Five things to know for the first round of the Masters

It’s almost here. After the seemingly interminable prologue, the opening chapter of the Masters is about to be written. Anticipation is always high at Augusta National, and this year will be no exception. From the Big Three to a hotshot amateur, and even a wild weather forecast, it promises to be another memorable Masters.

To get you prepared for the first round, here are five things you need to know about this year’s Masters Tournament.

1. The big three

A trio of players has separated itself from the pack in the world ranking, and all three offer an intriguing storyline this week.

Can Scottie Scheffler become the fourth man to go back-to-back at the Masters? Will Rory McIlroy finally complete the career Grand Slam? And can Jon Rahm recapture the dominance he exhibited earlier this season and add to the Spanish legacy at Augusta National?

Scheffler contends that not a lot has changed in the year since he won the Masters. He drives the same Yukon with 190,000 miles on it. He and his high-school sweetheart, wife Meredith, still frequent the same restaurant near their house.

“You would think that I'm a significantly different person than I was a year and a half ago, but when it comes to life at home, everything is still the exact same,” he said. “Nothing changes at home. I still have the same friends; I married the same girl I dated in high school. My family definitely doesn't treat me any different. It just so happens that we get to come to places like these on occasion and have fun.”

Even his play mirrors the hot streak he was on when he arrived at Augusta National last year. This year, he’s successfully defended his WM Phoenix Open title, finished T4 in two other title defenses (Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play) and won THE PLAYERS. He is the No. 1 player in the world, just as he was when he got here in 2022. Tiger Woods is the last player to go back-to-back at the Masters, winning in 2001 and 2002. Scheffler will tee off at 1:36 p.m. Eastern on Thursday with Max Homa and U.S. Amateur champion Sam Bennett.

McIlroy has a new driver and new putter that he has found to his liking, and he is coming off the best Masters finish of his career, a runner-up to Scheffler last year. “The best way for me to feel like I'm in a good head space is to be as prepared as I possibly can be,” he added, “and I feel really prepared.”

McIlroy is coming off a victory over Scheffler in the third-place match at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, a strong rebound from a poor showing at THE PLAYERS. If there’s one thing McIlroy wants to avoid, it is the slow start. He has shot over par in the opening round of his past four Masters appearances.

“It's a very difficult course to chase on. You start to fire at pins and short-siding yourself and you're missing in the wrong spots, it's hard to make up a lot of ground,” he said. “Say you shoot a couple over that first day, then you start having to chase just to make the cut or try to get yourself back in the tournament, that's when this golf course can really sort of step up and bite you. I think that's part of the reason.”

McIlroy, who started this year with a win in Dubai and has finished in the top three in half of his six worldwide starts in 2023, will tee off at 1:48 p.m. Eastern. Rahm has the earliest tee time of the bunch, starting his tournament at 10:42 a.m. It wasn’t long ago that Rahm looked unbeatable. His win at The Genesis Invitational was his third PGA TOUR win in his last five starts, and fifth in his last eight starts on either the PGA TOUR or DP World Tour. In three starts since, he has two finishes outside the top 30 and a WD at THE PLAYERS.

He had four consecutive top-10s at the Masters until a T27 last year.

“At the end of the day, it's a golf course where you have to come out here and play good golf, right. It's plain and simple,” Rahm said. “There's no trick to it. The best player wins, and that's what you've got to do.”

If that’s the case, there’s a good chance one of these three players will be wearing a green jacket Sunday.

2. Wild weather forecast

The long shadows from the famous pines that so often stretch across the grounds of Augusta National will likely be missing from this year’s Masters Tournament.

Bobby Jones built Augusta National as an inland homage to the links courses he loved so much and this week the Masters will have the weather to boot. The Masters may look like an Open Championship for much of the week as rain, wind and cold air are expected to descend on Augusta, Georgia, just in time for competition.

“Oh, yeah, I've seen it,” Woods said with a laugh, acknowledging the effect the current forecast would have on his body.

Rain is predicted all four days, with thunderstorms in the forecast beginning Thursday afternoon. More than an inch is expected to fall Saturday. The weekend forecast looks rough, as the temperatures are also expected to plummet from the 80s to the 50s. Players also will face gusts up to 25 mph starting Friday and for the remainder of the week.

The Masters has not finished on a Monday since 1983, a four-decade streak it would surely love to keep alive. The smaller field increases the chances of finishing on time.

The consensus among players? The week and course will be long. Many are bracing for rain delays and soft conditions which should stretch the 7,545-yard course out even more.

“I don't think that you'll see guys go for as many of the par 5s as usually see,” said Patrick Cantlay, who is still in search of his first major championship. “Like if we play 13 or 15 with any type of rain, I doubt very many guys will go for those greens.”

That may put an even bigger premium on distance, but it also, like so many other major championships, may come down to who has the most patience.

“I think not forcing the issue all week will be really important,” Cantlay added, “… and not trying to take on more than you can when the conditions are less than ideal.”

The only reprieve from the dreary conditions could come Sunday. A round of morning showers are expected to open up to partly sunny skies and dry conditions in the afternoon, just in time for the leaders to take on the second nine at Augusta National.

3. The 13th hole is 35 yards longer

In pretty much every Masters Tournament you can remember, the strategy at the dogleg-left par-5 13th hole was fairly simple: Whip a 3-wood or driver around the tree line and hit anywhere from a mid-iron to a pitching wedge to the green.

Last year, the 13th gave up more eagles (6) and birdies (91) than bogeys (37), double bogeys (6) and others (4) combined. Playing to a 4.9 stroke average, it was the third-easiest hole.

That won’t be the case this year.

The 13th hole, Azalea, is 35 yards longer after Augusta National brought the tee back and raised it eight yards, utilizing land that until a few years ago belonged to Augusta Country Club. The result is a new-look, wraparound par-5 that will force players to make a tougher decision on whether to lay up or go for the green with a fairway wood or utility club.

“The days of me hitting a 3-wood and an 8-iron there are long gone,” Tiger Woods said.

In practice rounds, two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson and Scottie Scheffler, last year’s winner, had 3- and 4-irons left for second shots after drivers off the tee.

Several other players have taken extra time on the hole to consider their options.

“The second shot is much more challenging than it used to be,” said last year’s runner-up Rory McIlroy, who needs only to win the Masters to complete the career Grand Slam. “The tee shot is a little – there’s probably less thought that needs to go into the tee shot. You don’t need to do as much with it. You don’t need to turn it around the corner as much.

“But that second shot,” McIlroy continued, “I hit a really – I hit two tee shots there (Monday), and the second tee shot I took just a little further left, and had a 5-iron in, and, you know, that ball was a good, you know, 18 inches or two feet above you. It’s a big decision.”

4. Tiger is making rare start

Tiger Woods, who has five Masters titles among his record-tying 82 PGA TOUR victories, has teed it up only four times since the February 2021 car accident that did so much damage to his legs, especially the right one. He has played just once this season, finishing T45 at The Genesis Invitational in February, and played only three times last season, at the Masters (47th), PGA Championship (WD after the third round), and Open Championship (MC).

How will he do this week? Good question.

“He looks good,” said Rory McIlroy, who played a practice round with Woods, Fred Couples, and Tom Kim on Monday. “You know, if he didn’t have to walk up these hills and have all of that, I’d say he’d be one of the favorites. I mean, he’s got all of the shots.”

Added Couples, “He hit it really, really well. He pulled a couple drives. … Physically? You know, I don’t really ask him a lot. I think that’s not something when I text him or talk to him, really what our conversations are about. I think when he tells you I'm only going to play four events and Augusta is one of them, he’s ready to go, it’s probably not going to be easy.

“But I think he’ll be fine,” Couples added.

Woods, 47, said his game and stamina are improved since his Masters start last year, but his right leg hurts more now that he’s testing it more frequently. He walks with a limp and looks forward to joining PGA TOUR Champions in three years, when he’ll be allowed to take a golf cart.

With that in mind, he was asked how he finds joy in the game.

“It’s harder now,” he said. “I don’t play as many tournaments, and I don’t practice as much as I used to. I’m limited in what I can do. But the joy is different now. I’ve been able to spend more time with my son, and we’ve been able to create our own memories out there. And to share some of the things that my dad, what I experienced with my dad, the late-night putting or practice sessions that we did at the Navy Golf Course, I’m doing with my son.”

Whether Woods can find joy in contending this week will depend on his ball-striking and his ability to hold up as he makes one of the hilliest walks in golf. The forecast – temperatures are expected to dip into the 40s and 50s this weekend, with rain – may not be helpful, considering he faulted the cooler weather for having contributed to his 78-78 finish here last year. Woods is scheduled to tee off at 10:18 a.m. Thursday.

5. Best of the rest

Jordan Spieth and Augusta National. It’s one of golf’s more dynamic duos.

At just 29, the Texan has built a Masters legacy on his creativity and ingenuity amidst the loblolly pines (five top-threes, including a win in 2015, doesn’t hurt either).

Spieth typically draws ample pre-tournament headlines, and his pre-Masters form is solid, with two top-fives in his last four starts. But as storylines around Woods and the Scheffler-Rahm-McIlroy contingent take center stage, Spieth’s quest for a second green jacket flies slightly under the radar in the pre-tournament chatter.

Buzz and birdies have minimal correlation, though. Spieth’s most recent of three major titles came at The Open Championship in 2017. This week, in his 10th Masters appearance, he intends to contend for his fourth.

Other contenders of intrigue include Jason Day – seven straight top-20s into this week, with four career Masters top-10s – and Max Homa, who has risen to world No. 5 with five wins since February 2021.

Homa, whose best finish in three Masters starts is T48, is keying on improved chipping to make the difference this week.

“You can make a shot look easy around here, and then you can watch somebody, how I used to chip, and you would think it was the hardest shot you've ever seen,” said Homa. “Adding some short game, creating spin … that has helped me play a bit better in the majors last year.”

Like Homa, world No. 7 Xander Schauffele eyes his first major title. The seven-time TOUR winner and Olympic gold medalist has a runner-up and a third at Augusta, and he could be primed for that next step.

“Obviously I haven't gotten it done, but I think playing well on any golf course helps,” said Schauffele. “Especially this one.”

And then there’s long-hitting Vanderbilt sophomore Gordon Sargent, who has generated buzz around these grounds with his long drives. Sargent, the reigning NCAA champ, is the first amateur in more than two decades to get a special invitation to Augusta National. The tournament announced Wednesday that going forward, the NCAA Championship winner will earn a Masters invitation.