins his day at Tee No. 1 with Ben Crane and Anders Hansen at 3:13 p.m. MDT. Here are other notable tee times and pairings for Round 1 (a full listing can be found at USOpen.com):
Tee No. 9, 8:33 a.m. MDT - Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods, Bubba Watson
Tee No. 1, 9:21 a.m. MDT - Andy Zhang (amateur, 14 years old), Hiroyuki Fujita, Mark Wilson
Tee No. 1, 2:29 p.m. MDT - Rory McIlroy, Luke Donald, Lee Westwood
Tee No. 1, 2:40 p.m. MDT - Graeme McDowell, Sergio Garcia, Jim Furyk
For more coverage, head over to USOpen.com or check out SB Nation's golf news hub. For local updates, stay tuned to SB Nation Denver.