[Chris Francis]
Golf’s first major championship is less than two weeks away and the best are already honing their skills to make a run at The Masters green jacket. The top two players in the world, Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy are playing in Houston this week.
And depending on how they finish they could switch places in the world rankings before heading to Augusta National for The Masters. Right now Scheffler is #1 but his season got off to a slow start due to a hand injury suffered while cooking on Christmas Day. His game seems to be rounding into form but he doesn’t have a win in five starts this year. Wednesday, he talked about his state of mind and how he’s approaching the next 10 days.
“In the back of your mind at all times the majors are always kind of there the biggest tournaments for us are the majors and The Players and you know I think those, when you’re practicing and playing at home those are always the courses that kind of pop up into your head and so when you’re here with the Masters only being two weeks away I think it’s very easy for us to look ahead towards the Masters but I’m trying to do my best to focus on this week but like you said, playing on a similar type of grass in the fairways and hitting some similar shots like, this is a big golf course you got to hit some big tee balls and it definitely is good preparation for the tournament.”
Rory took it a step further. Coming off a win at The Players last week, his second win of the season, he took a detour to Augusta before heading to Houston. The famed course suffered heavy damage from Hurricane Helene in September of 2024. Hundreds of trees and powerlines were knocked down and nearby homes were destroyed. There aren’t many pictures of the private course itself, but Wednesday, McIlroy spoke to the Golf Channel about what he saw during his practice round and his motivation for visiting Augusta early.
“It’s always good to re-familiarize yourself with a place. It looks a little bit different in some areas just because they lost a lot of trees during the storm in the fall of last year. There’s four new greens. One, eight, fifteen and sixteen are new greens. They’re sort of a couple little subtle changes there. But more so just like, you know, getting your game plan. I think it’s nice to go up early so that when you’re there the week of the tournament you’re not under pressure to feel like you have to play 18 holes one day or you’re just not as rushed.”
In the aftermath of the storm, Fred Ridley, the Chairman of Augusta National, was quoted as saying the course suffered “a lot of damage” but in January gave an encouraging update to reporters during a tournament in Argentina.
“As far as the impact, the long-term impact, we have not quite as many trees as we did a year ago. As far as the golf course goes, it’s in spectacular condition.”
The tournament begins April 10th. Golfers in the field at Augusta typically take the week before the tournament off to prepare. That’s the case with the 2024 Masters champion Scheffler and the four-time major winner McIlroy, no matter how they finish in Houston.
And speaking of this week’s tournament, with two rounds in the books at the Texas Children’s Houston Open, Scheffler is the leader at 11 under after shooting a 62 on Friday. McIlroy has significant ground to make up in the final two rounds.
For Straight Arrow News, I’m Chris Francis
