Good afternoon and welcome to dwell protection from the opening spherical of the 87th Masters
Golf’s first males’s main of the 12 months is upon us, as probably the most well-known course in sport August National performs host.
The Masters this 12 months would be the first since numerous PGA Tour gamers jumped ship and joined the Saudi-backed LIV Golf league.
Since the Masters, is their very own entity and not a part of the PGA Tour, they’ve taken the choice to permit anyone who joined LIV Golf to play, so long as they meet the qualification standards.
That is in distinction to all PGA Tour occasions such because the Players Championship, which went forward with out it is reigning champion Cameron Smith final month, who has joined LIV Golf.
18 members of the Saudi-backed league are set to tee off on Thursday at Augusta National, with a overwhelming majority of press conferences touching closely on the topic.
However, regardless of all of the drama and debate surrounding LIV, the participant everybody can be fearing is the present champion and favorite Scottie Scheffler, who enters the week in elegant kind.
The present Players champion reached the ultimate 4 of the WGC Matchplay two weeks in the past in what was one other sturdy begin to the season.
The American was the runaway winner in Georgia final 12 months, taking pictures a formidable 10-under-par, three strokes away from Rory McIlroy who shot a 64 on Sunday however may nonetheless get nowhere close to Scheffler.
One of the important thing speaking factors surrounding this 12 months’s Masters is whether or not McIIroy can lastly win the grand slam?
This week would be the Northern Irishman’s ninth try at finishing the grand slam, as an elusive win at Augusta National is all he wants to finish the set, after his success in 2014 on the USPGA.
This week, he arrives ranked second on the earth and with 4 wins on the PGA prior to now 10 months, the 33-year-old has reduce a relaxed but targeted determine.
“I’m feeling relaxed as I ever have coming in here just in terms of I feel like my game is in a pretty good place,” stated McIlroy.
Who will win the Green Jacket? Stick with Telegraph Sport to search out out.
