“I think the club, Mr. Payne and the membership here at Augusta National have done a fabulous job with golf setup”, 1998 Masters champion Mark O’Meara said.
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The 27-year-old McIlroy has done it all except capture a Green jacket at Augusta National. “Look, it’s tough to get over”.
“I’m trying to hit this low hook around and catch the hill, and trying to get it up on to the green and hit this heroic shot, and it goes in the water and I make a six. It’s never good when you hit a putt and people start to move”. That’s what it takes to win.
Personally, I love looking at trends for golf betting and the Masters is by some consdierable distance the best Major for this approach.
Northern Ireland’s McIlroy, trying to win a green jacket to complete a career grand slam, and Spaniard Rahm, fresh off a runner-up finish at the World Golf Championships Match Play in Austin, Texas, will join Japan’s Hideto Tanihara on the first tee at 1:41pm (1741 GMT) Thursday in the third-to-last group on the famed 7,435-yard layout.
“I really could’ve used that one 12 months ago”, Spieth quipped Tuesday, mustering a smile before heading over the Hogan Bridge to take care of a tap-in delivered with an Arnold Palmer-like flourish. It s a lot of fun. Not since Jimmy Demaret in 1940 has a player made the Masters his fourth win in a row. “So I’ve played the golf course enough I feel”, said McIlroy. “If you ask every single player, that wouldn’t be a question”. Same goes for this week. You want to win the tournament that week.
“I’ve got a lot of confidence in my game right now”, the big-hitting American said after a practice round on Tuesday.
“You’ve got to know where to miss the flag, if you miss the flag on the wrong side, sometimes you cannot get up and down in two, whereas if you miss on the other side you can”.
Dustin Johnson returns to this week’s U.S. Masters a different person than a year ago, more confident and comfortable, a golfer with greatness in his sights but some Everest-like mountains still to climb. “I feel like if I putt very well, I m going to have a chance to win on Sunday”.
Since then, the 27-year-old has failed to break 70 on the opening day and his best finish of fourth in 2015 was thanks to closing rounds of 68 and 66, which still left him six adrift of runaway victor Spieth. He was two shots out of the lead until a double bogey from the bunker on the 17th hole ended his hopes. “Yeah, I would have liked to have won more”.
I think this is the year for a dark horse pick to win The Masters.
The iconic course in Georgia hosts the competition each year and really is a thing of beauty.
Part of Johnson s work ethic comes from his father-in-law, ice hockey icon Wayne Gretzky, the NHL s all-time leading scorer. It’s still kind of a bit of an emotional time for me.
Johnson uses his top ranking to channel extra energy into workouts. “Even losing, some of my losses in the majors, I try to take everything positive out of it and learn from it and do better the next time”.
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“As everyone knows, my mum, she went through a successful surgery on her left lung and she was told by the doctor, don’t have to do chemo”, a beaming Day told reporters.
