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The three South Africans participating at the Masters golf tournament at Augusta have all been handed early tee times for Thursday’s opening round.
Honorary starter Gary Player joins fellow golfing legends Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson on the tee at 7.40am local time (1.40pm South African time) to officially open proceedings at the Augusta National Golf Club.
Once they have hit the opening shots Erik van Rooyen tees off in the first group of players at 8am (2pm SA time).
READ: The Masters at Augusta: A league of golf nations
The 34-year-old, who withdrew during his first Masters in 2020 and missed the cut in 2022, is playing Jake Knapp in the only group consisting of just two players. Amateur Christo Lamprecht and 2008 champion Charl Schwartzel are both in the fourth group, teeing off 36 minutes later.
American Luke List is the third player in their group.
The featured group sees favourites Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy on the tee at 10.42am (3.42pm SA time). They are joined by Xander Schauffele.
They start 12 minutes earlier.
However, the weather forecast for Augusta for today bleak with strong rains and thunder storms expected and it is thus likely that this will cause havoc in the opening round.
