“I don’t think he’s done”, Nicklaus said.
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Woods, who turned 40 at the end of December, last met with media at his Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas, and he was more blunt than usual when he said anything else he does in golf “will be gravy”.
McIlroy, Day and Spieth “are really good”.
Mickelson has not won a title since capturing the 2013 British Open at Muirfield, but he was second at Pebble Beach, fifth at Doral and shared 13th last week at the Houston Open.
Winning four majors is a Hall of Fame career for a golfer.
And Jason Day is in search of his first green jacket, something only 49 other players have earned with a victory.
Spieth began the year looking capable of repeating last year’s heroics, shooing 30 under par to win the Hyundai Tournament of Champions, but also shot 79 in the Northern Trust Open and admitted it might be a good thing to lose his world number one ranking after defeat to Louis Oosthuizen in the last 16 in Austin. The Augusta Chronicle published a story this week about how Jones and Roberts shut down Augusta National for four years during World War II while Jones served a commission in the Army Air Forces, and participated in the Allied invasion of Normandy. Bubba Watson has won twice there. Once McIlroy settled down, he was 15 under on his final 45 holes and finished fourth behind Jordan Spieth.
“So nice. He can be the favourite”.
“I just know his personality, I know his determination, I know his work ethic”, Nicklaus said. But there are other storylines in golf, so maybe not all the attention will be focused on me going into Augusta. “I want to be a part of that conversation”, McIlroy said.
“I had a lot of opportunities to win and didn’t”.
McIlroy was gung-ho when asked if he expected to win the tournament in his career.
“I still feel like my time’s coming”, said Johnson.
Spieth’s 2015 included wins at the Valspar Championship, U.S. Open, John Deere Classic and the The Tour Championship, and the Texan says he feels better going into The Masters than he did 12 months ago. “I think Tiger’s going to win more tournaments”.
“And then as time goes on, you start stressing about, ‘OK, is there enough money up to get my card for next year?’ And then you start losing a little bit of confidence and you start getting frustrated out there and you don’t practice because you’re frustrated with how you’re playing and it’s a downward spiral from there”.
Marc Leishman, Steven Bowditch and Cameron Smith make up the rest of the smallish but talented Australian tilt. He’s finished in the top 10 the last two years but hasn’t really been a serious contender, leaving the Masters as the only major absent from his resume.
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Bowditch is in the midst of a form slump bought on by a wrist injury while youngster Smith is quietly confident at putting the cat amongst the pigeons in his Masters debut.
