Key events
With the important stuff out of the way, let’s turn our attention to the Tournament. Here’s our other man in Augusta, Ewan Murray, with the big preview of the first Masters without either Phil Mickelson or Tiger Woods since 1994.
Four long, lovely days stretch out ahead of us. No need to be racing out there first thing, let’s grab a spot of breakfast out on the porch. Here’s what our man in Augusta, Andy Bull, has plumped for. Iced Tea and one of the famous Egg Salad sandwiches. That’ll be $3.50 please. You have a nice day, now.
Preamble
Welcome, patrons, to the 90th staging of the Masters Tournament. And with Rory McIlroy having finally got his hands on his holy grail, as the man himself wondered: what is there left for us all to talk about now?
Well, how about … can world number one Scottie Scheffler, supposedly in crisis with just the one win on Tour this year (!) sort himself out in time to grab a third Green Jacket? Will Jon Rahm or Bryson DeChambeau chalk one up for LIV Golf? Can Xander Schauffele, Ludvig Åberg or Justin Rose, so often there or thereabouts at Augusta National, take the final step? Will Cameron Young repeat Rory’s feat last year of following up victory at the Players with success here? Would Tommy Fleetwood be the most popular winner? Or is that Bob MacIntyre? Oh, and what price Rory becoming only the fourth man, after Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods, to successfully defend his title? What about all of that?
It’ll all come out in the wash over the next four days. But first, some admin, and a reminder that the contestants are invited guests and should be treated with courtesy and respect. Although cheering and positive responses to great play are encouraged, unsolicited or consistent calls from the gallery are prohibited. Running is considered to be unacceptable behaviour. Prohibited items include Cell Phones, Beepers, Electronic devices, Tablets, any device with recording and/or transmission capability, Flags, Banners, Signs, Ladders, Periscopes and Weapons of any kind (regardless of permit). Pimento Cheese sandwiches are $1.50 and Iced Tea is two bucks. Defending champion Scottie Scheffler is the favourite, all the tee times are below, and this is the famous CBS theme on a looooong loop to get you in the mood. It’s on! Masters fever is real; won’t someone please call Dr Golf?
First-round tee times (USA unless stated, all times BST, a denotes amateur)
1240 Johnny Keefer, Haotong Li (Chn)
1250 Max Homa, Naoyuki Kataoka (Jpn), Carlos Ortiz (Mex)|
1302 Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen (Den), Jose Maria Olazabal (Spa), Aldrich Potgieter (Rsa)
1314 Angel Cabrera (Arg), (a) Jackson Herrington, Sami Valimaki (Fin)
1326 Ryan Fox (Nzl), Max Greyserman, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa)
1338 Rasmus Hoejgaard (Den), Matt McCarty, Vijay Singh (Fij)
1350 Casey Jarvis (Rsa), Kurt Kitayama, Kristoffer Reitan (Nor)
1402 Nicolas Echavarria (Col), (a) Brandon Holtz, Bubba Watson
1419 Sam Burns, Jake Knapp, Cameron Smith (Aus)
1431 Keegan Bradley, Ryan Gerard, Nick Taylor (Can)
1443 Jason Day (Aus), Dustin Johnson, Shane Lowry (Irl)
1455 Akshay Bhatia, Tommy Fleetwood (Eng), Patrick Reed
1507 Bryson DeChambeau, Matthew Fitzpatrick (Eng), Xander Schauffele
1519 Russell Henley, Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn), Collin Morikawa
1531 (a) Mason Howell, Rory McIlroy (NIrl), Cameron Young
1543 Patrick Cantlay, Viktor Hovland (Nor), Alexander Noren (Swe)
1603 Sung-Jae Im (Kor), Sam Stevens
1615 Brian Campbell, Tom McKibbin (NIrl), Andrew Novak
1627 Wyndham Clark, (a) Mateo Pulcini (Arg), Mike Weir (Can)
1639 Nicolai Hoejgaard (Den), Zach Johnson, Michael Kim
1651 (a) Ethan Fang, Davis Riley, Danny Willett (Eng)
1703 Daniel Berger, Brian Harman, Adam Scott (Aus)
1715 Fred Couples, (a) Pongsapak Laopakdee (Tha), Min-Woo Lee (Aus)
1727 Jacob Bridgeman, Sergio Garcia (Spa), Aaron Rai (Eng)
1744 Michael Brennan, Corey Conners (Can), Harry Hall (Eng)
1756 Tyrrell Hatton (Eng), Maverick McNealy, JJ Spaun
1808 Ludvig Aaberg (Swe), Chris Gotterup, Jon Rahm (Spa)
1820 Brooks Koepka, Justin Rose (Eng), Jordan Spieth
1832 Ben Griffin, Sepp Straka (Aut), Justin Thomas
1844 Robert MacIntyre (Sco), Scottie Scheffler, Gary Woodland
1856 Harris English, Si-Woo Kim (Kor), Marco Penge (Eng)
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