Northern Trust Open 2015: Tee times, pairings for Thursday's first round

Riviera is one of the best venues on the PGA Tour, and a super talented but mixed group of bombers and ball-strikers will take aim at the Northern Trust Open.

The PGA Tour's annual West Coast swing will draw to a close this week at what is arguably the best course on the regular yearly schedule. Riviera will host the 2015 Northern Trust Open, a tournament loaded with tradition at one of the best classic layouts in the country. The title sponsor may be different, but this event has been around forever, and continues to draw a solid field largely due to the character of the course.

Bubba Watson, the defending champion at this event, headlines the field and will start his tournament in the afternoon wave alongside Dustin Johnson and Bill Haas. That will be the must-watch group during the late afternoon/early evening Golf Channel broadcast. They go off No. 1 at 3:02 p.m. ET and GC will have live coverage from 5 to 8 p.m. ET.

It was at this event last year that Bubba really got his career season rolling. He started calling it the "Year of Rejoicing," whatever that means to the mercurial and temperamental lefty. Just a couple weeks after giving away the Phoenix Open, Bubba took the title at Riviera and ended an almost two-year drought to set up another green jacket, a summer of contention and top 10s, and a WGC title in the fall. Bubba looked pretty good again at Phoenix three weeks ago, and while he may be controversial, he could be America's best player going forward with Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson fading.

The one guy who can absolutely push Bubba right now is his playing partner, Dustin Johnson. This will be his third straight event after taking a six-month personal leave of absence, getting engaged, and welcoming a newborn son. Johnson obviously made headlines for all the wrong reasons last year, but he's still arguably the most naturally talented player not named Rory McIlroy. Historically, he does well early in the year but this season is obviously different given the long layoff from competitive golf. He looked sloppy at Torrey Pines, but then turned it on late Sunday at Pebble to sneak out a top five finish in just his second start back. He finished in second here behind Bubba in 2014 and expect these two bombers to be in contention again this week.

The marquee group on the opposite side of the draw from Bubba and DJ will feature Jordan Spieth, Sergio Garcia, and Fred Couples. Spieth had a solid week at Pebble Beach and should be in fine form as the West Coast swing closes and the Tour moves to Florida. Garcia is making his season debut stateside. The Spaniard made the trip to the season's only stop in the LA area and his ball-striking is a big advantage on this layout. And then there's Couples, who will probably keep playing (and contending) at this event until he's 75 years old. Couples pretty much has a standing invite here, and he's going to take it every year. He loves Riviera that much and has played that well here.

Spieth, Couples, and Garcia are off the iconic 10th hole, perhaps the best par-4 on the entire PGA Tour, at 10:22 a.m. ET. Here's the full tee sheet for Thursday's opening round (all times ET):

Morning wave off No. 1:

Tee Time	Players
9:40 a.m..	Charlie Beljan	Brendan Steele	Jim Renner
9:50 a.m..	Aaron Baddeley	Graham DeLaet	Justin Thomas
10:01 a.m.	Pat Perez	Ricky Barnes	Bernd Wiesberger
10:11 a.m.	Brian Harman	Retief Goosen	Vijay Singh
10:22 a.m.	John Senden	Gary Woodland	K.J. Choi
10:32 a.m.	Geoff Ogilvy	Brendon Todd	Charl Schwartzel
10:43 a.m.	Ben Martin	Scott Stallings	Nick Watney
10:53 a.m.	Charley Hoffman	Robert Streb	Davis Love III
11:04 a.m.	Jhonattan Vegas	Luke Guthrie	Michael Putnam
11:14 a.m.	Bo Van Pelt	Chris Stroud	David Hearn
11:25 a.m.	Brian Davis	Brice Garnett	Tony Finau

Morning wave off No. 10:

Tee Time	Players
9:40 a.m..	Brendon de Jonge	Troy Merritt	Kevin Kisner
9:50 a.m..	Andres Romero	Jason Kokrak	Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano
10:01 a.m.	Kevin Chappell	Andres Gonzales	John Peterson
10:11 a.m.	Scott Brown	Scott Piercy	Stuart Appleby
10:22 a.m.	Jordan Spieth	Sergio Garcia	Fred Couples
10:32 a.m.	Jimmy Walker	Hideki Matsuyama	Harris English
10:43 a.m.	Sang-Moon Bae	J.B. Holmes	Justin Leonard
10:53 a.m.	Nick Taylor	D.A. Points	Luke Donald
11:04 a.m.	Erik Compton	James Hahn	Carlos Ortiz
11:14 a.m.	Paul Casey	Justin Hicks	Andrew Svoboda
11:25 a.m.	Robert Allenby	Daniel Summerhays	Ryo Ishikawa
11:35 a.m.	Jon Curran	Jonathan Randolph	Jin Park

Afternoon wave off No. 1:

Tee Time	Players
11:35 a.m.	Alex Prugh	Carlos Sainz Jr	Will Zalatoris
2:20 p.m..	Shawn Stefani	Francesco Molinari	Colt Knost
2:30 p.m..	Jeff Overton	Nicholas Thompson	Danny Lee
2:41 p.m..	John Huh	Bryce Molder	Morgan Hoffmann
2:51 p.m..	Camilo Villegas	Angel Cabrera	Kevin Streelman
3:02 p.m..	Bill Haas	Bubba Watson	Dustin Johnson
3:12 p.m..	Brandt Snedeker	Ernie Els	Jim Furyk
3:23 p.m..	John Merrick	Rory Sabbatini	Mike Weir
3:33 p.m..	Matt Every	Seung-Yul Noh	Derek Ernst
3:44 p.m..	Vaughn Taylor	Martin Flores	Tim Wilkinson
3:54 p.m..	Marc Leishman	Carl Pettersson	Spencer Levin
4:05 p.m..	Kyle Reifers	Andrew Putnam	Michael Block
4:15 p.m..	Fabian Gomez	Max Homa	Chad Sorensen

Afternoon wave off No. 10:

Tee Time	Players
2:20 p.m..	William McGirt	Brian Stuard	Blake Adams
2:30 p.m..	Padraig Harrington	Jason Gore	Zac Blair
2:41 p.m..	Scott Verplank	Billy Hurley III	Hudson Swafford
2:51 p.m..	Steven Bowditch	Mark Wilson	Lucas Glover
3:02 p.m..	Ryan Moore	Webb Simpson	Charles Howell III
3:12 p.m..	Hunter Mahan	Russell Henley	Keegan Bradley
3:23 p.m..	Woody Austin	Ken Duke	Michael Thompson
3:33 p.m..	Matt Jones	Chesson Hadley	Kenny Perry
3:44 p.m..	George McNeill	Kevin Na	Scott Langley
3:54 p.m..	Chad Campbell	Cameron Tringale	Adam Hadwin
4:05 p.m..	Blayne Barber	Derek Fathauer	Cameron Wilson
4:15 p.m..	David Lingmerth	Jim Herman	Drew Scott

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