The 2012 U.S. Open begins Thursday morning on the Lake Course at The Olympic Club with plenty of juicy storylines. The USGA is infamous for creating quirky and fun groups for the first two days of the Championship -- finding any little commonality they can to create a storyline. The reasoning for pairing Bubba Watson, Phil Mickelson, and Tiger Woods together was quite obvious -- they're three of the brightest superstars in all of sports. The USGA's Mike Davis indicated that they rigorously gamed out whether the property could handle the crush of people following one group, and their operations staff gave the grouping the go-ahead. Bubba, who was less than complimentary of the course and its setup on Tuesday, will tee off at 10:33 a.m. ET.
Watson will start on No. 9, with the USGA utilizing the somewhat atypical layout of a course that features a 10th tee that does not abut the clubhouse. Because of logistical reasons with the crowds, they decided to have groups go off No. 1 and No. 9, which is right below the men's locker room at Olympic.
Two others with Atlanta connections, Matt Kuchar and Stewart Cink, will head out in the afternoon wave at the Lake Course. Kuchar will play with Ian Poulter and Steve Stricker at 4:36 p.m. ET. Cink will play alongside fellow major champions Lucas Glover and Trevor Immelman at 4:51 p.m. ET. The USGA has embraced the tradition of later tee times that create primetime coverage on the East Coast. It was first started at Torrey Pines in 2008 and repeated at Pebble Beach in 2010, and both Kuchar and Cink will be in two of the bigger primetime groups on Thursday.
The complete list of tee times and pairings for Thursday's first round is below. All times are Eastern.
Morning wave off No. 1 tee:
10:15 a.m.: Scott Langley, Steve Lebrun, Beau Hossler (a)
10:26 a.m.: Jason Bohn, Raphael Jacquelin, J. B. Park
10:37 a.m.: Michael Thompson, Colt Knost, Steve Marino
10:48 a.m.: Brendan Jones, George Coetzee, Gregory Bourdy
10:59 a.m.: Patrick Cantlay (a), Jonathan Byrd, Kyle Stanley
11:10 a.m.: Retief Goosen, Vijay Singh, Zach Johnson
11:21 a.m.: Paul Casey, Hiroyuki Fujita, Mark Wilson
11:32 a.m.: Adam Scott, Keegan Bradley, Webb Simpson
11:43 a.m.: Tim Clark Toru Taniguchi, Rod Pampling
11:54 a.m.: Francesco Molinari, Bo Van Pelt, Peter Hanson
12:05 p.m.: D. A. Points, Dong-Hwan Lee, Kevin Streelman
12:16 p.m.: Edward Loar, Paul Claxton, Alistair Presnell
12:27 p.m.: Mark McCormick, Nick Sherwood (a), Cole Howard
Morning wave off No. 9 tee:
10 a.m.: Shane Bertsch, Martin Flores, Tommy Biershenk
10:11 a.m.: Scott Piercy, Matthew Baldwin, Matt Bettencourt
10:22 a.m.: Thomas Bjorn, Kevin Na, Branden Grace
10:33 a.m.: Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods, Bubba Watson
10:44 a.m.: Joe Ogilvie, Stephen Ames, Tim Herron
10:55 a.m.: Davis Love III, Padraig Harrington, David Toms
11:06 a.m.: Carl Pettersson, Charl Schwartzel, Charles Howell III
11:17 a.m.: Robert Karlsson, Bob Estes, Robert Rock
11:28 a.m.: K. J. Choi, Y. E. Yang, K. T. Kim
11:39 a.m.: Fredrik Jacobson, Robert Garrigus, Alexander Noren
11:50 a.m.: Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, Sang-Moon Bae, Rafael Cabrera-Bello
12:01 p.m.: Marc Warren, Anthony Summers, Michael Allen
12:12 p.m.: Hunter Hamrick, Tim Weinhart, Scott Smith
Afternoon wave off No. 1 tee:
3:45 p.m.: Casey Martin, Cameron Wilson (a), Dennis Miller
3:56 p.m.: Jim Herman, William Lunde, David Mathis
4:07 p.m.: Nicolas Colsaerts, Charlie Wi, Simon Dyson
4:18 p.m.: Alvaro Quiros, Gary Woodland, John Senden
4:29 p.m.: Rory McIlroy, Luke Donald, Lee Westwood
4:40 p.m.: Jim Furyk, Sergio Garcia, Graeme McDowell
4:51 p.m.: Stewart Cink, Trevor Immelman, Lucas Glover
5:02 p.m.: Ernie Els, Geoff Ogilvy, Angel Cabrera
5:13 p.m.: Martin Laird, Ben Crane, Anders Hansen
5:24 p.m.: Matteo Manassero, Aaron Baddeley, Miguel Angel Jimenez
5:35 p.m.: Brian Harman, Spencer Levin, Mikko Ilonen
5:46 p.m.: Brice Garnett, Justin Hicks, Jesse Mueller
5:57 p.m.: Brian Rowell, Alberto Sanchez (a), Brian Gaffney
Afternoon wave off No. 9 tee:
3:30 p.m.: John Peterson, Morgan Hoffmann, Aaron Watkins
3:41 p.m.: Jeff Curl, Nicholas Thompson, Casey Wittenberg
3:52 p.m.: Soren Kjeldsen, Chez Reavie, Peter Lawrie
4:03 p.m.: Michael Campbell, Olin Browne, Joe Durant
4:14 p.m.: Bill Haas, Nick Watney, Brandt Snedeker
4:25 p.m.: Martin Kaymer, Hunter Mahan, Justin Rose
4:36 p.m.: Steve Stricker, Ian Poulter, Matt Kuchar
4:47 p.m.: Jason Day, Louis Oosthuizen, Jason Dufner
4:58 p.m.: Rickie Fowler, Ryo Ishikawa, Dustin Johnson
5:09 p.m.: Hunter Haas, Tadahiro Takayama, Lee Slattery
5:20 p.m.: Alex Cejka, Kevin Chappell, Blake Adams
5:31 p.m.: James Hahn, Darron Stiles, Roberto Castro
5:42 p.m.: Brooks Koepka (a), Kyle Thompson, Samuel Osborne
For all your news and updates in the run up to the 2012 U.S. Open at Olympic, visit SB Nation's dedicated golf hub. Be sure to head over to USOpen.com for even more coverage from the event.