LYTHAM - Former world number one Tiger Woods will play alongside Sergio Garcia and Justin Rose in the opening two rounds of this week's British Open.

Woods, Spaniard Garcia and Briton Rose will tee off at 0942 (0842 GMT) in Thursday's first round.

The 36-year-old American is looking to end a four-year drought in major championships, having won the last of his 14 'big four' titles at the 2008 U.S. Open.

Garcia, 32, and Rose, 31, are among the best modern-day players never to have won a major.

Among the other highlights of Monday's draw was the grouping of world number one Luke Donald with American left-hander Phil Mickelson and Australian Geoff Ogilvy at 1443.

World number two Rory McIlroy will partner 2010 British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen and 2011 U.S. PGA Championship winner Keegan Bradley at 1421.

Lee Westwood, the world number three, was drawn with crowd-pleasing U.S. Masters champion Bubba Watson and Japan's Yoshinori Fujimoto.

Title holder Darren Clarke is to play alongside triple major champion Ernie Els and former U.S. Masters winner Zach Johnson.

The honor of striking the first blow of the 141st edition of the championship will fall to Britain's Barry Lane at 0619. - Reuters