AUGUSTA, Ga. — The Masters turns 90 this week, and it feels like there are about 90 storylines leading into Thursday’s opening tee shot at Augusta National.
Rory McIlroy, who finally crossed the line after an 11-year wait without winning a major, won his first green jacket last April and completed the career Grand Slam along the way, is storyline No. 1.
No player has defended his Masters title since Tiger Woods did it in 2000-01, and McIlroy would appear to have a great chance, liberated after last year’s life-changing victory — a win he’s called “freeing.”
Scottie Scheffler has held the world No. 1 ranking running so matter-of-factly for so long that few remember when he wasn’t No. 1. He is a fascinating storyline because he’s perceived to be struggling yet has already won once this year.
The LIV Golf invasion is real.
Bryson DeChambeau went toe-to-toe with McIlroy in the final pairing last year before faltering late and finishing tied for fifth. He enters this week having won the past two tournaments he’s played on LIV. So, he enters this week hot and seemingly having figured Augusta National out a little bit having also finished tied for sixth in 2024.
Jon Rahm has been a model of consistency with 21 consecutive top-10 finishes on LIV, and he knows how to win at Augusta, having done it in 2023 along with five top-10 finishes in his nine career Masters starts.
Let’s not forget about the two LIV Golf defects: Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed. Koepka’s results have been getting better since he rejoined the PGA Tour, and he has two runner-up finishes at Augusta. And Reed won a green jacket in 2018.
Justin Rose, at age 45, is a sentimental favorite after coming so close last year, losing to McIlroy in a playoff — the second time he’s lost the Masters in a playoff and the third time he’s finished second.
Rose will be only outdone in the sentimental category by Gary Woodland, probably the most likable player on the PGA Tour.
Woodland won the Texas Children’s Houston Open a week ago, just 30 months after surgery to remove a brain lesion and shortly after revealing he’s been battling PTSD. No one at Augusta should receive louder cheers at the first tee than Woodland.
For those of us in the Metropolitan Area, there is some legitimate local flavor at Augusta with legitimate chances to win.
Westchester native Cameron Young is coming off the greatest triumph of his career to date, the Players Championship, and is ranked No. 5 in the world.
And Chris Gotterup — a native of Little Silver, N.J., who played at Rutgers — has won twice this year and elevated his world ranking to No. 7.
Both are big bombers, which creates a big advantage at Augusta, turning the par-5s into par-4s.
“I think this Masters is a little more wide open than I can remember any of them in the last four, five, six years, because it seems like every single player that comes in that you would call a favorite has some caveat attached to them,” Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee said this week.
“With Rory and Scottie at the very top, and maybe you could put in Bryson and Rahm and make those four, and for me then there’s a separation down to everybody else,” Golf Channel analyst Paul McGinley said this week. “It’s not a big gap, but there’s a separation. Rahm and Bryson are playing phenomenal golf. They’re on form and, like all LIV players, they’re coming in with a point to prove, they come in with pointy elbows. So, expect Rahm and Bryson to raise a gallop next week. Both of them have got form around that golf course.
“Rory’s got his injury issues [he was dealing with a back problem in March], and obviously the other thing about it is guys really struggle at the challenge when they are defending. There’s a lot that goes on into being the host and coming back as defending champion, and a lot of distractions off the golf course.”
McIlroy sounds like he’s welcoming those distractions.
“This is going to be the first time I drive down Magnolia Lane enjoying the perks that come along with being a Masters champion — having a parking space in the Champions car park to using the Champions locker room, hosting the dinner on the Tuesday night,” McIlroy said. “I know I get to go back to the Masters tournament for the rest of my life, and that’s quite a freeing feeling.
“I think that I’ve won it once, and I feel like that will make it a bit easier for me to win again. I was chasing it for so long. But as time goes on, it becomes normal, and it’s been normal for me to go into my closet and see the green jacket hanging there.”
McIlroy knows that, by club rule, once he arrives to Augusta National this week he can no longer take the jacket off club grounds. Only the reigning Masters champion is permitted to do so — for the year he’s champion.
“Hopefully,” McIlroy said, “it’s not the last time I get to bring it off property.”