The first and second round pairings are hot off the press, and as usual there are several marquee groups that jump off the page.

Tiger Woods will play with Stewart Cink and Jeev Milkha Singh (India) in the penultimate group at 1:52 p.m. EST. The final threesome features perhaps the game’s next generation of young stars: Anthony Kim, Rory McIlroy (Northern Ireland) and Ryo Ishikawa (Japan).

Greg Norman (Australia) makes his return to the Masters and will play with Bernhard Langer (Germany) and Lee Westwood (England) at 9:50 a.m.

The middle of the field has a few groups who surely will grab plenty of television air time:

Justin Rose (England), Henrik Stenson (Sweden) and Angel Cabrera (Argentina) at 10:12 a.m.

Vijay Singh (Fiji), Geoff Ogilvy (Australia) and Ernie Els (South Africa) at 10:23 a.m.;

Phil Mickelson, Camilo Villegas (Colombia) and Jim Furyk at 10:45 a.m.

I’m very curious to see how Els comes out of the gate. He’s contended a few times before and a victory at Augusta National would mean he would only need the PGA Championship to complete golf’s career grand slam.

I like Mickelson for some reason, but I’ll post my picks on Wednesday. Got to check out the weather forecast and practice green before I do … so many things will change and affect scores in the coming days.