Greenbrier Classic 2015: Tiger Woods headlines tee times and pairings for Thursday's round

The Greenbrier Classic is supposed to be one of those sleepy mid-summer tournaments that bridges the gap between majors. This holiday weekend tournament in the hills of West Virginia should not draw a particularly loaded field as most of the world's best rest up during the short three-week interval between the U.S. Open and British Open. But this year, the one player who overwhelms a tournament and has defined whether an event is marquee or not, will tee it up at the Greenbrier.

Tiger Woods will make his second career appearance at the Greenbrier Classic, starting the opening round with Steve Stricker and David Lingmerth at 8:10 am. ET. Woods committed to the event in the spring, when he uncharacteristically announced his schedule through the first week of August. He used to keep tournaments on edge until the final deadline the week before, but the organizers of the Greenbrier knew they had their cash cow signed up for months.

Woods needs reps. This is not a controversial opinion. He's working through a swing change or a "baseline shift" as he is now saying these days, and his game is a mess. St. Andrews, which hosts the British Open in 14 days, is a venue that has treated him wonderfully and should suit his hideous form about as well as any course could right now. But he still needs to play more competitive rounds, especially after missing the cut at the U.S. Open.

This is a venue that will present an entirely different challenge from the one that just battered Woods at the national championship. He'll need to go low to make the cut. Birdies will be poured in all over the course and by everyone in the field. It's a setup that typically puts us on #59Watch as one player catches fire and pushes to join that elite six-man club (Stuart Appleby broke 60 here in 2011). Woods said on Wednesday that the course was soft too, so scoring conditions should be even better and he'll have to put his foot on the pedal right away if he wants to be in the mix on the leaderboard.

From all accounts, Tiger looked fantastic during a practice round and pro-am on Wednesday. That should not matter for what is arguably the greatest player ever, but it's where we are right now with Tiger -- any positives from an official round or not are worth considering. It won't mean anything for the actual Greenbrier Classic, but hey, at least he made some good swings and didn't embarrass himself.

A few highlights from Tiger's practice round this morning... http://t.co/jdXwplGfsO

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) July 1, 2015

Apparently, he hit every green and fairway en route to a front nine 32, so make of that what you will (which should not be much).

Aside from Tiger, this isn't a strong field. In fact, it's one of the weakest he has ever played in his career. Bubba Watson is the other headliner here. Jim Justice, a coal billionaire, bought the Greenbrier after it hit some financial trouble and he's put a ton of cash into the West Virginia resort, and this event. One big way he's rejuvenated the place is to get big money athletes to keep second (or third or fourth) homes on the property, and Bubba is one of those. But he said yesterday that he was "spent" after winning last week's Travelers Championship. So who the hell knows what to expect from Bubba at a course he should dominate. He'll play with Bill Haas and Davis Love III on the afternoon side of the draw at 1 p.m., opposite Tiger.

Here's the full tee sheet for the opening round:

Morning wave off No. 1:

Morning wave off No. 10:

Afternoon wave off No. 1:

Afternoon wave off No. 10: