US Open 2015 Pairings: Tee Times Schedule, Predictions for Top Thursday Pairings

The 2015 U.S. Open marks a historic occasion, as Chambers Bay will play host to the first championship in the state of Washington.

The par-70 course, which opened in 2007, is a public, links-style course that in many ways has more in common with an Open Championship than a typical U.S. Open. Luckily for those who enjoy seeing the world's best golfers struggle, the shorter course length will mean little when it comes to playing conditions. Videos of the rock-solid surface have been floating around social media, painting Chambers Bay as more parking lot than golf paradise.

"The course is playing so fast and so firm that there are (only) three drives where distance is going to be a factor," Phil Mickelson said, per Teddy Greenstein of the Chicago Tribune. "Holes I was hitting drivers two weeks ago, I was hitting 3-woods and even 2-irons (on Tuesday)."

All of that means putting and speed control will play perhaps the biggest factor in who takes the year's second major. With that in mind, let's take a look at the complete field and highlight some of the more noteworthy groups.

Thursday Tee Times

Day 1 Tee Time (ET)	Golfer	Golfer	Golfer
10 a.m.	Michael Putnam	Marcus Fraser	TBA
10:11 a.m.	Garth Mulroy	Richard Lee	Lucas Bjerregaard
10:22 a.m.	Jason Allred	Kyle Jones	Cody Gribble
10:33 a.m.	Phil Mickelson	Bubba Watson	Angel Cabrera
10:44 a.m.	Wen-Chong Liang	David Hearn	Hiroyuki Fujita
10:55 a.m.	Robert Streb	Lee McCoy	TBA
11:06 a.m.	George McNeill	Masahiro Kawamura	Cameron Tringale
11:17 a.m.	Henrik Stenson	Francesco Molinari	Brandt Snedeker
11:28 a.m.	Jim Furyk	Miguel Angel Jimenez	Colin Montgomerie
11:39 a.m.	Brooks Koepka	Russell Henley	Byeong-Hun An
11:50 a.m.	Jason Dufner	Marc Warren	Matt Every
12:01 p.m.	Brandon Hagy	Matthew NeSmith	Sebastian Cappelen
12:12 p.m.	Nick Hardy	Alex Kim	Rich Berberian Jr.
10 a.m.	Troy Kelly	Seuk Hyun Baek	Cameron Smith
10:11 a.m.	John Parry	Jack Maguire	---
10:22 a.m.	Timothy O'Neal	Stephan Jaeger	Kurt Barnes
10:33 a.m.	Gary Woodland	Victor Dubuisson	John Senden
10:44 a.m.	TBA	Morgan Hoffman	Bernd Wiesberger
10:55 a.m.	Marcel Siem	Alexander Levy	Brian Harman
11:06 a.m.	Hideki Matsuyama	Graeme McDowell	Matt Kuchar
11:17 a.m.	Dustin Johnson	Adam Scott	Sergio Garcia
11:28 a.m.	Martin Kaymer	Gunn Yang	Rory McIlroy
11:39 a.m.	Patrick Reed	Chris Kirk	Jamie Donaldson
11:50 a.m.	Webb Simpson	Keegan Bradley	Kevin Na
12:01 p.m.	Sam Horsfield	Shunsuke Sonoda	Oliver Farr
12:12 p.m.	Kevin Lucas	Pat Wilson	Cole Hammer
4 p.m.	Jason Palmer	Roberto Castro	Andres Romero
4:11 p.m.	Denny McCarthy	D.A. Points	Shiv Kapur
4:22 p.m.	Bryson DeChambeau	Blayne Barber	Billy Hurley III
4:33 p.m.	Geoff Ogilvy	Ernie Els	Retief Goosen
4:44 p.m.	Bo Van Pelt	Charlie Beljan	Tony Finau
4:55 p.m.	Lee Janzen	Oliver Schniederjans	Darren Clarke
5:06 p.m.	Daniel Summerhays	Thomas Aiken	Danny Lee
5:17 p.m.	Jordan Spieth	Jason Day	Justin Rose
5:28 p.m.	Tiger Woods	Rickie Fowler	Louis Oosthuizen
5:39 p.m.	Jimmy Walker	Zach Johnson	Ian Poulter
5:50 p.m.	Ryan Moore	Anirban Lahiri	Erik Compton
6:01 p.m.	Jake Knapp	Tyler Duncan	Matt Mabrey
6:12 p.m.	Michael Davan	Davis Riley	Andrew Pope
4 p.m.	Tom Hoge	Brad Fritsch	Tjaart van der Walt
4:11 p.m.	Brad Elder	Beau Hossler	Jamie Lovemark
4:22 p.m.	Ryo Ishikawa	Luke Donald	J.B. Holmes
4:33 p.m.	Lucas Glover	Bradley Neil	Marc Leishman
4:44 p.m.	Ryan Palmer	Joost Luiten	Danny Willett
4:55 p.m.	TBA	George Coetzee	Alexander Noren
5:06 p.m.	Brendon Todd	Branden Grace	Thongchai Jaidee
5:17 p.m.	Billy Horschel	Paul Casey	Lee Westwood
5:28 p.m.	Bill Haas	Charl Schwartzel	Hunter Mahan
5:39 p.m.	Shane Lowry	Ben Martin	Stephen Gallacher
5:50 p.m.	Charley Hoffman	Camilo Villegas	Tommy Fleetwood
6:01 p.m.	Mark Silvers	Brian Campbell	Cheng-Tsung Pan
6:12 p.m.	TBA	Jared Becher	Samuel Saunders

Groups of Note

Phil Mickelson, Bubba Watson, Angel Cabrera (10:33 a.m. ET)

Charlie Riedel/Associated Press

Only one of these golfers has won a U.S. Open. It's not the one you think. Nor is it the second one. In fact, it's Cabrera's 2007 championship at Oakmont that stands as the lone Open between the trio. (OK, you probably knew that; just give your boy a chance to deploy a narrative device once in a while, alright?)

Mickelson is perhaps the unluckiest player in history at U.S. Opens, having been the bridesmaid a record six times. He enters Chambers Bay playing the best golf of his season. His third-place finish at last week's St. Jude Classic was his third top-five in his last five events.

"I still have a huge obstacle, a huge challenge that I'm trying to overcome ... and I'm enjoying it," Mickelson said, per Tod Leonard of the Los Angeles Times. "I'm having fun with it. It's an exciting opportunity, and every year it comes around I get excited to try to conquer that opportunity."

Watson's career has been mired with U.S. Open struggles. Since a fifth-place finish in 2007, he has wound up no better than 18th and been cut three times in the six subsequent appearances. Despite carrying a high from his Masters win last year, Watson failed to make the weekend. 

Cabrera has been cut at the U.S. Open each of the last two years.

Dustin Johnson, Adam Scott, Sergio Garcia (11:17 a.m. ET)

Chris O'Meara/Associated Press

We'll call this group the Kings of Contendership.

Johnson, Scott and Garcia are each extremely skilled golfers who tend to find their way consistently onto weekend leaderboards at majors. Johnson has finished worse than 12th once in his last five appearances. Scott went on a run of six straight top-15s before struggling at this year's Masters. Garcia, well, dude, where do I even begin?

None of them can be counted out this week. On the flip side, none of them can be especially counted in, either. The group has one major win between them despite countless more opportunities, including seven second-place outings total. Their general disposition in these events has been the good-but-not-good-enough stuff you'd typically hear on a morning hot-take show.

Of the three, Johnson is playing the best in 2015. He has six top-10s in 12 events, including a win at the WGC-Cadillac. Scott has been mired in one of his worst professional slumps, earning just one top-10 as he continues making adjustments on the green. Garcia's limited schedule keeps him largely out of the PGA spotlight outside major events, so what we've seen of him in 2015 has largely been fine.

Fine is the operative word in this group. Champion? Unlikely. 

Martin Kaymer, Gunn Yang, Rory McIlroy (11:28 a.m. ET)

Lenny Ignelzi/Associated Press

This group is notable for McIlroy and McIlroy alone. Kaymer has three times as many cuts as top-10s this season, while Yang is a 21-year-old who has missed five of six cuts. If the USGA were looking to make McIlroy's first couple days as low-pressure as possible, they've more than succeeded.

As it stands, McIlroy is the considerable favorite, as he is for every tournament he enters at this point. McIlroy has finished no worse than 11th in a PGA event since February, took the Wells Fargo Championship by seven strokes last month and is generally just super dope at golf.

"If you look at the numbers you can really see that he is the best player in the world," McIlroy said, drawing comparisons between himself and LeBron James, per Jon McCarthy of the Toronto Sun. "And I guess for me, I feel the same way."

McIlroy's U.S. Open history has been a less-than-stellar bag since his 2011 win. He hasn't finished better than last year's 23rd-place finish and was cut in 2012. The links-style course doesn't especially play to McIlroy's strengths, either, as his Open Championship career is mired in fits and starts.

Because he's the world's best golfer, it'd be silly to count him out. But the whole McIlroy vs. The Field debate really shouldn't be one. Take the field.

Jordan Spieth, Jason Day, Justin Rose (5:17 p.m. ET)

Jay LaPrete/Associated Press

So Jordan Spieth is better at golf than I'll ever be at anything, which is super awkward because he's 21 and I'm 25. I guess there comes a time in every human's life where an athlete comes along and makes them feel super-duper washed, and between Spieth and Anthony Davis, I'm about two seconds from finding my fate six-feet under.

Spieth became the youngest Masters winner since one Eldrick Woods in April and has continued his rampage through the PGA Tour since. While he hasn't won a tournament, Spieth has remained solid enough that we have to consider him either on McIlroy's level or slightly below.

Working against him is the poor recent history of Masters winners at the U.S. Open. Each of the last three have finished well out of contention, including Watson twice being cut. 

“You can’t win a Grand Slam unless you win the first,” Spieth said, per Doug Ferguson of the Associated Press, via the Los Angeles Daily News. “So I’m the only one with that opportunity this year. I’m going to go ahead and focus on this week and see if I can put myself in contention.”

Day may be the most primed of the three for a title this weekend. He's captured three top-fives in his last four U.S. Opens and has been busting at the glass ceiling of perennial contender status for years. 

Rose, who tied for second at Augusta, is two years removed from winning his first major at the U.S. Open.

Tiger Woods, Rickie Fowler, Louis Oosthuizen (5:28 p.m. ET)

Charlie Riedel/Associated Press

One ascending star looking for his first major championship, one former major champion who has played respectable golf this season and one Tiger Woods. I'm not going to attempt to unpack all of the Tiger narrative because it's tiring at this point, but suffice it to say the golf world has begun realizing he's not very good.

Woods is listed at 50-1 odds to win this weekend, according to Odds Shark. He's actually favored to miss the cut, which is a sentence that is too baffling to comprehend. The last time we saw him in a major golf tournament, he was shooting scores that would make a local club pro embarrassed. The whole situation has gone from "Can he do it?" to borderline sad at this point.

Fowler, who won the Players Championship last month, is the most intriguing player in the group from an on-course perspective. Long one of the most talented players on Tour, Fowler has finished no worse than 12th in his last five majors, which include four top-fives. He's been inside the top 10 each of the last two years at the U.S. Open.

“I really feel comfortable on this golf course. I love playing links golf,” Fowler told reporters. “I’ve played well in the British Open overseas. And being that I have played well in the U.S. Open, I feel like putting the two together with the links style and the U.S. Open setup could turn out to be a great week.”

We'll have to see if that results in the 26-year-old's first major win.