We preview the 87th Masters from Augusta, as McIlroy seeks the career Grand Slam, Tiger Woods battles agains the end, and Shane Lowry aims for an upset.
Has the tournament ever been quite so anticipated as this year’s edition?Don DeLillo wrote that longing on a large scale is what makes history but McIlroy will make it by putting a blessed end to such epic waiting. McIlroy arrived on the scene as the anointed one and this was his anointed venue, theoretically favouring his right-hand draw and distance from the tee.
His game is in a good place. An equipment change seems to have addressed some wonky driving, and in what promises to be a rain-soaked weekend, hitting the ball long and straight off the tee may be half the battle. His putting has markedly improved since he started working with Brad Faxon, and his early-year wobbles looked to have been steadied at his most recent tournament, the Match Play in Austin.
But as McIlroy learned so painfully at last year’s Open, doing nothing wrong sometimes isn’t enough: his steady, final-day husbandry was smoked by Cam Smith. Nobody has successfully defended the Masters since Tiger Woods did it in 2002, but few have arrived in a better position to do so than Scheffler.
That said, he could make his way around this course with his eyes closed, and if he can do what he did last year and make the cut, he will tie Fred Couples and Gary Player for the most consecutive cuts made in Masters history. Augusta National runs their tournament tightly but on the course, they cede control to the golfers…the weaker competitors might argue too much control. At its best, the course forces players to decide as to whether they want to be brave or not. Hence the decision to lengthen the 13th hole by 35 yards.
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