McIlroy to begin Masters defence paired with World No 3 Young

Rory McIlroy will begin the defence of his first Masters title paired with World No 3 Cameron Young at 10:31 am local time on Thursday.

McIlroy of Northern Ireland and Young, who won The Players Championship last month, will be paired with 18-year-old amateur Mason Howell for the first two rounds at Augusta National.

They comprise the penultimate group in the Thursday's morning wave.

Howell, a Thomasville native who has committed to play for the University of Georgia next year, earned the traditional spot in this grouping as the reigning US Amateur champion.

Watch every shot from Thursday's Featured Groups on https://t.co/rSr9YUhCX2. pic.twitter.com/LhDAPrZfAG — The Masters (@TheMasters) April 7, 2026

The group will tee off at 1:44 pm in Friday's second round.

The 90th edition of the Masters will officially begin at 7:25 am on Thursday with honourary starters Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tom Watson.

The first official playing group will then be John Keefer and China's Haotong Li, one of only two twosomes in the 91-player field.

World No 1 and two-time Masters champion Scottie Scheffler will tee off in the penultimate grouping at 1:44 pm along with Gary Woodland and Scotland's Robert MacIntyre.

Two other featured groupings are Bryson DeChambeau, Xander Schauffele and England's Matt Fitzpatrick at 10:07 am, and Chris Gotterup, Spain's Jon Rahm and Sweden's Ludvig Aberg at 1:08 pm.

PAIRINGS | THURSDAY/FRIDAY

– Gary Player (honourary starter), Jack Nicklaus (honourary starter), Tom Watson (honourary starter) | 7:25 a.m.

– John Keefer, Haotong Li (China) | 7:40 a.m., 10:51 a.m.

– Naoyuki Kataoka (Japan), Max Homa, Carlos Ortiz (Mexico) | 7:50 a.m., 11:03 a.m.

– Jose Maria Olazabal (Spain), Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen (Denmark), Aldrich Potgieter (South Africa) | 8:02 a.m., 11:15 a.m.

– Angel Cabrera (Argentina), Sami Valimaki (Finland), *Jackson Herrington | 8:14 a.m. 11:27 a.m.

– Charl Schwartzel (S. Africa), Max Greyserman, Ryan Fox (New Zealand) | 8:26 a.m./11:39 a.m.

– Vijay Singh (Fiji), Matt McCarty, Rasmus Hojgaard (Denmark) | 8:38 a.m./11:51 a.m.

– Kurt Kitayama, Kristoffer Reitan (Norway), Casey Jarvis (S. Africa) | 8:50 a.m./12:03 p.m.

– Bubba Watson, Nicolas Echavarria (Colombia), *Brandon Holtz | 9:02 a.m./12:15 p.m.

– Cameron Smith (Australia), Sam Burns, Jake Knapp | 9:19 a.m./12:32 p.m.

– Keegan Bradley, Ryan Gerard, Nick Taylor (Canada) | 9:31 a.m./12:44 p.m.

– Dustin Johnson, Shane Lowry (Ireland), Jason Day (Australia) | 9:43 a.m./12:56 p.m.

– Patrick Reed, Tommy Fleetwood (England), Akshay Bhatia | 9:55 a.m./1:08 p.m.

– Bryson DeChambeau, Matt Fitzpatrick (England), Xander Schauffele | 10:07 a.m./1:20 p.m.

– Hideki Matsuyama (Japan) , Collin Morikawa, Russell Henley | 10:19 a.m./1:32 p.m.

– Rory McIlroy (N. Ireland), Cameron Young, *Mason Howell | 10:31 a.m./1:44 p.m.

– Viktor Hovland (Norway), Patrick Cantlay, Alex Noren (Sweden) | 10:43 a.m./1:56 p.m.

– Samuel Stevens, Sungjae Im (Korea) | 11:03 a.m./7:40 a.m.

– Andrew Novak, Tom McKibbin (N. Ireland), Brian Campbell | 11:15 a.m./7:50 a.m.

– Mike Weir (Canada), Wyndham Clark, *Mateo Pulcini (Argentina) | 11:27 a.m./8:02 a.m.

– Zach Johnson, Michael Kim, Nicolai Hojgaard (Denmark) | 11:39 a.m./8:14 a.m.

– Danny Willett (England), Davis Riley, *Ethan Fang | 11:51 a.m./8:26 a.m.

– Adam Scott (Australia), Daniel Berger, Brian Harman | 12:03 p.m./8:38 a.m.

– Fred Couples, Min Woo Lee (Australia), *Fifa Laopakdee (Thailand) | 12:15 p.m./8:50 a.m.

– Sergio Garcia (Spain), Aaron Rai (England), Jacob Bridgeman | 12:27 p.m./9:02 a.m.

– Harry Hall (England), Corey Conners (Canada), Michael Brennan | 12:44 p.m./9:19 a.m.

– J.J. Spaun, Maverick McNealy, Tyrrell Hatton (England) | 12:56 p.m./9:31 a.m.

– Jon Rahm (Spain), Chris Gotterup, Ludvig Aberg (Sweden) | 1:08 p.m./9:43 a.m.

– Jordan Spieth, Justin Rose (England), Brooks Koepka | 1:20 p.m./9:55 a.m.

– Sepp Straka (Austria), Ben Griffin, Justin Thomas | 1:32 p.m./10:07 a.m.

– Scottie Scheffler, Robert MacIntyre (Scotland), Gary Woodland | 1:44 p.m./10:19 a.m.

– Harris English, Marco Penge (England), Si Woo Kim (Korea) | 1:56 p.m./10:31 a.m.