TULSA (Oklahoma), Aug 9: The 89th PGA Championship began in partially overcast conditions at the Southern Hills Country Club on Thursday. American left-hander Steve Flesch found the middle of the fairway with the opening shot at the par four first before being followed by compatriot Ryan Benzel and Bradley Dredge of Britain.

World number one and three-time champion Tiger Woods, bidding for his 13th major title is the red-hot tournament favourite after romping to an eight-shot victory at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational on Sunday. Woods has been grouped with fellow Americans and former winners Rich Beem and Bob Tway for the first two rounds.

World number four Ernie Els was set to tee off from the 10th with the eight-time European number one Colin Montgomerie and American Stewart Cink.

Among the later starters, the 2005 champion Phil Mickelson faced a tee-off time from the first, in the company of fellow Americans David Toms and Jeff Sluman.

British Open champion Padraig Harrington was scheduled to start from the same hole four groups earlier.

The Irishman will be partnered by the two other first-time winners of this year’s majors —American Zach Johnson (the Masters) and Argentina’s Angel Cabrera (the US Open).

In other high-profile groupings, world number two Jim Furyk has been drawn with Britain’s Luke Donald and Jonathan Byrd of the US while the 1997 winner Davis Love III has been paired with twice champion Vijay Singh and Mark Brooks.

The PGA Championship has, in recent years, enjoyed the strongest field of the four majors and 98 of the world’s top 100 players are chasing the season’s final grand slam title this week.

“This is the deepest field we play in all year and it’s a great challenge,” said Woods, who is eager to win his first major since last year’s PGA Championship at Medinah.

“This is your last opportunity to win one if you haven’t gotten one yet. I’ve been in this position before where I haven’t won one, and was able to get the last one. Hopefully that will happen this year.”—Reuters