Masters opens major golf season

AUGUSTA, Ga., April 9 (UPI) -- The major golf season begins Thursday with the playing of the opening round of the 72nd Masters Tournament in Georgia.

With ideal weather in the forecast, a field of 94 players will challenge the Augusta National Golf Club course. There will be 31 major championship winners in action this week, 18 of whom have won a green jacket emblematic of a Masters triumph.

The favorite, as usual, will be Tiger Woods, who has an avowed goal of capturing all four major titles in the same year. Woods, seeking his fifth Masters title, will begin play at 10:45 a.m. local time.

Woods had the lead during the final round last year before falling to Zach Johnson, whose 1-over 289 winning score equaled the highest in tournament history.

The festivities began Wednesday with the playing of the par-3 tournament, in which current and former greats competed on the flower-bedecked, nine-hole course adjacent to the main layout. Rory Sabbatini won the tourney by shooting a 5-under 22.

Play begins at 8 a.m. Thursday with Arnold Palmer hitting the ceremonial first tee shot. Phil Mickelson, a two-time winner of the event and ranked second in the world, will tee off at 1:41 p.m.