Nick Faldo
Faldo - company for Tiger on Day One and Two

It's not unusual for the R&A to cause a bit of mischief in their draw for the first and second round of Open Championship - like the time when Scott Hoch lost a play-off to Nick Faldo in the US Masters and after criticising the links golf was paired with him in 1990 at St Andrews.

This time Faldo - 49 today - becomes poacher-turned-gamekeeper and after taking verbal pot shots at Tiger Woods as a commentator on US television gets to play with the World No.1 in Thursday's opening round at Hoylake alongside Japanese Shingo Katayama, just after 2pm.

Other interesting combinations include David Howell with Vijay Singh (both from the Cleveland stable), Ian Poulter with Seve Ballesteros (swashbuckling golfers from different generations) and Colin Montgomerie with John Daly.

Commented Monty: "One good thing is that John's easy to talk to. He travels a lot and he's up on most things - including divorces."

One of the most laid back groups is likely to be Ernie Els alongside Luke Donald, who has just re-signed with Mizuno on a multi-year contract which includes using Bettinardi putters.

Simon Dyson, who's providing a daily, exclusive diary for Golfmagic.com tees off at high noon alongside the big-hitting, dimunitve South African Charl Schwartzel and 1998 Open Champion Mark O'Meara. They will play at 6.52 am on Friday.