Westwood, Ishikawa Get Honor of Playing With Tiger at British Open

Tiger Woods tees off at 4:09 AM ET (9:09 AM local) on Thursday, which means he'll be wrapping up his opening round at the Open Championship roughly around the time most of the working stiffs on the East Coast settle into their desks.

He'll play with Britain's Lee Westwood and Japan's Ryo Ishikawa the first two rounds, which, depending on your perspective, could make for an exciting or torturous 36 holes. Almost certainly exciting for the oversized and overzealous galleries, something much less than that for the players. But it's not just Woods' presence that could prove distracting.

The London Times' John Hopkins writes that, "... the Royal and Ancient has added to the entourage that will accompany Woods and Westwood by including the Japanese prodigy, who has as big a following as the world No. 1, and perhaps even bigger. ... 'I saw Ryo at the matchplay event in Tucson and he had 60 journalists following him around even though he wasn't even playing there,' Westwood said."

Westwood has played with Woods in the past, the last time being the 2008 U.S. Open. Even though the scrutiny from fans and media can be bothersome, Westwood seems unaffected.

"The last group in the last round of the US Open is exactly where you want to be," Westwood said. "If it is with Tiger, even better. We talk about what anyone else would talk about - the weather and Nottingham Forest. Tiger probably thinks it's a golf course. I find it a positive experience. A lot of people have been intimidated by him, but he is quite nice to watch and you can feed off how good he is."

Woods has an uncanny ability to focus amid the chaos, and Westwood, a wily Ryder Cup veteran, is similarly capable (as long as you're not prank-calling his hotel room, anyway).

Other tee times of note:

7:36 Local (2:36 ET): Greg Norman, Kenny Perry, Oliver Wilson

7:47 Local (2:47 ET): Sergio Garcia, Tom Watson, Matteo Manassero -- Sergio is still looking for major victory No. 1, and Watson has hinted that this could be his next-to-last British Open.

12:25 Local (7:25 ET): Sir Nick Faldo, Soren Kjeldsen, Brian Gay -- Gay is the best player in this group, but I love that Faldo is now a "sir."

12:58 Local (7:58 ET): Ernie Els, Lucas Glover, Martin Kaymer -- Not sure this is the passing of the torch -- Els has been less than spectacular for a few years now, and while I like Glover, he could be Shaun Micheel for all we know. In fact, five years from now, we could be talking about Kaymer as one of golf's most exciting players.

1:31 Local (8:31 ET): Rory McIlroy, Anthony Kim, Retief Goosen -- Maybe AK learned something from playing with Woods at the AT&T two weeks ago.