Golf: The 2018 Masters Tournament
AUGUSTA, Ga. Two years ago, the 80th Masters was approaching.
All the chatter and projections about who would be the 2016 champion at Augusta National was about the young Big Three Jordan Spieth, Jason Day and Rory McIlroy.
Spieth arrived as the defending champion. Day was the world No. 1 and coming off a major breakthrough triumph in the PGA Championship the previous summer. McIlroy was so serious about getting a green jacket that he skipped the Par-3 Contest.
And your champion?
Danny Willett, an Englishman who grew up on a sheep farm in Yorkshire. Since his Masters victory, he has fallen to 296th in the world rankings.
It says a lot about golfs fickle nature, that even in a year such as this when the tournament is being hyped as one of the most anticipated Masters of all time, the beauty is we have no idea whats going to happen come Thursday when they tee it up.
The return of a healthy and competitive Tiger Woods to Augusta National Golf Club for the first time in three years has taken the interest to a new level, and in some ways maybe taken the heat off those most mentioned as favorites.
There are top players who have been in form for months, such as Dustin Johnson and Justin Rose, and those, like Bubba Watson and Phil Mickelson, who put themselves in the conversation with recent wins.
Spieth is a wild card because hes struggled with his putting. Justin Thomas can win every week, but hasnt played well at Augusta.
And whos the Willett of this field? Maybe San Diegan Xander Schauffele, a Masters rookie, or Austrian Ber-nd Wiesberger.
For the fringe fan, I think youre probably seeing this through the lens of Tiger being back, and whether hes going to win a fifth green jacket, CBS golf anchor Jim Nantz said on a conference call last week. But inside the sport, the excitement is percolating. Weve never seen so many stars in the sport have their game in form coming into Augusta.
Noting that this is his 33rd Masters his first was Jack Nicklaus victory in 1986 Nantz said he cant remember one hes looked forward to more.
Its always highly anticipated for those who love the game, Nantz said. But this is probably the most anticipated weve had that any of us have seen in our lifetime. Theres a lot of factors going into that statement.
Chris Fallica, a sports statistician for ESPN, dug deep into the Masters numbers and found that 10 of the previous 14 tournaments have been won by players among the top 12 in the world rankings. This year, seven of the top 12 have at least one victory (Thomas has won twice).
The only players in the group not currently playing sharply are No. 6 Hideki Matsuyama and No. 8 Rickie Fowler. (No. 10 Brooks Koepka is out with a wrist injury.)
Interestingly, Fowler and Matsuyama fall into an area that might otherwise make them favorites. Eight of the last 11 Masters have been secured by first-time major winners, and those two are in that category, as are a pair of others in the top 12 Spains Jon Rahm and Englands Tommy Fleetwood.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Spieth was tabbed by oddsmakers as the 10-1 co-favorite with Woods.
