Kenny Perry will defend his U.S. Senior Open title starting on Thursday at Oak Tree National and will play alongside Mark Wiebe and amateur Doug Hanzel for the first two rounds.
Perry won the title by five strokes last year at Omaha Country Club. Wiebe won last year's Senior British Open in a playoff over Bernhard Langer and Hanzel is the reigning U.S. Senior Amateur winner.
That trio will start Thursday's opening round on the first tee at 2:42 p.m. ET and will begin the second round Friday at 8:57 a.m. on the 10th tee.
They will be followed both rounds by Jeff Sluman, Jay Haas and Scott Verplank. Sluman is a former PGA Champion and Haas own three majors on the Champions Tour.
In one of the featured groups off the first tee Thursday morning, 2011 U.S. Senior Open runner-up Mark O'Meara will play alongside two-time champion Hale Irwin and 2004 winner Peter Jacobsen. They start on No. 1 Thursday at 8:46 a.m. and open on No. 10 Friday at 2:31 p.m.
Michael Allen plays with a pair of former runner-ups Corey Pavin and Joey Sindelar in the next group out. Allen has three top-7 finishes in the last four years at the U.S. Senior Open, while Pavin shared second in 2012 and Sindelar took second in 2009.
Langer, the 2010 champion, is paired with Mark Calcavecchia and Steve Elkington for the first two rounds. They start on the 10th tee on Thursday at 8:57 a.m. and come back Friday afternoon at 2:42 p.m. off the first.
They are followed by Rocco Mediate, Tom Lehman and Colin Montgomerie. Lehman shared second in 2012, while Mediate tied for third last year
Playing opposite the Sluman group are Tom Pernice Jr., Vijay Singh and Mark Brooks, who start on No. 10 at 2:52 p.m. on Thursday. Singh and Brooks are former major champions on the PGA Tour.
In the next group out are Loren Roberts, who has won four majors on the Champions Tour, Steve Jones and Larry Mize. Jones is a former U.S. Open champ, while Mize won the 1987 Masters.
[SportsNetwork.com]
