Defending champion Eddie Pepperell and tournament host Tommy Fleetwood will play together when the Betfred British Masters gets under way at Hillside Golf Club.
Pepperell won his second European Tour title at last season’s event and he will tee it up on the tenth alongside fellow Englishman Fleetwood and Scot Stephen Gallacher at 9:30am.
A group with 34 European Tour wins between them will tee off on the first at 2:30pm as England’s Lee Westwood and Matt Wallace play with Dutchman Joost Luiten.
Martin Kaymer tees off ten minutes later, and the two-time Major Championship winner will have Rolex Series champions Tyrrell Hatton and Brandon Stone for company.
Stone is one of 13 South Africans in the field this week as he returns to competitive play after a short break to refresh and recharge with the season picking up steam. From a local view, he is second in terms of world rankings to Richard Sterne as Fleetwood, Wallace, Pepperell and Hatton headline the strong home field.
At the same time as Stone gets under way, on the opposite tee the likes of Haydn Porteous and Louis de Jager will start alongside Anton Karlsson.
At 9:50am, South African pair Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Dean Burmester will be joined by Lee Slattery.
Both players missed last week’s cut, but Bezuidenhout will arrive looking to shrug off that disappointment as he carries some solid form into May. A top five at the Indian Open was built on the back of a serious run at the Qatar Masters – where he finished in the group sharing second – and a top 10 the following week in Kenya.
Burmester has not been able to compete, though, with a number of missed cuts following him around the European Tour in the early part of the year.
Amateur star Wilco Nienaber will be one to watch as he makes a start in a professional event. He made the cut in his previous start at the highest level – the Qatar Masters.
