Rory McIlroy has been given a star-studded group at the PGA Championship after being drawn alongside Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele for the first two rounds at Quail Hollow.

The world’s top three have been put together for the first two days of the PGA Tour’s flagship event, live from Thursday on Sky Sports, just as they were for two of last year’s majors and the opening two rounds of The Players in March.

McIlroy features in a major for the first time since becoming golf’s newest career Grand Slam champion with a dramatic victory at The Masters, where he defeated Justin Rose in a play-off, with the world No 2 now chasing a fourth win of an already impressive 2025.

The Northern Irishman – a four-time winner of the Truist Championship at this week’s venue – has been handed an early-late draw and will begin his bid for a sixth major victory at 8.22am local time (1.22pm UK time) on Thursday.

McIlroy got the better of both during their marquee threeball at The Players, posting scores of 67 and 68 on the first two days at TPC Sawgrass ahead of a play-off victory over JJ Spaun, with the 36-year-old also winning the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am this season.

Scheffler claimed nine worldwide victories last year and arrives off the back of a dominant eight-shot victory in his last PGA Tour start at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, while Schauffele has top-eight finishes in his last five majors and fired the lowest 72-hole total in men’s major history to win last year’s contest.

Former world No 1 Jordan Spieth, looking to emulate McIlroy and complete the career Grand Slam, is also out late alongside 2018 Masters champion Patrick Reed and Ryder Cup star Ludvig Åberg.

Spieth won The Masters and the US Open in 2015 before claiming The Open in 2017, with this year his ninth attempt at finding the major required to join McIlroy, Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Ben Hogan and Gene Sarazen in golf’s most exclusive club

Justin Thomas, who claimed the first of his two PGA Championship titles when it was held at this venue in 2017, is in a threeball with fellow double major champions Dustin Johnson and Collin Morikawa, while European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald will go out in the opening threeball with veteran major winners Padraig Harrington and Martin Kaymer.

Thursday’s selected UK start times

USA unless stated; *denotes starting on tenth hole

*1200 Luke Donald (Eng), Padraig Harrington (Irl), Martin Kaymer (Ger)

*1238 Brooks Koepka, Rickie Fowler, Shane Lowry (Irl)

*1249 Phil Mickelson, Tommy Fleetwood (Eng), Jason Day

*1300 Jon Rahm (Esp), Patrick Cantlay, Matt Fitzpatrick

*1322 Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy (NIrl), Xander Schauffele

1803 Tyrrell Hatton (Eng), Will Zalatoris, Adam Scott (Aus)

1814 Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson, Collin Morikawa

1825 Jordan Spieth, Patrick Reed, Ludvig Åberg (Swe)

1836 Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn), Wyndham Clark, Tom Kim (Kor)

1847 Bryson DeChambeau, Viktor Hovland (Nor), Gary Woodland

Who will win the PGA Championship? Watch throughout the week live on Sky Sports. Live coverage of the opening round begins on Thursday from 1pm on Sky Sports Golf. Get Sky Sports or stream with NOW.

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