In golf how does the PGA decide the pairings for the 1st 2 rounds?

Answer 1

Augusta National Golf Clubhas a committee of members who meet and determine which players are grouped together in Rounds 1 and 2, and what those groupings'tee timeswill be. Those committee members exercise full authority, and have complete discretion to group players as they see fit.

There is one traditional pairing: The reigningU.S. Amateurchampion (if he's still an amateur) plays Rounds 1 and 2 with the defending champion ofThe Masters.

The balance definitely not a random draw, and the needs of television broadcasters and of fans are taken into account.For example, the two biggest stars in the field are likely to play at opposite ends of the draw. Let's use

Phil Mickelson

and

Tiger Woods

as examples. Most likely, one will play in the morning tee times and the other will play in the afternoon. This guarantees that one of the two biggest stars, either Mickelson or Woods in this example, will be playing during television coverage.

It also helps with crowd control. If Mickelson and Woods are playing in close proximity to one another, the massive crowds get bunched up, get louder, get more difficult to move through, become less manageable.

Those are the kinds of things the Augusta competition committee will think about when making the pairings. They also aren't immune to having a little fun in the first two rounds with "theme" groups. For example, in 2009 one of the early round groups was comprised of three young hotshots, Anthony Kim,Rory McIlroyandRyo Ishikawa. Nothing random about that kind of grouping. It's a group that fans and the TV network will be happy with.

First- and second-round groupings include three players, and tee times are 11 minutes apart. For the final two rounds, after the cut, pairings are comprised of two players (unless weather delays create the need to stick with 3-man groups), and tee times are 10 minutes apart.

Pairings for Rounds 3 and 4 are based on scores; the better a golfer's score, the later his tee time. The golfer in last place will tee off first; the golfer in first place will tee off last.

But what about ties? Let's say there are six golfers tied for the lead. In a case like that, the pairings and tee times are based on the order in which those six golfers posted their scores. Among those six tied players, the one who posted the score first will tee off last among that group of players; the one who posted the score last will tee off first among that group of players.

Answer 2

When deciding the final round pairings, where there is a tie, it is worked out as whoever finished their third round first goes out last.

Answer 3

Every group is in pairs. Started with the players that have the worst aggregate score for three past days. Making it where the leaders will always play in the final groupings.

Answer 4

Depends on the tournament. Some pick pairings at random, some do it by world ranking and some, like the PGA Championship put the past three major champions out together.