Scottie Scheffler reacts to missing a birdie putt on the 18th hole of The Players Championship. Photo: photosport
World number one Scottie Scheffler comes into this week's Masters as a unifying force in a divided golf world, playing the type of game that has grabbed the attention of fans everywhere.
As the PGA Tour and the Saudi-backed LIV circuit try to iron out an agreement, the reality that fans are the big losers in their feud is sinking in. The majors have always attracted elite fields but the buzz around this Masters has been dialled up several notches with most of the world's top players set to go toe-to-toe for the first time since the British Open last July.
"It's going to be great to see all these great players together," said twice major winner and broadcaster Andy North.
"That's what we want to see as fans and as broadcasters, to be able to get the best against the best.
"To get (Jon) Rahm and (Brooks) Koepka and these guys here to play on the same golf course at the same time as everybody else, I think is really important for our game."
Lured to the breakaway circuit by huge pay-days, LIV headliners Rahm, Koepka and others poached from the PGA Tour have been happily counting their money but largely out of the golfing spotlight.
With those big-name departures the PGA Tour has lost currency, seriously diminishing its product but now a golfer of some consequence is starting to emerge from the chaos.
Scheffler is not an unknown commodity. He has won a major and seven other PGA Tour titles, including two this season.
The 27-year-old American is a modest man - when he won the 2022 Masters he said his big splurge was a hot tub - but he is widely seen as the best golfer on the planet by a mile, even by world number two Rory McIlroy.
Statistically, he has entered Tiger Woods territory.
McIlroy said at the end of last year that Scheffler was having perhaps the best ball-striking season of all time, which would top Woods's 2000 campaign.
Favourite for the green jacket
This season he is posting even better results.
Of the eight PGA Tour events Scheffler has entered this year he has finished no worse than 10th in all but one.
With back-to-back wins at the Arnold Palmer and Players championship and a runner-up finish at the Houston Open, Scheffler is the hot favourite to slip into the Green Jacket on Sunday.
If Scheffler does become the first to successfully defend his Masters crown since Woods in 2002 he could become the marquee golfer the sport needs as it navigates the LIV Golf and PGA Tour storm.
When play begins on Thursday, Scheffler will be the focus of attention but as always there are others at Augusta National who will grab the galleries' attention.
Rahm won the Masters last year as a member of the PGA Tour but returns to defend the Green Jacket as an employee of LIV Golf.
Photo: PHOTOSPORT
The Spaniard is among 13 LIV golfers in the field which includes Koepka and evergreen Phil Mickelson, who finished runner-up at last year's Masters.
Woods maintains he never enters an event if he does not believe he can win but even he would have to view his chances of a sixth Green Jacket as a long shot.
The 15-times major winner has never missed the cut at the Masters as a professional but that run of 23 consecutive cuts made could be in danger.
The 48-year-old has made one PGA Tour start this year and that lasted just 24 holes.
Willing himself around Augusta's rolling layout for 72 holes may be too much to ask of Woods's battered back and leg.
McIlroy, who yearns to complete the career Grand Slam, has declared his love for Augusta but the Masters has never returned his affection.
It has been a decade since the hugely popular Northern Irishman's last major win and there have been heartbreaking near misses at the Masters, such as in 2011 when he began the final round with a four-shot lead only to suffer a harrowing back-nine collapse.
Five Masters' storylines
Rahm, who dealt a stunning blow to the PGA Tour when he joined LIV Golf eight months after winning the 2023 Masters, returns to Augusta National looking to become only the fourth player to retain a Masters title.
Rahm entered the final round last year trailing 54-hole leader Brooks Koepka of LIV Golf by two shots but fired a three-under-par 69 that gave him a four-shot victory.
No player has won the Masters in consecutive years since Tiger Woods in 2001-02 and before that only Nick Faldo (1989-90) and Jack Nicklaus (1965-66) have pulled off the Augusta double.
Enduring frustration for McIlroy
McIlroy has a chance this week to complete the career Grand Slam of winning golf's four major championships but will need to overcome an Augusta National layout that has been the site of several frustrating moments for the Northern Irishman.
Rory McIlroy at the 2022 PGA Tour Championship in Atlanta, Georgia. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
McIlroy has been in contention several times at the Masters but seems to be hampered by one poor round each week, most memorably in 2011 when he began the final round with a four-shot lead but endured a harrowing back-nine collapse.
For McIlroy, who missed the cut at last year's Masters, a win would put him in elite company with Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tiger Woods as the only players to achieve the career Grand Slam.
Liv Tour players
A year after LIV Golf standard bearers Koepka and evergreen Phil Mickelson finished runner-up at the Masters, the field for the year's first major will feature 13 players from the Saudi-backed circuit, including reigning champion Rahm.
In addition to Rahm, the group of LIV players at the Masters also includes past champions Mickelson (2004, 2006, 2010), Charl Schwartzel (2011), Bubba Watson (2012, 2014), Sergio Garcia (2017), Patrick Reed (2018) and Dustin Johnson (2020).
Additionally, Joaquin Niemann, who has collected two LIV Golf individual titles this season, reigning PGA Championship winner Koepka, Cameron Smith, Bryson DeChambeau, Tyrrell Hatton and Adrian Meronk will be at the year's first major.
Red-hot Scheffler
Scheffler arrives at the Masters as the odds-on favorite to slip into the Green Jacket given to the tournament's winner given his stellar play this year which has solidified his position as one of the game's premier players.
Scheffler followed a five-shot victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational by becoming the first player to successfully defend at the Players Championship and then missed a five-foot putt that would have forced a playoff at the Houston Open.
Despite falling short in his bid to become the first player since Dustin Johnson in 2017 to win three consecutive PGA Tour starts, world number one Scheffler will be full of confidence on an Augusta National layout where he triumphed in 2022.
Challenge for Woods
Tiger Woods defied the odds at the 2019 Masters when he returned from spinal fusion surgery to win a fifth Green Jacket and now the 48-year-old, whose only PGA Tour start this year lasted 24 holes, will try to push the envelope even further.
Tiger Woods receives the Masters green jacket from 1996 Masters champion Nick Faldo after Woods won the 1997 tournament. Photo: AFP
Woods, in his only PGA Tour start since last year's Masters where he withdrew before completing the third round because of plantar fasciitis, played at Riviera in mid-February before a bout of the flu forced him to call it quits in the second round.
The 15-times major winner has never missed the cut at the Masters as a professional and this week is seeking a tournament record 24th consecutive made cut after tying Gary Player and Fred Couples last year.
- Reuters