Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson set for Tuesday Masters practice round

Tiger Woods is set to play a Masters practice round with long-time rival Phil Mickelson on Tuesday, according to reports from Augusta National.

Woods and Mickelson are expected to play in the morning along with Fred Couples and Thomas Pieters before Woods heads to his pre-tournament press conference at 6pm (BST).

Couples is believed to have let slip the surprise fourball which could attract record galleries for a practice round, with the 1992 champion reported as saying: "I think Thomas and I will just watch."

The news raised eyebrows among the golfing media at Augusta, with many veteran journalists struggling to recall ever seeing Woods and Mickelson play a practice round together outside of the Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup.

The pair did not always see eye-to-eye during their long rivalry which yielded a combined 19 major titles, with Woods leading the count by 14-5 and being the main reason why Mickelson never got to the top of the world rankings.

They were also rarely played together in team competition, with Hal Sutton's decision to pair them on the opening day of the 2004 Ryder Cup backfiring as they stumbled to two defeats in Detroit.

But both are likely to be key figures for Team USA in Paris this autumn, both on and off the course, and they arrived at Augusta on the back of some encouraging early-season form.

Three-time Masters champion Mickelson edged out Justin Thomas in a play-off at the WGC-Mexico Championship to lift his first piece of silverware since winning The Open at Muirfield in 2013.

Woods has made an impressive return to competitive golf after undergoing spinal fusion surgery last year, finishing runner-up at the Valspar Championship and posting another top-10 finish at Bay Hill, his last event before his bid for a fifth Masters victory - and his first since 2005.

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