Some of our favorite tee times to watch Thursday include Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm at 1:41 p.m. ET.
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Playing partner Justin Spieth hit it closer using a more conventional method.
When Tiger was No1 he was not looking behind him too often.
“Having a chance to win a few years ago and not giving myself a chance since. internally that’s not good enough”. So he never anxious about anyone other than himself.
If there is an exception to that trend, it is Johnson. “A lot of people during Masters week are casual fans who don’t know your whole backstory”.
McIlroy nearly has a “Grand Slam” of Majors, with the elusive event at Augusta National proving the only flagship tournament which he has yet to find success.
Spieth has finished tied for second, first and tied for second in the past three years at The Masters.
Luck won the 2016 U.S. Amateur and Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship, both qualifiers for the Masters, and enters this week as the No. 1 amateur in the world. He certainly sounds confident.
“We’ve got three settled at the moment and potentially four or five sort of that are there if I want the offer and want to take it”, Luck said today. “But at the end of the day I still get to go home to them”.
Jason Day’s preparations have clearly been disrupted by the lung cancer of his mother, though successful surgery has meant he will be teeing up for the 2017 Masters. But I would say Phil is far better prepared than I am from playing. Maybe it’s a good thing.
The American, with victories in his past three starts, has a game tailor made for Augusta, prodigiously long off the tee, confident with his irons and short game and a soft putting stroke that seems to be getting better with age.
The Augusta National patrons roared with laughter.
Mickelson boasts a fine record at the Masters – most of his visits have ended in top-10 finishes – and believes his familiarity with the course will prove even more valuable if, as expected, bad weather strikes.
Curtis Luck is a 20-year-old Australian living a dream. He arrived in Augusta on the back of a missed cut in Houston. The Masters lives on for a year. Not for a while now has Spieth looked the player he was during the 2015 season, during which he won two majors.
He has played No. 12 a dozen times in three Masters and has three birdies, six pars, two bogeys and one “other”.
A similar cloud hangs over Matsuyama. Fowler’s best finish in the past two years is tied for 12th in the 2015 Masters.
“My game is not at the same level right now”, the 25-year-old Japanese concedes.
“From there, we have to kind of come up with a game plan whether to go chemo, a form of chemo radiation or something else”. Before he is measured for a Green Jacket, however, it would be wise to remember he would not be the first favorite to be spat out by the unforgiving Augusta National layout.
You don’t have to be leading after the first round to win the Masters, but each of the past 11 champions has been in the top 10 and within four shots of the lead after 18 holes.
Now, it’s time for the Masters to pay homage to the King.
As Rory McIlroy is finding out, golf and politics rarely mix. If he keeps rolling the ball in the hole the way he has been, he’s going to be incredibly tough to beat.
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Despite winning at least one tournament every year he’s been on tour and claiming his first major last year in the U.S. Open at Oakmont, Johnson was viewed mostly as a strong driver with a smooth swing who would chop it up around the greens.
