• Open Championship

Donald paired with Garcia for opening rounds

ESPN staff
July 11, 2011
Sergio Garcia and Luke Donald are good friends © Getty Images
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World No. 1 Luke Donald has been handed a positive draw for the first two rounds of this year's Open Championship, as he will play with former Ryder Cup partner Sergio Garcia.

Last time Donald teed up at Royal St George's, back in 2003, he was also partnered with Garcia and a dominant Tiger Woods (who is absent this year), although on that occasion the inexperienced professional was overrawed by the situation, eventually missing the cut.

Since then he has gone on to develop a prosperous Ryder Cup relationship and close friendship with the Spaniard - and the two will look to encourage each other to a solid start in Sandwich.

Young Japanese starlet Ryo Ishikawa - who famously promised to donate all his earnings from the 2011 season to the Japan earthquake relief effort - completes the three-ball.

Elsewhere, Lee Westwood will play the first two rounds with Masters champion Charl Schwartzel and American Steve Stricker, who should be full of confidence after winning the John Deere Classic for the third time in as many years on Sunday.

US Open champion Rory McIlroy has been paired with Rickie Fowler - just as he was for the opening two rounds at The Masters earlier in the year - and Ernie Els, who won the event in 2002.

Defending champion Louis Oosthuizen is part of another marquee pairing that includes American Phil Mickelson and German Martin Kaymer, while Graeme McDowell is in an intriguing threeball that includes Bubba Watson and Jason Day.

Pairings
06:30 Jerry Kelly, Nathan Green, Danny Willett
06:41 Thongchai Jaidee, Mark Calcavecchia, Graeme Storm
06:52 Gregory Havret, Charley Hoffmann, Markus Brier
07:03 Todd Hamilton, Simon Khan, Prayad Marksaeng
07:14 Rhys Davies, Fredrik Jacobson, Mark O'Meara
07:25 Vijay Singh, Simon Dyson, Gary Woodland
07:36 KT Kim, Ryan Moore, Alvaro Quiros
07:47 Bo van Pelt, KJ Choi, Martin Laird
07:58 Stephen Gallacher, Bill Haas, Hiroyuki Fujita
08:09 Geoff Ogilvy, Peter Uihlein (a), Miguel Angel Jimenez
08:20 Francesco Molinari, Tetsuji Hiratsuka, Stewart Cink
08:31 Nick Watney, Matteo Manassero, Angel Cabrera
08:42 Yuta Ikeda, Ian Poulter, Dustin Johnson
08:58 Ben Curtis, Paul Casey, Aaron Baddeley
09:09 Ernie Els, Rory McIlroy, Rickie Fowler
09:20 Luke Donald, Ryo Ishikawa, Sergio Garcia
09:31 Retief Goosen, Hunter Mahan, Anders Hansen
09:42 Brian Davis, Camilo Villegas, David Duval
09:53 John Daly, Ross Fisher, Peter Hanson,
10:04 Gregory Bourdy, Jason Dufner, Craig Hinton (a)
10:15 Alexander Noren, Paul Lawrie, Kevin Na
10:26 Sean O'Hair, Seung-Yul Noh, Thorbjorn Olesen
10:37 Simon Edwards, Bob Estes, Richard McEvoy
10:48 Francis McGuirk, Matthew Millar, Kevin Streelman
10:59 Mark Laskey, Thomas Shadbolt, Rick Kulacz
11:10 Simon Lilly, Chris Tidland, Neil Schietekat
11:31 Peter Whiteford, Spencer Levin, Thomas Aiken
11:42 Prom Meesawat, Martin Maritz, Harrison Frazar
11:53 Chad Campbell, Kenneth Ferrie, Scott Jamieson
12:04 Raphael Jacquelin, Mark Wilson, Kyle Stanley
12:15 Steve Marino, Richard Green, Pablo Larrazabal
12:26 Rory Sabbatini, Sandy Lyle, Anthony Kim
12:37 Edoardo Molinari, Charles Howell III, Joost Luiten
12:48 Brandt Snedeker, Lucas Bjerregaard (a), Trevor Immelman
12:59 Darren Clarke, Jonathan Byrd, YE Yang
13:10 Lucas Glover, Hiroo Kawai, Robert Karlsson
13:21 Bryden Macpherson (a), Matt Kuchar, Padraig Harrington
13:32 Zach Johnson, Adam Scott, Justin Rose
13:43 Graeme McDowell, Jason Day, Bubba Watson
13:59 Jim Furyk, Bernhard Langer, Tadahiro Takayama
14:10 Lee Westwood, Steve Stricker, Charl Schwartzel
14:21 Louis Oosthuizen, Martin Kaymer, Phil Mickelson
14:32 Henrik Stenson, Tom Lewis (a), Tom Watson
14:43 Robert Allenby, Davis Love III, Fredrik Andersson Hed
14:54 Nicolas Colsaerts, JB Holmes, SM Bae
15:05 Webb Simpson, Robert Rock, Alejandro Canizares
15:16 Kurt Barnes, Justin Leonard, Jeff Overton
15:27 Lee Corfield, Ben Crane, Floris de Vries
15:38 Ryan Palmer, Tom Lehman, Adam Wooton
15:49 Jung-Gon Hwang, Gary Boyd, Robert Garrigus
16:00 George Coetzee, Andy Smith, Brad Kennedy
16:11 Jason Knutzon, Andrew Johnston, Chih-Bing Lam

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