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The 88th enjoying of the Masters arrives at a precarious second in golf: Its defending champion has since departed for the Saudi-backed LIV Golf League, its best winner not named Jack Nicklaus has performed solely 5 full rounds of golf this yr, and the game’s total ecosystem stays fractured and its future unsure.
But as soon as the primary tee shot is hit Thursday, all eyes will likely be on the perfect gamers on the earth navigating the game’s most historic venue over 72 holes.
From the favorites to the newcomers to the way in which the course is enjoying, listed here are six storylines to look at at Augusta.
What’s going to the LIV Golf League do for an encore?
A yr in the past, any doubt about LIV Golf League gamers with the ability to compete within the main championships after enjoying 54-hole tournaments with loud music most likely was put to relaxation. Phil Mickelson and Brooks Koepka tied for second on the 2023 Masters, then Koepka received his fifth main on the PGA Championship at Oak Hill Nation Membership in Rochester, New York.
Defending Masters champion Jon Rahm, who jumped to the LIV Golf League in December, is certainly one of 13 LIV Golf gamers within the subject.
Read more: Jon Rahm wants LIV-PGA Tour unity, but ‘it’s not up to me’
LIV Golf captain Sergio Garcia, the 2017 Masters champion, insists everyone seems to be getting alongside superb.
“I imply, you guys love these items,” Garcia stated. “You retain increase these items, and there is nothing. There’s nothing. You guys like to type of dig and simply type of attempt to make it sound like we get within the locker room and we’re preventing one another and stuff like that. It isn’t like that. On the finish of the day, it is golf. We’re all making an attempt to play the easiest way we will, and that is it.”
Eyes on the first-timers
Just one first-timer has slipped on a inexperienced jacket at Augusta Nationwide Golf Membership since 1935: Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979. Reigning U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark and Sweden’s Ludvig Åberg aren’t your typical Masters first-timers — they’re ranked fourth and ninth within the Official World Golf Rating, respectively.
Clark has received 3 times since Could and completed second to Scottie Scheffler on the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Gamers Championship.
“I imply, stats like that should be damaged,” Clark stated. “I do know it is a tall process. It is a difficult golf course. There is a bunch of fine golfers. With that stated, you must nonetheless carry your sport, so it isn’t like you possibly can simply flip a change and win it.
“However, yeah, that will be an incredible accomplishment, and I like my probabilities. I actually like myself on this golf course. I really feel good on quite a lot of tee pictures and approaches, and there is a lot creativity, so I really feel good coming into the week.”
Aberg, 24, already has seven top-10s in 23 begins on tour, together with a victory on the RSM Basic in November. The previous Texas Tech star stated he wasn’t conscious {that a} first-timer hadn’t received the Masters in 45 years till a reporter talked about it Tuesday.
“It is a difficult steadiness, as a result of clearly I am feeling all of the first-time emotions that everybody’s feeling, however I am additionally making an attempt to be OK with all these issues coming at me on the similar time,” Aberg stated. “As a result of I believe when you begin preventing it, when you begin making an attempt to push it away, I believe that is when it turns into difficult.”
There are 20 first-timers on the Masters this yr, equivalent to Akshay Bhatia (who grabbed a Sunday invitation by successful the Valero Texas Open), Nick Dunlap and Jake Knapp. Dunlap turned the primary beginner to win a PGA Tour occasion since Phil Mickelson in 1991 by capturing the American Specific in January earlier than he turned professional.
Scheffler’s dominance
There’s a sure aura of inevitability following Scheffler round lately that hasn’t been true of a golfer for the reason that days of Jordan Spieth in 2015, Rory McIlroy in 2014 and Tiger Woods for a few years earlier than that.
The way in which Scheffler, the No. 1 participant on the earth, has been enjoying as of late, it looks like he’s extra prone to win his second Masters by a number of strokes than end exterior the highest 10. Scheffler already has two wins this season, together with on the Gamers Championship, and 7 top-10 finishes.
He’s, by all accounts, the participant to beat this yr and maybe the perfect ball striker since Woods himself — nobody is gaining extra strokes this season than Scheffler, and he is first in tee-to-green and method pictures.
It isn’t simply Scheffler’s skill to constantly be close to the highest of the leaderboard that is spectacular, nevertheless it’s additionally the way in which by which he is proven he can win even when he does not have his finest stuff.
Scheffler, for his half, is not leaning into any storyline that positions him as a Goliath of any variety, even when his statistics point out that, and even when a win this week would solely add fodder to such a comparability.
“I strive to not look too far into the long run,” Scheffler stated. “I believe it is simply a type of offers the place all I am making an attempt to do is put myself in competition within the match and hopefully end it off. I actually am not trying a lot previous tomorrow. I am targeted on my preparation proper now. And people issues do not actually occupy lots of my ideas day-to-day.”
For a 27-year-old, Scheffler seems to be hyper-aware of the fickle nature of the game even given his dominant run. It is why he has leaned on this adage: Golf does not outline him; it is not who he’s. It is simply what he does.
“I occur to be good at it some weeks, and, you recognize, I are available in right here and also you guys ask all good questions,” Scheffler stated. “After which the subsequent week I am unhealthy at it, after which a number of the questions are considered extra negatively. And that is simply type of the ebb and move of competing in entrance of individuals on a regular basis.”
Regardless of the first three days appear to be, it’s probably that come Sunday, Scheffler — ought to his enchancment in placing after switching to a mallet proceed — will discover himself with an actual shot at his second inexperienced jacket. And even when it will not change who he’s, a win would solely additional cement his standing as the perfect participant within the sport.
Hovland’s large modifications
Norway’s Viktor Hovland received back-to-back FedEx Cup playoff occasions on the finish of the 2022-23 season, together with the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Membership in Atlanta, which got here with an $18 million bonus.
Hovland, 26, was ranked No. 4 on the earth on the finish of final yr. He has completed within the top-10 in three of the previous 5 majors, together with a tie for seventh on the 2023 Masters.
In any case that success, why would Hovland make vital modifications to his swing? He parted methods with swing coach Joe Mayo, who helped him flip round his quick sport, and has been working with each Grant Waite and Dana Dahlquist the previous couple of months.
“I am nonetheless type of searching for some opinions on the market, however I really feel like I am on a superb observe proper now and we’ll see the place that takes us,” Hovland stated Tuesday. “However, yeah, I imply, it is a type of issues. Like, I used to be enjoying nice golf final yr, nevertheless it’s not like I am making an attempt to alter my golf swing. It is simply typically the sport of golf, you attempt to do the identical day by day, however then issues aren’t the identical day by day if you go to the golf course.”
After serving to the European crew run away with a 16½-11½ victory on the Ryder Cup in Rome in late September, Hovland performed in only one official occasion, tying for second within the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai in mid-November.
When Hovland returned to the PGA Tour firstly of the 2024 season, his swing wasn’t the identical. He did not have a top-10 end in his first 5 begins on tour and nonetheless appears to be looking for solutions.
“I took an enormous break after final yr and after I got here again, issues have been somewhat bit totally different,” Hovland stated. “I needed to type of discover my approach again to the place I believe I will play my finest golf. And even on the finish of the final yr, I nonetheless felt like, yeah, I used to be enjoying nice, however I obtained lots out of my sport and it did not essentially really feel sustainable. However it’s not like I consciously went in and stated, ‘Hey, we will change every part up.'”
Augusta at its finest
Even earlier than match week started, the chatter within the lead-up to the Masters centered across the course being in unbelievable form. Having now been on the grounds for a number of days, it does not take an agronomist or an expert golfer to have the ability to inform that Augusta’s fairways and greens are exhibiting out, extra so than regular. That being stated, let the gamers clarify it:
“The course could be very agency,” Xander Schauffele stated. “I believe it is in unbelievable form. It is most likely a number of the finest form I’ve seen it in earlier years, to be trustworthy.”
“The golf course is gorgeous,” Fred Couples stated. “It is agency and quick, and it is actually, very nice.”
“Once we got here up right here final weekend, it was in good form,” Tiger Woods stated. “And it is solely gotten higher, which is difficult to consider, nevertheless it has.”
“Yesterday after I performed, it was as agency as I’ve seen it in 4 to 5 years,” Brooks Koepka stated. “The inexperienced speeds type of felt like they have been perhaps all weekend already, and normally that is not the case.”
Having skilled an inordinate quantity of unhealthy climate at this occasion in recent times, it seems that the match is due for a superb stretch of days this week. The one potential hiccup will likely be Thursday, because the forecast exhibits potential thunderstorms and rain showers all through the morning into the afternoon in addition to winds starting from 10 to twenty mph.
“Clearly cannot do a lot concerning the climate the remainder of the week,” Justin Thomas stated. “However I am certain that everyone on the greens workers could be very, more than happy with the place the golf course is at.”
Regardless of Thursday’s forecast, the golf course’s present state ought to maintain up properly all through the weekend, when the solar will reemerge and certain proceed to dry out a golf course that solely will get tougher in such circumstances.
“I used to be hitting 5-irons that have been coming into par-5s that have been bouncing, tomahawking over the inexperienced, and I used to be like that is fairly cool, it has been some time,” Schauffele stated. “And when this property performs that approach, you are in full crew mode together with your caddie making an attempt to determine should you’re center of the golf green, you might be aggressive; however should you’re not in the fitting place, you are enjoying to sure spots and making an attempt to go away your self an uphill putt even when it is 12 toes versus a 4-footer that is downhill.”
One other document on faucet for Tiger Woods
Regardless of withdrawing early Sunday throughout final yr’s match on account of an harm that led to ankle surgical procedure, Woods prolonged his streak of made cuts on the Masters to 23 in a row, tying the document for many made cuts at Augusta beforehand held by Gary Player and {Couples}.
Woods arrives on the Masters having performed fewer rounds of aggressive golf than he did final yr, however the perception he may win — and make a record-breaking twenty fourth straight lower within the course of — continues to be there.
“I believe it is consistency, it is longevity, and it is an understanding of play this golf course,” Woods stated of the document. “That is one of many explanation why you see gamers which can be of their 50s and 60s make cuts right here, or it is gamers of their late 40s have runs at successful the occasion, simply the understanding of play it.”
Read more: Tiger says Masters win can be his if ‘everything comes together’
Woods’ institutional data at Augusta is second to none given his historical past and success on the course. And whereas Woods stated his physique aches day by day and he wasn’t able to carry out at another match since his early withdrawal at Riviera on account of illness, he is hoping that his familiarity with the course will assist him overcome any bodily limitations.
“You continue to should exit and execute it, however there’s quite a lot of data that goes into understanding play it,” Woods stated. “The general configuration of how [greens] roll and the way they transfer and the angles you are taking, that hasn’t modified. That is the neat factor about this. I can nonetheless undergo the psychological Rolodex and convey out a number of putts from the ’90s that also transfer typically in that path and the impact that Rae’s Creek has on sure pictures and putts. And it means lots.”
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