Tiger Woods, defending champ Webb Simpson to play together at The Players

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Tiger Woods and defending champion Webb Simpson will play together in one of the featured groupings in the opening two rounds of The Players Championship on Thursday and Friday.

The pair will be joined by defending Masters champion Patrick Reed for the first two rounds.

Woods has won The Players twice, winning in March 2001 and in May 2013. Only Jack Nicklaus has won The Players three times, and he never won when the event was held at TPC Sawgrass. 

Other featured groups include:

• Rickie Fowler,  Brooks Koepka and Jordan Spieth
• Matt Kuchar, Phil Mickelson and Rory McIlroy
• Justin Rose, Xander Shauffele and Justin Thomas

Thursday and Friday starting times for the featured groupings will be announced when the official groupings and starting times for the entire 144-player field are finalized Monday at approximately 3 p.m. ET.