Masters 2017 Tee Times and Pairings for Augusta National Golf Club Announced

The PGA Tour kicked off its biggest week of the season Tuesday with the release of tee times for the first two rounds of the 2017 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia.

Thursday's opening round will start at 8 a.m. ET with Daniel Summerhays and Russell Henley. The marquee group of Bubba Watson, Dustin Johnson and Jimmy Walker will tee off at 2:03 p.m.

Here are the key groups' tee times for the first round of this year's Masters:

Time (ET)	Group
8:11 a.m.	Trevor Immelman, Brendan Steele, Jhonattan Vegas
9:06 a.m.	Zach Johnson, Louis Oosthuizen, Adam Hadwin
10:12 a.m.	Russell Knox, Rickie Fowler, Hideki Matsuyama
10:23 a.m.	Branden Grace, Brooks Koepka, Jeunghun Wang
10:34 a.m.	Jordan Spieth, Martin Kaymer, Matthew Fitzpatrick
10:45 a.m.	Phil Mickelson, Rafael Cabrera-Bello, Si Woo Kim
10:56 a.m.	Brandt Snedeker, Justin Rose, Jason Day
12:24 p.m.	Danny Willett, Matt Kuchar, Curtis Luck (Amateur)
1:19 p.m.	Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood, Shane Lowry
1:41 p.m.	Rory McIlroy, Hideto Tanihara, Jon Rahm
2:03 p.m.	Bubba Watson, Dustin Johnson, Jimmy Walker

A complete list of tee times can be found at Masters.com.

Johnson is the odds-on favorite to capture the green jacket for the first time in his career. OddsShark noted the world's top-ranked player is an 11-2 favorite this weekend.

There certainly isn't a safer bet than Johnson, who has three wins and five top-10 finishes in seven PGA Tour events in 2017. He has won his last three tournaments, including the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play on March 26.

But history is not on Johnson's side. Doug Ferguson of the Associated Press (via the Oklahoman) noted Tiger Woods was the last world No. 1 to win at Augusta, and that was in 2002.

Johnson has finished in the top 10 at the Masters in each of the last two years after he hadn't finished higher than tied for 13th in his first five appearances. He is in search of his second career major.

Rory McIlroy is another player looking to change his fortunes at Augusta. He's followed a similar trajectory as Johnson, finishing in the top 10 in each of the past three years after only finishing as high as tied for 15th in his first five showings.

On Sunday, McIlroy told ESPN.com's Marty Smith that if he never wins the Masters, it will haunt him:

"

I'd love to give you an answer and say my life is already fulfilled, with everything that's happened, and everything that's going to happen in the future, by starting a family and all that. But if I didn't have a green jacket, there'd be a tiny piece that would just be missing. It really would be.

And yeah, I'd be lying if I said, as a person ... yeah. I wouldn't be fulfilled if I didn't get it.

"

Danny Willett is the defending champion. His run last year remains his most recent win on the PGA Tour. He's struggled his way through this season, finishing 75th, 69th and tied for 39th and missing the cut in four tour events.

On Saturday, Willett told Brian Wacker of Golf Digest that living up to the standard of green jacket-winner has been difficult:

"

You see yourself win one of the best golf tournaments in the world, you feel like you should be able to do that every week. But unfortunately this isn't a game that you can do that. You look at Tiger in the height of his career, I think he was on like a 35-percent win record in his decade of dominance, and you know, even that's unheard of.

If I'm going to compare every week to [the Masters], I'm going to be pretty disappointed because I don't think that you can recreate that week. I don't think you can recreate what happened, how it happened, everything that goes along with it.

"

The last defending champion to miss the cut at Augusta was Mike Weir in 2004.

The Masters generates more pageantry than any other tournament, and Johnson and McIlroy have been so good during the course of their careers that it would be a surprise if they don't taste victory at Augusta at some point.