Woods and Ishikawa all set to take center stage

TURNBERRY, Scotland (Reuters) - The R&A organizers are expecting an explosion of interest in the Tiger Woods-Ryo Ishikawa-Lee Westwood group when the 138th British Open gets underway Thursday.

"I was obviously cognizant of the amount of media interest there is in that group," chief executive Peter Dawson told reporters.

"They (the players) are entirely happy about the grouping and we are happy we have good controls in place on the media. There will be a lot of interest in it, that's for sure."

World number one Woods will launch his bid for a 15th major victory at 0909 local time (0809 GMT) while Westwood is one of the favorites to end a 10-year wait for a native winner of the British Open.

Ishikawa, 17, who became the youngest champion on the Japanese tour at 15 years eight months in May 2007, attracts massive media interest as one of the biggest sporting celebrities in his homeland.

"There will be a lot of people inside the ropes," said Woods, referring to the photographers and reporters who will follow the trio. "I've been there before but Ryo hasn't."

(Editing by Mark Lamport-Stokes)