AUGUSTA, Ga. — We wait almost 9 months for this yearly.
The day the “Champion Golfer of the Year” is topped on the British Open and hoists the Claret Jug in July, all eyes within the golf world flip to April at Augusta Nationwide, the place the subsequent main championship begins.
As agonizing because the wait might be via the lengthy winter, that wait is at all times price it.
That can’t be acknowledged extra emphatically than for this week’s Masters, the place storylines are as ample because the lots of Georgia pines and blooming azaleas are across the fabled golf course.
Scottie Scheffler, the world’s No. 1 ranked participant, will probably be attempting to win his third Masters previously 4 years. If he does, he can be simply the second participant ever to take action — the opposite being Jack Nicklaus, who gained in 1963, ’65 and ’66.
Rory McIlroy is making his eleventh try at finishing the profession Grand Slam and profitable a primary inexperienced jacket. If he wins, he would turn out to be simply the sixth participant in historical past to finish the profession Grand Slam.
Tiger Woods is the one participant to have executed it previously 59 years. McIlroy is one in every of 12 gamers who’s gained three of the 4 legs of the trendy Slams.
If Xander Schauffele wins, he could have gained three of the previous 4 main championships, having gained the PGA Championship and British Open in 2024.
Then there’s the compelling curiosity about how the LIV Golf gamers will carry out. Save for a pair exceptions, this week would be the first time we’ve seen the distinguished gamers from LIV compete in opposition to the highest gamers from the PGA Tour.
There, too, are different ancillary storylines to this week that can seize creativeness.
A sentimental one contains this being the ultimate Masters for 67-year-old Bernhard Langer, a two-time winner of the inexperienced jacket taking part in in his forty first Masters.
It, too, may presumably flip right into a Masters match farewell for 65-year-old Fred {Couples}, who’s taking part in for the fortieth time at Augusta.
There’s additionally the intrigue surrounding Angel Cabrera’s return to Augusta after spending two years in an Argentinian jail for home abuse.
Because the 2009 Masters champion, Cabrera is an invitee into the sector, as uncomfortable as that could be for among the Inexperienced Jacketed members and the patrons.
While you boil down all of those compelling storylines, the celebs of the present this week determine to be McIlroy and Scheffler.
As ESPN analyst Curtis Unusual mentioned this week: “I’m looking forward to the Rory-Scottie show.”
For Scheffler, who gained in 2022 and 2024, Augusta Nationwide is his pleased place, his consolation zone. It would as nicely be his again yard.
For McIlroy, Augusta Nationwide has been a chamber of horrors, the positioning of his most devastating defeats.
Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee this week referred to as Augusta Nationwide McIlroy’s “nemesis.”
“It brings out the worst golf in Rory annually that we see almost every year,” Chamblee mentioned. “He annually underperforms there. There are things about that golf course that have been very problematic for him.”
Chamblee factors out, although, that “from a competitive standpoint,” McIlroy, who’s recent off profitable the AT&T Pebble Seaside Professional-Am and Gamers Championship this yr, “has never gone into the Masters playing better or sharper” than he’s this week.
One other development in his is that not one of the different high gamers on this planet come into the week within the form of kind he’s in.
Scheffler hasn’t gained but this yr, Collin Morikawa had a few shut however disappointing finishes at Bay Hill and TPC, and Schauffele is coming off an indirect damage that set him again.
Additionally, not one of the high LIV Golf gamers — Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson or Cam Smith — has been in notably good kind, both.
“I’m certainly not going to discount them, but they’re not quite on their games,” Golf Channel analyst and McIlroy confidant Paul McGinley mentioned. “So, that would buoy [McIlroy] a little bit as well.”
Scheffler, regardless that the beginning of his season delayed due to a cooking accident wherein he minimize his hand, doesn’t appear to want a variety of buoying.
He goes merrily about his means with out being adversely affected by something.
“For me, he’s still the favorite next week,” McGinley mentioned. “I think he’s got a game that’s really suited to winning around there. He’s a very, very measured player, and measured players win around Augusta.”
Chamblee agreed.
“To the degree when I [say] the golf course doesn’t necessarily fit Rory, doesn’t necessarily fit Bryson, doesn’t even necessarily fit Collin Morikawa, it fits Scottie like a Savile Row suit,” Chamblee mentioned. “It’s his happy place.”
