AUGUSTA, Ga. — One of many pleasures of the Masters Match might be discovering Fred {Couples}, the 1992 winner, in an expansive temper.
And so it was on a very brisk Monday, after he had performed a part of the course with Tom Kim, Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods. Few gamers have had as many shut seems to be at Woods lately: The boys routinely play observe rounds collectively, with {Couples} filling a job approximating that of courtroom jester. And even when his analyses generally show off the mark, they are often telling glimpses of Woods’s potential.
“He’s robust sufficient to hit it a mile,” {Couples} stated of Woods. “He’s not hitting it so far as Rory — I don’t assume many individuals are — however he’s hitting it actually robust and strong, and he seems to be good.”
Woods has performed solely 4 rounds of event golf this 12 months, logging a median driving distance of 306.3 yards, about 20 yards behind McIlroy. However the problem for Woods, as ever nowadays after the automobile wreck that just about value him a leg in February 2021, is strolling 72 holes over 4 days of competitors. Requested Monday whether or not Woods was transferring otherwise from the best way he had round this time final 12 months, {Couples} replied, “Most likely not.”
“The leg — I suppose that is what it’s,” he continued. “I don’t know the way a lot better it’s ever going to get.”
However {Couples} didn’t discuss solely about Woods. In McIlroy, who’s searching for a victory at Augusta to finish a profession Grand Slam, he sees a participant with all the potential on this planet to seize a inexperienced jacket.
“Is it stunning he’s by no means received this?” he stated. “In fact it’s, the best way he performs and the best way he putts and the way excessive he hits it and the way far he hits it. Nevertheless it’s not that simple.”
And never lengthy after he had drawn headlines for bashing LIV gamers — Phil Mickelson was a “nut bag” and Sergio García a “clown” — {Couples} stated he had merely wished them to keep away from criticizing the PGA Tour.
“They don’t hassle me,” he stated. “They actually don’t. They’re golfers. I’m a golfer. I respect all of them. On my present, I’ve instructed everybody Sergio is among the high 10 gamers I’ve ever seen hit a ball, but when he’s going to make feedback concerning the tour that I play, I’m going to make a remark again — and if it’s offensive, I apologize, however they’re on one other tour. Go play and have a very good time.”
Jabs apart, he was not bothered by their invites to the Masters: “I believe they need to be right here.”
— Blinder
‘It’s positively not going to be on any nutritionist’s plan.’
Almost all the dwelling Masters winners (in addition to Fred S. Ridley, Augusta Nationwide’s chairman) are anticipated to convene Tuesday night for his or her annual dinner. Scottie Scheffler, the reigning champion, picked the menu and can choose up the tab.
The appetizers embody cheeseburger sliders and firecracker shrimp. A tortilla soup shall be on provide, and friends can choose between a Texas rib-eye steak — Scheffler, in any case, is basically a product of Dallas — and blackened redfish. Aspect objects embody macaroni and cheese, jalapeño creamed corn and brussels sprouts, and the dessert shall be chocolate-chip skillet cookies topped with milk-and-cookies ice cream.
The menu’s improvement started with a dialog amongst Scheffler; his spouse, Meredith; and Blake Smith, his agent. The trio kicked round Scheffler’s favourite meals and narrowed the checklist earlier than consulting with an Augusta Nationwide chef to nail down the menu.
“It’s positively not going to be on any nutritionist’s plan,” Scheffler stated final month. “However we’re going to have enjoyable. We’re going to eat some good meals.”
The menu ought to enchantment to loads of former winners, a standard bunch that has generally been alarmed by picks like haggis (Sandy Lyle) and kidney pie (Nick Faldo). Some had been skeptical in 2001, after they arrived to a Vijay Singh-commissioned menu of Thai delicacies.
“I’m certain Charlie Coody didn’t strive something,” Tommy Aaron, the 1973 winner, recalled of the 1971 victor. “I had by no means had Thai meals, and it was improbable.”
However the dinners, Aaron stated a number of years in the past, at all times characteristic one observe: “They pour that wine prefer it’s going out of favor.”
— Blinder
Day by day is like Sunday.
First-time guests on the Masters event are at all times apparent. For starters, they have an inclination to stroll slowly with their eyes huge. As famed as Augusta Nationwide Golf Membership is, to a newcomer parading across the grounds, the panorama is a bevy of surprises that no tv broadcast — nevertheless technologically superior and exhaustingly thorough — can grasp.
For instance, each Masters first-timer is shocked that the vertical drop from the tenth tee to the tenth inexperienced is a shocking, and troublesome to traverse, 85 ft. It’s one in every of many discoveries. And as Jordan Spieth, the 2015 Masters champion, stated on Monday, even veteran gamers know that there could also be one other revelation awaiting them every time they arrive on the web site of the event.
Gamers fret and fear that their video games might not be prepared for the exacting check that awaits.
Paying attention to a packed observe vary on Monday, Spieth waved a hand towards the scene and stated: “Have you ever ever seen this many individuals training this difficult on a Monday? Sometimes, you are taking Monday off.”
Annual tweaks to the course, just like the substantial lengthening of the thirteenth gap this 12 months, solely add to the strain. As Spieth added: “You recognize, you’re simply anxious. Extra anxious than nervous.”
Requested if the psychological preparation for the tee shot on the pivotal first gap tended to vary significantly from Thursday’s welcoming opening spherical to Sunday’s tense last, Spieth shook his head aspect to aspect. “I don’t really feel that it adjustments,” he answered.
He continued: “It’s one of many solely locations it doesn’t change for me, whatever the place I’m in. It feels prefer it’s a Sunday — a primary tee shot in competition every day.”
— Pennington
Cameron Smith arrived with trepidation.
It’s not simply golf followers and reporters who’ve been questioning how the stalwarts of the PGA Tour and the renegade LIV golfers would get alongside when having to mingle on the Masters event for the primary time this week. Cameron Smith, who bolted for the Saudi-backed LIV circuit a month after successful final 12 months’s British Open, conceded on Monday that he had approached the Augusta Nationwide Golf Membership observe space with trepidation.
“I actually wasn’t certain what to anticipate strolling onto the vary, but it surely was good to see some acquainted faces and loads of smiles,” Smith stated with a large grin. “It was only a very nice expertise.”
However Smith, who’s hardly recognized for pointed remarks, additionally insisted that the 18 LIV golfers within the 88-player 2023 Masters discipline had been intent on having a visual presence on the high of the leaderboard when on the event’s conclusion. And, he stated, the LIV cohort is conscious of the shade that has been thrown its method by its one-time colleagues on the PGA Tour.
“It’s simply vital for LIV guys to be up there, as a result of I believe we should be up there,” Smith stated on Monday. Referring to the occasional derisive feedback directed on the LIV circuit by PGA Tour gamers, officers or members of the golf media, he added: “I believe there’s loads of chatter about how these guys don’t play actual golf; these guys don’t play actual golf programs. For certain, I’ll be the primary one to say, the fields aren’t as robust. However we’ve nonetheless received loads of guys up there that may play some actually severe golf.
“I believe we simply want a very good, robust end.”
Smith was additionally requested about whether or not the LIV golfers had mentioned having a joint celebration on the 18th inexperienced if one in every of them had been to win this 12 months’s Masters, which was advised not too long ago by Greg Norman, the LIV Golf Commissioner.
“There positively hasn’t been a dialog with me — I positively received unnoticed of that one,” he stated, laughing. “I suppose we’ll see how the week unfolds. For certain, I’d like to see one in every of us guys stand up to the highest of the leaderboard and actually give it a pleasant shot.”
Lastly, Smith, whose world golf rating has slipped to sixth from second on the finish of the 2022, reiterated that he had no regrets about becoming a member of LIV Golf.
“I’ve made my mattress, and I’m very, very blissful the place I’m,” he stated.
— Pennington
Keep watch over the climate.
Sure, it’s early within the week. Sure, climate forecasts can change. However no, the outlook for this week will not be nice. The staff assembling forecasts for Augusta Nationwide has pegged the possibilities of rain at 60 % or greater on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
“Bathe and thunderstorm possibilities improve Thursday afternoon as a weak frontal boundary approaches,” the event stated in one in every of its official forecasts on Monday. “The entrance is anticipated to stall to the south Friday into Saturday with a northeast wind pushing a lot colder air into Georgia. Waves of upper-level vitality transferring alongside the entrance are forecast to provide durations of rain that could possibly be heavy at instances by means of Sunday.”
All of that scientific converse might make this Masters a delight for Rory McIlroy, who has generally thrived in abysmal climate at main tournaments, and a nightmare for the organizers.
The Masters final had a Monday end in 1983, when Seve Ballesteros received his second inexperienced jacket. That 12 months, the second spherical — the Friday spherical — didn’t finish till 8:30 a.m. on Sunday.
However Augusta Nationwide is accustomed to coping with poor climate extra not too long ago. If a spherical is upended within the coming days due to inclement circumstances, this would be the fifth consecutive 12 months by which event organizers have needed to grapple so explicitly with meteorological misfortune.
— Blinder