As is the custom with the Open, “super pairings” are sprinkled about the 156-man playing field to create buzz, keep spectator traffic under control, ease operational needs for televised coverage, and of course, to prove to golf fans just how very clever the USGA pairing committee really is.  Although lacking an American presence, the marquee grouping of  Luke Donald, Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer offers Open-watchers the top three golfers in the world in a nice neat package.  The next best pairing -fortunately playing at a time when the Donald group is not – is Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson, immediately followed by a pairing of three recent Master’s Champions: Charl Schwartzel, Trevor Immelman, and Zach Johnson.

Other pairings of note combine reigning U.S. Open winner Graeme McDowell, British Open Championship winner Louis Oosthuizen, and U.S. Amateur winner Peter Uihlein.  Then the pairing commitee decided to get cutesy.  There is the New Spanish Armada of Miguel Angel Jimenez, Sergio Garcia, and Alvaro Quiros;, followed by the Brothers Molinari and teen phenom, Matteo Manassero to round out  the Italian Stallions.  There is the all-Swede Abba fan club grouping of Henrik Stenson, Johan Edfors, and Fredrik Jacobson (it’s too bad the commitee did not group Karlsson, Noren and Hanson for a little $2 Nassau sidebet) as well as the USGA’s own makeshift version of the Asian Invasion with Ryo Ishikawa, Anthony Kim,  and Y.E. Yang.  In a most unusual pairing, even if Nicolas Colsaerts of Belgium can speak English, I am not sure he will understand many of the words coming out of the mouths of fellow pairing mates and good ol’ Georgia boys, Heath Slocum and Russell Henley – hopefully they won’t skin him.

As for early predictions, it’s easy to pick one of the favorites, but we think players from the Retief Goosen, David Toms and Steve Stricker group will be in the hunt on Sunday, along with members of the Matt Kuchar, Paul Casey, and K.J. Choi pairing.  The Bench Jockeys will be on-site for the entirety of the Open and with the volunteer schedule will be following the back-to-back pairings of Rickie Fowler, Ian Poulter, and Hunter Mahan & Camilo Villegas, Aaron Baddeley,  and Brandt Snedeker on Thursday as well as the Goosen/Mickelson groups on Friday.

To view the entire pairing list for the rounds on Thursday and Friday, click here.  http://www.golfweek.com/news/2011/jun/10/2011-us-open-usga-announces-pairings/

The Masters offers only 19 ways to recieve an invitation to compete for the Green Jacket.  Unlike many PGA Tour events, the many of the qualifications involve world play performance which promotes a more well-rounded international field.  (See the Fast Facts below for qualifications.)   The committee typically ties the high profile players together into super pairings with the lesser-followed players and many internationals grouped into the time slots between these all-star threesomes.  In this manner, the Committee can control the gallery so that players are able to move though the course, limit noise so that the fan-base is spread throughout the 365-acre grounds, and most importantly for ESPN, assure that television coverage in the morning and afternoon features players who will draw viewership.

Some of the more interesting or comment-worthy pairings are detailed below:

• 8:18 AM – Ben Crenshaw, Brandt Snedeker, Kevin Na – How did Gentle Ben get paired with these two schmos?
• 8:40 AM – Dustin Johnson, Adam Scott, Nick Watney – Maybe the handsomest pairing in the field.
• 8:51 AM – Vijay Singh, Tim Clark, Aaron Baddeley – I am hoping that Bads and the ill-tempered Vijay start fighting and Bads lays VJ out before they reach Amen Corner.  South African Tim Clark is a perfect referee for this fracas.
• 9:24 AM – Rory McIlroy, Rickie Fowler, Jason Day – great pairing of 21 to 23 year old players representing “the next wave.”
• 10:19 AM – Martin Kaymer, Lee Westwood, Matt Kuchar – The Germanator and Westy, the world’s top two players, paired together.  Look for both of them to be in contention on Sunday even though Kaymer has had zero success at the Masters.  Oh, Kuch, we know you will be playing over the weekend but you’ll need to stand next to Lee to get some air-time in this pairing.
• 10:41 AM – Tiger Woods, Graeme McDowell, Robert Allenby – Tiger and Graeme have dueled recently.  In December, Graeme won the Chevron World Challenge with a birdie during the first hole of a sudden-death playoff to beat Tiger who had blown a four-shot lead on the final day of the tourney.
• 11:25 AM – Craig Stadler, Kevin Streelman, a-Nathan Smith – I fully expect the Walrus to quit before the end of the day on Friday.  Not really an ideal pairing for mild-mannered uber-Am Smith.
• 12:53 PM – Fred Couples, Luke Donald, Steve Stricker – Freddie is simply the most enjoyable golfer to watch play in the last three decades.
• 1:04 PM – Anthony Kim, Henrik Stenson, Steve Marino – Fans, keep your eyes open for flying objects – the Patented Burgess Putter-Chuck is a given with this brutish group.
•  1:15 PM – Bubba Watson, Paul Casey, Eduardo Molinari – This may well be the most well-rounded of the three player pairings.  I would take these three guys in a best-ball any day.
• 1:48 PM – Phil Mickelson, Geoff Ogilvy, a-Peter Uihlein – Coming off of a win in Houston, can Lefty repeat?

The complete pairing list can be found at  http://www.masters.com/en_US/scores/pairings/

Fast Fact:  Players who meet any of the following criteria receive an invitation to play in The Masters:

• Former winners of The Masters
• Winners of the last five U.S. Opens
• Winners of the last five British Opens
• Winners of the last five PGA Championships
• Winners of the last three Players Championships
• Winner and runner-up from the last U.S. Amateur Championship
• Winner of the last British Amateur Championship
• Winner of the last Asian Amateur Championship
• Winner of the last U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship
• Winner of the last U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship
• The top 16 finishers (including ties) from last year’s Masters Tournament
• The top 8 finishers (including ties), from last year’s U.S. Open
• The top 4 finishers (including ties) from last year’s British Open
• The top 4 finishers (including ties) from last year’s PGA Championship
• The top 30 finishers on last year’s PGA Tour money list
• Winners of PGA Tour events from the previous Masters through this year’s Masters, providing those tournaments awarded full FedEx Cup points (no opposite-field tournaments qualify)
• All players who qualified for last year’s Tour Championship
• The Top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking at the end of the previous year
• The Top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking published in the week prior to this year’s Masters

The Augusta National’s Masters Committee also reserves the right to invite any international golfer its sees fit who is not otherwise qualified.