Woods Will Play With Els in First Two Rounds of Open

Tiger Woods, who begins defense of his U.S. Open title Thursday at Olympia Fields Country Club, will play the first two rounds with British Open champion Ernie Els and U.S. Amateur champion Ricky Barnes of Arizona.

Woods, Els and Barnes start at the 10th tee at 5:20 a.m. PDT Thursday. Their tee time for the second round is 10:30 a.m. at the first tee at 7,190-yard Olympia Fields outside Chicago.

There are 10 amateurs and 83 qualifiers in the field of 156 for the $6-million event. The winner receives $1 million.

Woods (2002 and 2000) and Els (1997 and 1994) are two-time U.S. Open champions. Woods also played the first two rounds of the Masters with Barnes this year.