On the tee: at the WGC-Cadillac Championship

World Number One Rory McIlroy will go in search of a maiden victory at the WGC-Cadillac Championship in the company of fellow European Tour winner Henrik Stenson and American Major Champion Bubba Watson.

The high-class trio tackle Trump National Doral’s Blue Monster course, which is hosting the US$9.25 million tournament for the ninth successive season, at 11.33am on Thursday.

Eleven minutes later, McIlroy’s Ryder Cup team-mates Sergio Garcia and Justin Rose, the 2012 WGC-Cadillac Champion, will tee off alongside rising American star Jordan Spieth.

Other high-profile groups include the 11.11am trio of Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson and Graeme McDowell, who has finished inside the top ten in three of his last five visits to Doral.

European Tour Member Patrick Reed will start the defence of his title at 11.22am in the company of his USA Ryder Cup team-mate Jimmy Walker and Japanese star Hideki Matsuyama.

England’s Lee Westwood, who will this week become the first player in history to reach 50 starts in World Golf Championship events, is one of the last players out at 1.01pm, when he will be joined on the tee by Major Champions Jason Dufner of America and South African Louis Oosthuizen.

In-form Indian Anirban Lahiri, meanwhile, gets his debut appearance underway at 12.39pm, with Japan’s Hiroyuki Fujita and American Webb Simpson for company.