IT’S fantastic. It’s mad. It’s one of the greatest weeks in sport.
The Masters returns. And with it another chance at golfing immortality for Rory McIlroy. Does a career grand slam await after a 9-year Major drought?
It’s a combination of disparate elements that is frankly hard to fathom yet maybe it also informed Alliss’s capacity to view another early 1930s birth in such a multi-dimensional manner. Because the first Masters was played in 1934 and, for all his justified reputation as a fuddy duddy, Alliss was also always alive to the absurdity of the tournament, as well as its more straightforwardly impressive qualities.
This week, for the first time in 56 years, there will be no Masters action on the BBC. A disappointment for the sport, for sure, and yet it also diminishes our experience of the week because Andrew Cotter kept the Alliss’s absurdist candle burning and we will miss it. Not least because, in contrast, Sky Sports, while a fine organisation with excellent broadcasters, is almost permanently tugging at the Augusta National forelock.
And yet, in leaving the preposterous unacknowledged, the Masters becomes too earnest and too one dimensional. It is wonderful but it is also ludicrous. It is fantastic but it is also bizarre. It is one of the greatest weeks of sport and it is also one of the maddest. That is its joy.
It is, for example, played on a course that has hole names (Flowering Crab Apple, Chinese Fir) that sound like scented candles at Home Bargains. Many of the traditions appear to have been inspired by the Rotary Club and the tournament ends in the Butler Cabin, in a ceremony of quite spectacular awkwardness. Jim Nantz oversees it all with the sort of ardent, genuflecting seriousness of a recent convert taking holy communion.
It is what raising an eyebrow was made for. Relish it, laugh at it and enjoy the golf too – we’re in for a treat.
Jordan Spieth
Jordan Spieth has made nine journeys to Augusta National and five times he ended the week in the top three (in 2015 he did so wearing a Green Jacket). He loves the place because it fires his brain: he likes the need to shape tee shots, to be bold with approaches, to display touch around the green and to measure the slopes on them.
And get this: every time he finished top three at Augusta he had landed a top 10 finish in the run-up to his drive up Magnolia Lane. And the four times he didn’t finish top three (didn’t finish top 10 in fact)? His form book lacked that boost.
So take the hint – Spieth was third at Innisbrook last month – and also recall just how fired up he was when missing the cut at Augusta last year. “I hated it,” he said. “It was the worst feeling as a golfer I can remember.” It prompted him to win the very next week and the memories might easily inspire another high quality performance this week.
Rory McIlroy
I want one of the top three onside and the Northern Irishman is the pick. Scottie Scheffler is in superb form currently but the distraction of defending the Green Jacket cannot be underestimated and only one man has ever defended his first Masters winner. Jon Rahm is also to be respected but it bothers me that he has never been closer than six shots off the lead with 18 holes to play at Augusta.
Of course, there are issues with McIlroy’s case. He hasn’t won a major since 2014 and he’s fluffed a few chances at Augusta. But, like Spieth, memories of 12 months ago could prove motivational.
Last year at the Masters, Rory McIlroy holed out from off the green 4 times on his way to a final round 64 and 2nd place.
This year, he’s in great form and looking to finally complete the career grand slam after a 9 year major drought.
Can he do it?
— Flushing It (@flushingitgolf) April 2, 2023
In his case, he closed the 2022 tournament with a 64 and a holed bunker shot at the last which prompted wild scenes. “It was the first year in a long time I came away from Augusta feeling really happy about the week,” he told the Guardian last week. “It was almost like going through some sort of mental barrier. I wanted a 90-hole Masters rather than 72. I wanted another crack at it right away.”
Min Woo Lee
We’ll add two outsiders and start with the young Aussie Min Woo Lee who is aiming to join his sister Minjee as a major championship winner. His form on the DP World Tour either side of New Year was superb: eight starts, never outside the top 13, six times in the top four.
He ventured to the States in the spring, landed a top 30 in the Honda Classic and then contended in the Players Championship before having to settle for a share of sixth. He made his debut at Augusta last year, fell in love with the course and finished T14th. He added two more top 30s in the majors later in the season and he has the game to get involved this week.
Chris Kirk
Can the 37-year-old American really get involved? The win might be a push but I can see him landing a place. In fact, last May he did just that in the PGA Championship. He’s also a winner this season at the Honda Classic and he played nicely last week when T10th in the Texas Open. He’s got a top 20 at Augusta National and his short game (on and around the greens) is in fantastic shape at the moment.
