Woods, McIlroy off and running early at The Barclays

• By Jason Sobel
• Aug 21, 2012 1:01 PM ET

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. – Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy have never before teed it up together in a PGA Tour event.

That will change at 8:16 a.m. ET Thursday morning.

Woods and McIlroy will be joined by Zach Johnson on the 10^th tee in the morning wave of The Barclays opening round at Bethpage Black.

“I'm going to relish the opportunity because I think they're two of the best players that I play with, certainly two of the better players that are playing right now in the world,” Johnson said in advance of the tournament. “I guess if I wasn't playing with them and I was working out or in my hotel, I'd probably be watching them on TV, so now I've got a firsthand watch.”

Woods enters the first FedEx Cup playoff event at No. 1 on the points list, with McIlroy in the No. 3 position. With No. 2 Jason Dufner taking the week off, the final place in their group fell to Johnson, who is fourth in the standings.

With all groups formed by FedEx Cup rankings, there are a few other star-studded trios for the first two rounds.

The next highest-ranked group features Bubba Watson, Hunter Mahan and Carl Pettersson, off the first tee at 1:06 p.m. on Thursday, followed by Keegan Bradley, Matt Kuchar and Steve Stricker off the 10^th at 8:05 in the group before Woods, McIlroy and Johnson.

The group in front of that one features Phil Mickelson, Luke Donald and Scott Piercy.

There are 123 of the top 125 players in this week’s field. Dufner elected to skip the event and Spencer Levin withdrew after his brother passed away earlier this week.