NORTON, Mass. – It’s a dream playoff scenario for the PGA Tour, with Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy paired together Saturday at The Northern Trust.

Too bad they’re in the third group off in the morning, at 8:30 a.m. ET – and a dozen shots off the lead.

It’ll be the first time they’ve been paired in a third round since the 2013 U.S. Open. Their last weekend pairing in a stroke-play event was the final round of the 2018 Tour Championship, when Woods outplayed McIlroy, 71-74, on his way to winning for the 80^th time on Tour. They also went head to head in the quarterfinals of the 2019 WGC-Match Play, another Woods victory. Woods won the Masters less than a month later.

In all, this will be the 14^th tournament in which they’ve played together, either as a two-ball or threesome. In those meetings, McIlroy holds a slight scoring edge: 69.82 to 70.05.

Through two rounds at TPC Boston, Woods and McIlroy are at 3-under 139, 12 shots behind Dustin Johnson.