The 86th edition of the Masters Golf Tournament tees it up Thursday at the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia. The Masters is the first of the four major championships in men’s golf for 2022. The entire purse for the Masters is $11.5 million and the eventual winner will not only pocket the $2.07 million first-place check, but will also take ownership of one of sport’s most iconic possessions, the green jacket. Hideki Matsuyama of Japan is the defending champ, having defeated PGA Tour rookie Will Zalatoris by one stroke last April. Matsuyama made himself a national hero in his homeland by becoming the first Japanese male golfer to win one of golf’s four grand slam events.
The Augusta National Golf Club historically makes alterations to its course each and every year and this time around is no exception. The already brutal par-4 11th hole with water sitting alongside the green has now been lengthened by 15 yards to 520 yards. The par-5 dogleg left 15th hole has oftentimes been reachable in two strokes, setting up an eagle opportunity. It too has been lengthened from 530 yards to 550 yards. Both holes have new tee boxes, which should add to the angles of the holes. The new changes now stretch out the entire course to 7,510 yards with a par of 72. Say what you want to about the changes. The 150-yard par-3 12th hole still remains one of the more difficult holes at Augusta National. It has determined more than its fair share of Masters’ winners over the years.
There are only 91 golfers invited into the field of the Masters this year. While the United States Open, the British Open and the PGA Championship historically have 156 contestants, the Masters usually locks in at 90-100 golfers. While the top 50 golfers in the world rankings are in the field at Augusta National next week, there are some entrants who aren’t necessarily all that competitive, namely some of the past champions as well as the invited amateurs. The amateur invites go out to the U.S. Amateur champ, the Am runner-up, the British Amateur titlist, the Asian Pacific Amateur winner, and the Latino America Amateur victor. While some of those amateurs have gone on to greatness, with names from Palmer to Nicklaus to Mickelson to Woods to Matsuyama, they normally don’t have much of a chance to make an impact the first time around. The last time an amateur came close was in 1956 when San Francisco’s Ken Venturi finished second to Jackie Burke.
Obviously past champs such as Matsuyama, Sergio Garcia, Dustin Johnson and Jordan Spieth are still in their playing prime, but there is a contingent of past winners who are ceremonial at best. That group includes the likes of Larry Mize, who won the Masters 35 years ago with a miracle overtime chip-in, Jose Maria Olazabal and Sandy Lyle. Freddie Couples and Bernhard Langer still show up at Augusta every year and sometimes they surprise everyone by making the cut, but they too are well beyond their PGA Tour prime.
The Masters is a tough one to prognosticate because different styles of golf have a way of working to the top of the leader board. After all, Ben Crenshaw won two Masters and is oftentimes considered the greatest putter of the modern era. So too did Bernhard Langer, who has struggled mightily with the putter throughout most of his career. Zach Johnson, the newly minted American Ryder Cup captain, won the Masters with brilliant wedge play while Adam Scott, a notoriously weak putter, was an iron master during the week of his Masters triumph.
In many ways, Adam Scott gives us a good glimpse into what it takes to win the Masters. The fairways are relatively wide open when compared to the other major championship sites. The putting surfaces are nothing short of difficult to say the least. While none of us will ever have the connections to get Bill Gates to invite us to play at Augusta National, there are some hints about the creative nature of the greens designed by Alister Mackenzie way back in 1932. The most obvious comparison in Northern California is the Meadow Club in Marin County although that too is private and very exclusive. The Pasatiempo Golf Club in Santa Cruz is a high-end daily fee course that is historically listed among America’s top 100 courses. The Meadow Club and Pasatiempo, both Mackenzie designs, also put a premium on iron play. If you can land your iron shot on the correct tier on these fairly large greens, then you have a decided advantage compared to the rest of the field. If you don’t, then you are oftentimes dealing with downhill putts that are not only lightning fast, but just might have 20-30 feet of break. However, getting to the greens isn’t as important as where you end up on the greens. Beware of the iron master.
The hottest golfer in the world at this moment is Scottie Scheffler. He has three wins in the last six weeks, namely at Phoenix, Bay Hill and last weekend at the World Match Play. All of the aforementioned courses are radically different, yet Scheffler won all three tourneys with stellar iron play. He has to be the favorite to win at Augusta National. He has played in the last two Masters and has 18th-place and 19th-place finishes. He is a true iron master. On top of that, Scheffler is the No.1-ranked golfer in the world. All he needs now is a major win.
Another iron master of note is two-time major champion Collin Morikawa. He was a rookie on tour in 2019 following his graduation from Cal-Berkeley. Since then he’s won the Reno-Tahoe Open, the PGA Championship in 2020 at Harding Park, a World Golf Championship, and the 2021 British Open at Royal St. George. Morikawa is a mediocre putter, but he is the No.1-ranked iron player on tour when it comes to proximity. He also knows how to win big.
A number of young guns have to be considered favorites at this year’s Masters, including the defending champ, Hideki Matsuyama, past winner Jordan Spieth, former PGA champ Justin Thomas, last year’s runner up Will Zalatoris, Olympic gold medalist Xander Schauffele, and Cameron Smith, the recent Players titlist. Be aware of Sam Burns, another iron master, as well as Viktor Hovland, who is ready for a breakthrough win.
Three-time Masters champ Phil Mickelson has not entered the field at the Masters. Perhaps Tiger Woods will find that the course is walkable at this stage of his recovery and he will play. Regardless of what’s going on with golf’s older generation, the rest of the game’s greats will be teeing it up Thursday at the 86th annual Masters Golf Tournament.
