Augusta (United States) (AFP) – Top-ranked defending champion Scottie Scheffler and world number two Rory McIlroy will take a swing at golf history in this week’s 89th Masters. The superstars are most fancied by oddsmakers when the year’s first major golf showdown starts Thursday at Augusta National.
Monday’s opening practice round was halted for the day after just over 3 1/2 hours by inclement weather and spectators were evacuated from the course. Scheffler, the 2022 and 2024 Masters green jacket winner, seeks his third major title and could become just the fourth back-to-back Masters champion after Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, and Nick Faldo. Only Nicklaus has won three of four as Scheffler can.
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“I like the way my swing has started to feel,” Scheffler said. “Definitely some positive momentum.” Scheffler, whose nine wins last year also included Paris Olympic gold, missed the start of the season after injuring his hand on Christmas, but says he has recovered from the setback.
“Improving in the ball-striking,” Scheffler said. “My ball striking has not been as good as it has been the past couple years. All of that is getting the body back to where it has been. A lot of it is not being able to get the reps. I feel like I’m getting sharper and sharper.”
Scheffler, who played a practice round Sunday with his mother at Augusta National, was a runner-up at the Houston Open in March, with his two lowest rounds of the season, a 62 and a 63.
McIlroy, a four-time major winner seeking his first major triumph since 2014, can complete a career Grand Slam with a Masters victory. The 35-year-old from Northern Ireland has finished in the top-10 six times in his 10 tries to finish a slam at Augusta National, including a runner-up effort in 2022.
But this year, McIlroy arrives at Magnolia Lane off victories at Pebble Beach in February and The Players Championship in March — the first year he has come to the Masters with two titles already won. “Going forward, it’s just about feeling as comfortable as I can be with the things I’ve been working on, which is sort of iron play, wedges,” McIlroy said. “Obviously short game is really important around Augusta.”
McIlroy, who last month joined Woods as players with $100 million in career PGA Tour winnings, has been proud of his ability to handle shotmaking in blustery conditions such as those found among the Georgia pines. “I think just how I manage my game, how I manage my misses. My short game has been very good and I’ve been able to scramble well when I’ve needed to,” McIlroy said. “And my ability to sort of hit little knockdown shots…my ability to hit those little three-quarter shots is definitely better than it has been.”
– ‘I’m going to win a major’ –
The PGA-LIV split continues, with the majors the only place where the best from each series compete. Among 12 LIV Golf players in the Masters is Chile’s Joaquin Niemann, a special invitee who won LIV titles at Adelaide in February and Singapore in March as he chases a first major win.
“I know it’s going to come. I know I’m going to win a major,” Niemann said. “I know it’s going to happen. Maybe not at the Masters…maybe yes. I have no idea. I just know it’s going to happen.”
Other LIV players at Augusta include reigning US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, five-time major winner Brooks Koepka, and past Masters winners Jon Rahm and Sergio Garcia of Spain, South African Charl Schwartzel, and Americans Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Patrick Reed, and Bubba Watson.
Also playing this week is 2009 Masters winner Angel Cabrera, in his first major since the 2019 Masters. The 55-year-old Argentine spent 30 months in prison for domestic violence from 2021-2023 but was approved to play PGA Tour-sanctioned events in 2023 and won last week’s PGA Tour Champions James Hardie Pro Football Hall of Fame Invitational.
Vijay Singh, the 62-year-old Fijian who won the 2000 Masters, withdrew from this week’s event with an undisclosed injury. He had played in every Masters since his 1994 debut.
© 2024 AFP
