We find ourselves merely 11 days away from the first shot being struck at the Masters Tournament, the first major championship golf tourney of 2018. Unlike the other three majors that rotate from site to site, the Masters has been contested every year at the Augusta National Golf Club since the inaugural tournament was first held in 1934. Designed by amateur great Bobby Jones and one of the godfathers of American golf architecture, Dr. Alister Mackenzie, Augusta National is relatively wide open off the tee, demands precision iron play, and features some of the most diabolical greens on tour.
We are in the midst of the era of the 20-something golfer as Masters’ favorites include world No. 1 Dustin Johnson, past champion Jordan Spieth, reigning PGA winner Justin Thomas, four-time major champ Rory McIlroy, and a bunch of their contemporaries such as Daniel Berger, Kevin Kisner, Jon Rahm, Tommy Fleetwood, Jason Day, Tony Finau, Patrick Cantlay and Rickie Fowler. Two past champions, namely Bubba Watson and Phil Mickelson, have had breakthrough victories during the past month and are once again on the game’s radar as Masters’ favorites. Yet there are two golfers in this year’s field who first crossed paths at the PGA Championship way back in 1999. Both are taking new paths as they continue to age on tour.
Sergio Garcia is the defending champion. When Sergio teed it up at Augusta National last April, it was the 70th major championship event of his long career. That’s 17½ years of major title futility. Garcia was best known at that time as the best player to have never won a major. All that changed on Masters Sunday as Sergio survived a possible blowup on the 13th hole, eagled the par-5 15th hole, ran down tournament leader and fellow Ryder Cup teammate Justin Rose, and beat Rose in a sudden-death playoff with a birdie.
Although it might be farfetched to consider, perhaps Sergio’s victory at the Masters last year was because of his personal life away from the golf course. Last year he was engaged to Angela Ray, the granddaughter of a Texas high school football coaching legend, the daughter of a former Texas Longhorn quarterback, and the cousin of Saints QB Drew Brees. Sergio and Angela were married in the spring of 2017 and are expecting a baby daughter soon. She appears to have made a positive impact upon his golfing attitude. A few weeks prior to last year’s Masters, Sergio teed it up in Texas with two-time Masters champ Ben Crenshaw. Following their round, Crenshaw was quoted as saying, “I’ve never seen a golf ball hit that well.”
Whether it was a newfound peace of mind for the naturally high strung Garcia or whether it was simply a matter of putting together a great week of ball striking on a course that rewards brilliant iron play, Sergio Garcia owns a Masters green jacket and has already won twice this season at the Andalucia Masters on the European Tour and the Singapore Open on the Asian Tour. He is definitely a favorite to repeat as Masters champ. Never thought I’d ever say that.
If you follow the betting lines in Las Vegas, then you are aware that the gambling favorite in the gaming houses of Nevada is four-time Masters champion Tiger Woods. Woods is second in PGA Tour history with 79 career wins as well as 14 grand slam titles and yet is recovering from yet another period of inactivity. Now 42 years old, Woods has had a six-week run where he is hitting the ball just as far as ever, has shown the ability to finish among the top five in circuit events, and is demonstrating a rejuvenation of sorts.
However, the Tiger Woods of 2018 is definitely not the Tiger Woods of 2000 when he won every major championship on the schedule that season except the Masters. If Tiger is ever going to win a fifth green jacket and a 15th career major title, Augusta National might be the one and only place he can prevail. Woods has shown a penchant to miss fairways by wide margins and yet driving accuracy is not a crucial detail when it comes to success at the Masters. His iron play has been rock-solid of late, and when Tiger has won at Augusta National, the overall tournament stats from those wins ranked him first, first, first and second in hitting greens in regulation. He was a true iron master. Woods has always been a streaky-good putter at the Masters although his former instructor, Hank Haney, has been quoted as saying, “I’m not of the opinion that Augusta is a great course for Tiger. He doesn’t putt well enough there.”
The Masters has the smallest field in major championship golf and usually invites just about 100 golfers into its field. Of those 100 golfers, some 10-15 of them are past champs who probably have no chance to win. I’m speaking of aging past champs such as Mike Weir, Vijay Singh, Trevor Immelman, Mark O’Meara, Bernhard Langer and Larry Mize. On top of that, recent amateur winners of the British Amateur, the Asia Pacific Amateur, the Latin American Amateur, the U.S. Mid Amateur, and the two finalists in the U.S. Amateur are also part of the Masters field. Short hitters also have difficulty at the Masters. There are perhaps only 40 golfers in the field who have any sort of a chance to win each year at Augusta National.
Yet that doesn’t mean that the Masters can only be won by a bomber like Tiger or Phil, an iron master like Sergio, or a putting genius such as Jordan Spieth. Down through the years, the Masters has produced its fair share of unexpected winners. Back in the days of Sam Snead, Byron Nelson and Ben Hogan, the 1946 Masters was won by Herman Kaiser. Two years later Claude Harmon walked away with the green jacket. Larry Mize chipped in on the second overtime hole in 1987 to defeat Seve Ballesteros and Greg Norman. Before Phil won his first green jacket, short hitting Canadian lefty Mike Weir won the 2003 Masters. More recently, Englishman Danny Willett took advantage of a final-nine blowup by Jordan Spieth leading to his most unexpected victory. For every Jack, Arnie and Tiger, there’s a Gay Brewer, Charles Coody and Mark O’Meara wearing the same green jacket. The lineup of past Masters champions is a potpourri of golfers with varied strengths and talents.
The Masters kicks off the major championship season in less than two weeks. Sergio Garcia is the defending champ, Tiger Woods is back in the field, and an array of young and talented linksters are looking to add another major title to their already impressive golfing resumes. Because of the balance of power on the PGA Tour, the Masters appears to be a wide-open affair. We’ll know a whole lot more in just two more weekends.
