Day comes into the competition off the back of two consecutive victories, having won the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the WGC-Dell Match Play Championship last month.

The 28-year-old Australian, winner of the 2015 USPGA Championship, will begin his pursuit of a second major crown when he tees off alongside Matt Kuchar of the United States and South African legend Ernie Els at 1.06pm local time.

Northern Irishman McIlroy, bidding to complete the career Grand Slam in Augusta, which has only ever been achieved by five golfers in the history of the sport - Americans Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods and South Africa's Gary Player - is scheduled to go off at 2.01pm.

The current world number three has been paired with Germany's Martin Kaymer and American Bill Haas for the first two rounds.

The defending champion, world number two Jordan Spieth of the US, has not been tipped to triumph following a poor run of form so far in 2016.

The 22-year-old from Dallas’ miserable year continued when he when he lost 4&2 to South Africa’s Louis Oosthuizen in the last 16 of the WGC-Dell Match Play Championship in Texas in March.

Spieth, though, claimed he remained confident of being draped in the famous green jacket once again when the tournament concludes on Sunday (April 10).

 “I've had a fantastic couple of days thus far preparing and my game feels great,” he said.

“We're [Spieth and caddie Michael Greller] going to try and just use last year as momentum.

“We know we're capable of playing this place, we have proven it to ourselves the last two years.

“My game actually feels better right now than I think it did last year on Tuesday, so that's good if we can keep it consistent.”

The competition begins with the first pairing - American Jim Herman and Steven Bowditch of Australia - at 8.20am local time.