Major Battle
It’s been eight months since Cameron Smith putted the lights out of the back nine of the Old Course to clinch the last men’s Major Championship of 2022. But the long wait for the crème de le crème of the golfing world to compete against each other once again is almost upon us with Augusta National opening its doors next month for the 87th edition of the Masters Tournament.
This year’s tournament is arguably the most anticipated yet given the divisions in the game over the last year or so with LIV Golf players unable to compete on the PGA Tour, which has meant star names such as Smith, Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau haven’t had the opportunity to go head-to-head with Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy and co since the 150th edition of the Open last July.
There had been speculation that Augusta National might have changed their exemptions to block LIV Golf members from playing in the first Major Championship of the year, but the club’s chairman, Fred Ridley, put that to bed at the end of 2022 by announcing the current qualification criteria will remain in place, for this year at least.
Sixteen members of the breakaway league will tee it up next month, including past Masters champions Sergio Garcia, Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Patrick Reed, Charl Schwartzel and Bubba Watson, all of whom have a current lifetime exemption into the event.
LIV Golf players meeting the criteria of recent major winners include DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka and Smith, while Joaquin Niemann, Abraham Ancer, Talor Gooch, Harold Varner III, Jason Kokrak, Kevin Na and Louis Oosthuizen all received invitations after ending 2022 in the top 50 of the Official World Golf Ranking.
Like any Masters Tournament, it’s set to be a thrilling week of golf but with the added spice of the return of LIV Golf players to the fold we could be in for even more drama – see Reed and McIlroy at the Dubai Desert Classic making headlines over ‘teegate’ for a taste of the drama that could unfold!
Here, we look at who’s hot and who’s not from both the PGA Tour and LIV Golf heading into the Masters.
Jon Rahm is the hottest golfer on the planet right now. Period. At the time of writing, Rahm has won five of his last nine events, including the DP World Tour Championship and the elevated Genesis Invitational, finshing in the top eight in each of other events to make a long-awaited return to World No.1. The 28-year-old is not as anti-LIV as some his peers, telling reporters that PGA Tour players should be “thankful” for LIV Golf and 2022 was “not a bad year” for golf, but he’ll no doubt still want to get one over them and pick up a first Green Jacket. His record at the Masters is an impressive one, finishing inside the top 10 on four of his six outings, with a fourth-place finish in 2018 his standout result.
Did you know?
Rahm will become the fourth Spanish man to win at Augusta National should he emulate idols Seve Ballesteros, José María Olazábal and Sergio Garcia with victory.
Jordan Spieth has arguably mastered Augusta National better than any other player since tying for second in his debut in 2014. The following year he got his hands on a Green Jacket and has gone on to finish inside the top three on three more occasions, including a runner-up finish in 2016 after giving up a five-shot lead heading into the back nine on the final day. Next month’s edition will give him the chance to bounce back from a first missed cut at the tournament last year, and also the opportunity to catch up with Dustin Johnson, with Spieth admitting last month he wishes his ‘friend’ had not made the decision to join LIV Golf. It will be hugely surprising if Spieth doesn’t slip on the Green Jacket for a second time in his career. With a share of sixth in his recent outing at the WM Phoenix Open his game is certainly trending in the right direction.
Did you know?
He skipped school to watch Tiger Woods play in the early rounds of the Masters.
Danny Willett shocked the golfing world when he took advantage of Jordan’s Spieth’s collapse on the back nine at the 2016 edition to become the first Englishman to win a Green Jacket since Nick Faldo picked up his third in 1996. Since that triumph he has failed to make the weekend on four occasions, but did bounce back last year with a share of 12th. He’s struggled with his game and injury of late, withdrawing from two events at the back-end of last year with a shoulder problem. Having said that, he looked like he would claim his first PGA Tour win outside of the Majors at the Fortinet Championship in September, but inexplicably three-putted from inside four feet on the 72nd hole to lose by one to Max Homa. That meltdown alone gives you a clue to where his game is at right now.
Did you know?
Willett almost didn’t play In the 2016 Masters because his wife, Nicole, was due to give birth during the final round. Thankfully the baby was delivered before the tournament.
Sepp Straka rose to prominence last year after picking up his first PGA Tour win at the Honda Classic, before finishing seventh in the season-long FedExCup, but things haven’t gone as well this season. The Austrian made his Middle East debut earlier this year at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and Hero Dubai Desert Classic, failing to make the weekend in both outings – the fourth and fifth missed cuts in his last eight outings, with his best result in that time coming at the Hero World Challenge where he finished in a share of tenth in a 20-man field. He made the cut on his Masters debut last year, but failed to break 71 across four rounds.
Did you know?
Straka was the first player from Austria to earn a PGA Tour card.
One of sport’s worst kept secrets was confirmed last summer when LIV Golf announced Smith had agreed to become their highest-ranked recruit, just a month after the Australian star had overcome McIlroy at the 150th Open Championship. The Northern Irishman would go on to call Smith a couple of days later to let him know what he would be leaving behind if he were to join the breakaway league, but it didn’t have the desired effect. The duo could be set for another thrilling Major showdown next month with both players enjoying solid records at Augusta National. Smith has made the cut in all six of his Masters appearances, including two top 10s, a runner-up finish and a share of third last year that could have been so much more had he not put his ball in the water on 12th to make a triple bogey in the final round. He may not have played on the PGA Tour since last August but has won two events since then with a win at the Australian PGA Championship and LIV Golf Chicago. Expect another strong charge towards the iconic Green Jacket next month.
Did you know?
Smith made Masters history in 2021, becoming the first player to shoot in the 60s in all four rounds.
Dustin Johnson may have dropped out of the top 50 on the Official World Golf Rankings due to the fact LIV Golf currently offer no World Ranking points, but he still remains one of the hottest golfers on the planet. Despite pledging his loyalty to the PGA Tour last February, the American was one of the first players to move across to LIV Golf and hasn’t looked back since, picking up $35,637,767 across seven events after winning in Boston and Miami as well as topping both the season-long individual and team leaderboards. Unlike many of the other LIV golfers, Johnson hasn’t played an event outside of the breakaway circuit since joining but will come into the Masters as one of the hot favourites despite his lack of golf thanks to enviable record at Augusta National. Aside from winning the November Masters in 2020, the two-time Major champion has only failed to finish outside the top 12 once in his last seven visits, which came six months after securing a Green Jacket.
Did you know?
Johnson has made more than $4m from his twelve outings at the Masters.
Brooks Koepka may have won the final LIV Golf event of 2022 in Jeddah, but there’s no doubting that his game has dropped significantly over the last year and a bit. At the time of writing, Koepka has missed three of his past six cuts in non-LIV events, which don’t have a cut. He also hasn’t finished in the top 50 in a non-LIV, non-match-play event since his T-12 at the Valspar Championship in March of last year. It seems like a long time ago now that the beefy American star set the golfing world alight by winning four Majors in the space of two years, before claiming he could possibly win as many Majors as Tiger Woods. Could we see the resurrection of ‘Brooksie’ at the Masters? Highly unlikely given the fact he has missed the cut on his last two outings, but he also knows he can perform well at Augusta with his prior three appearances resulting in T7, T2 and T11.
Did you know?
Koepka missed out on the 2018 Masters after partially tearing a tendon in his wrist earlier in the season.
Another player who looks a shadow of his former self is DeChambeau, who fell out of the top 100 on the Official World Golf Ranking for the first time in six years last month. Last year was the worst of his career as he failed to win in a calendar year for the first time while his best LIV Golf result was a share of eighth. In Bryson’s defence he also had to deal with a lot away from the course with a wrist injury derailing his game, losing a load of weight which upended his digestive system and coping with the loss of his father after a long battle with diabetes. The American missed the cut at last year’s Masters Tournament, finishing on 12 over par after two rounds, while his best result in his six outings remains a share of 21st on debut in 2016, four years before he infamously told reporters that Augusta National would be a par 67 for him – a score he has only beaten once in 21 rounds.
Did you know?
DeChambeau is now an equipment free agent after his contract with Cobra-Puma expired at the end of 2022.
