Storm clouds gather over golf but a Masters thriller can help clear the air | Ewan Murray
There will be something pertinent about the gathering of storm clouds over Augusta National on Thursday. You wait 264 days for a big championship round and the weather gods have different ideas about that. If we are to believe the predictions, the competitors will take shelter until lunchtime instead of pursuing a green jacket. The Open Championship last July ended in a shower; the 88th Masters will start at once.
Augusta needs a successful Masters to showcase the extraordinary beauty of this golf course to the world. They take that presentation very seriously here. The sport itself requires a memorable tournament so that disgruntled spectators can fall in love again. Golf boomed during the pandemic and participation numbers remain high; the problem is that infighting, exorbitant payouts, and everything else associated with civil war has turned off everyone but dedicated followers. The momentum has been lost. The vulgarity that accompanies LIV’s rampage on stage has proven hugely unappealing. It’s very easy to love golf, but it has little appeal in the way it works at the elite level.
The sight of Greg Norman walking happily around the Augusta clubhouse on Wednesday will be seen as the latest indication of a thawing of relations between LIV and the traditional ecosystem that has sent it into a tailspin. He was previously persona non grata at a location that caused him a lot of grief as a player. Now there’s a silent acceptance that LIV isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. In fact, it is likely that it will expand into a new geographic area from 2025 onwards.
For now and for the foreseeable future, majors have a unique selling point. This is your only chance to see Rory McIlroy play Jon Rahm. There are only four opportunities per year to evaluate Brooks Koepka as Scottie Scheffler’s opponent. Fred Ridley, the chairman of Augusta, speaks honestly when he insists that golf must come together, but have a positive spin-off for events such as the Masters. This offers a real opportunity to watch the best players in the world in one place. That option no longer exists at the Players Championship or the Scottish Open. A Masters with hair-raising drama would be the perfect antidote to the never-ending political machinations off the course. Golf can reclaim the lot beneath towering Georgia pines.
Rahm’s toppling of Koepka last year in Augusta was entertaining. Still, the Spaniard’s final margin of victory was four strokes. Scheffler hit the 72nd green with four puts in 2022 and still won by three. Hideki Matsuyama had wiggle room in his closing stretch three years ago and Dustin Johnson led the field with a happy dance in the 2020 Masters, so we’re overdue for a classic Augusta matchup. The last time that was properly applied was in 2017, when Sergio GarcĂa defeated Justin Rose in a play-off.
A McIlroy victory, achieving his holy grail, would ensure a fairytale outcome. It seems incredible to think that this will be the Northern Irishman’s tenth attempt at completing a career grand slam; But at the same time, so much has happened to him personally and professionally since 2014 and his last big success. McIlroy is rightly wary of the claim – made by Tiger Woods this week – that he is somehow destined to become a Masters champion. For McIlroy, Augusta is all in the spirit. He has the athletic and technical ability to win this tournament. Every year in April, McIlroy is engaged in a battle to destroy his natural instincts to be aggressive and bold, knowing that Augusta will take revenge on the insolent.
The world number 2 hasn’t competed enough for trophies lately to know how he’ll react if he’s at the top of the leaderboard here. Curiously, he also hasn’t been around a Green Jacket this often since his implosion at Augusta in 2011. But in what is never a tribal environment, the galleries’ appeal is for a McIlroy victory. Golf fans believe he has served his time and is worthy of becoming only the sixth man to complete a clean sweep in the majors. McIlroy’s response to this, with inevitable outpourings of emotion, would be a sporting sight for the ages.
Rahm must prove that his move to LIV has not affected his competitive spirit. Scheffler, golf’s reluctant hero, is so consistent that it would be a shock if he wasn’t high in the leaderboard come Sunday night. Outsiders who deserve a lot of respect include Shane Lowry and JoaquĂn Niemann. Ludvig Ă berg makes his big debut and is on his way to stardom. Lefties have an illustrious history here, so watch out for Open champion Brian Harman. Woods may speak with conviction about adding a sixth green jacket to his wardrobe, but he is chronically under-raced.
Players who hit one ball after another on the court the afternoon before a major usually go into panic mode. With that in mind, Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau’s performance on the practice facility was remarkable.
âI think everyone can agree that there is excitement in the air this week,â Ridley said. âThe best players in the world are together again. The competition will be fierce. Families are reunited and friendships are renewed.
âThe best that golf has to offer is central. That’s good for everyone, especially the players, but also our partners, volunteers, the Augusta community and its many local charities, and especially our customers and fans around the world.â Now, time to deliver.