Veteran Matt Kuchar will go out first on Thursday morning when play begins at the 2016 Olympic Games.
Call it The New Course at Rio because it is very, very new, virtually untested, designed by Gil Hanse and waiting a total of 60 players on the men’s side of the competition.
Kooch will be out at 8:05 a.m. EDT Thursday and will play with Danny Willett of Great Britain and Haotong Li of China.
Bubba Watson is paired with Martin Kaymer of Germany and Anirban Lahiri of India. They go at 8:14 a.m., EDT.
Patrick Reed is in a group with Sergio Garcia, Spain, and Emiliano Grillo, Argentina. They go at 9:25 a.m., EDT.
Rickie Fowler gets a little extra rest. He’s off at 9:58 a.m. in the next-to-last group of the day with Justin Rose of Great Britain and Jhonattan Vegas of Venezuela.
Open champion Henrik Stenson of Sweden goes last with Thongchai Jaidee of Thailand and Rafa Cabrera-Bello of Spain.
Rio de Janeiro is one hour ahead of the east coast, timewise.
Weather doesn’t look like it will be much of a factor, highest winds will be around 16 miles per hour on Thursday, 10 on Friday, 10-15 on Saturday and just 5-10 on Sunday. Chance of rain is 20 percent on Thursday and 10 percent or less the rest of the days.
