The Masters duly delivers, again
All that we expected, and more, was had at augusta national
THE US Masters Tournament was duly won by Scottie Sheffler, who secured his second green jacket in three years with a comfortable four-shot triumph at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia.
And while the margin of victory was rather huge, it was anything but until coming down the home stretch on the back nine on Sunday.
Scheffler, well and truly the world’s number one player in golf, won his second major title with an 11-under 277 total.
In no small measure, the season’s first major delivered on its promise of dishing excitement. It did so in great abundance.
It was wrapped in all sorts of storylines, but perhaps none bigger than clearly illustrating that if the LIV Golf stars are missing, so too will there be a void left in golf’s grand slam events
– the four majors.
Tiger Woods played all four rounds at Augusta National, setting a new benchmark of 24 consecutive cuts made at the fabled course.
Yet his performance left no one in doubt – at least those honest enough to admit it – that his days are over and have been for some time now.
Tiger’s talk in front of television cameras of “winning another one” rang hollow, more so when he finished dead last of those who made the cut and was 16-over-par at the end of it all.
His 10-over 82 in the third round didn’t help matters.
Former European Tour No. 1, Scotsman Colin Montgomerie, bluntly put it to the 15-time major winner that he should just walk away peacefully and silently from the sport that he did so much to popularise with his emergence at this very tournament in 1997, and all that followed it.
It’s true that unless Woods’ injured leg, in the 2021 car accident, heals more and sufficiently to get him around the course more often, he will just bring further embarrassment to his once revered game.
Woods, though, did indicate after Augusta National that he
would be at this season’s three other majors: the PGA Championship next month, the US Open in June and the British Open in July.
Sweden’s Ludvig Aberg did himself, his country and the game of golf proud with his runner-up finish. For that he was handsomely rewarded with a Us$2,1mil cehque.
Rory Mcilroy’s 10th straight tilt at the title, which would give him a career slam, ended in absolute despair yet again.
The Northerm Irishman could only manage a four-over total, an effort that left him outside the top-20.
The first two days had Bryson Dechambeau in the lead, or a share of the lead. This rallied the fans of LIV Golf, who had to be content with him finishing in a tie for sixth place.
It was a reasonably good showing in the end by the 2020 US Open champion.
It also left LIV Golf with four players in the top 12 – those who automatically earned an invitation to next year’s Masters.
Cameron Smith, tied for sixth place – like Dechambeau on two-under-par – Tyrrell Hatton, who was even-par for the tournament in a tie for ninth – and 2018 Masters champion
Patrick Reed, joint 12th on oneover, were the LIV players who earned their stripes on merit.
The showings of Collin Morikawa, Tommy Fleetwood and Max Homa, all in a tie for third place on four-under, weighed in on the discussion of those who had a chance of snatching the title before Scheffler strode away for the win at the end.
The fact that the viewership for last Sunday’s final round was down by 20% will have left the hierarchy of Augusta National and the American game as a whole, perturbed.
Indeed, the opening major championship of the year, widely considered the sport’s flagship event in the United States, has not been alone in dwindling television viewership, clearly affected by the growing popularity of LIV Golf.
It was reported earlier that “if you look at the TV ratings of the PGA Tour this year, they’re down 20% across the board”.
And it came out after the Masters that the final round of the Waste Management Phoenix Open in February was down by 35%, the Arnold Palmer Invitational last month fell by 30%, and the Players Championship, also last month, was 15% worse off.
Quite rightly, it has been attributed to the rivalry between the US PGA Tour and LIV Golf. And has in turn brought the spotlight back on the official golf world ranking system, one which sadly continues to deny LIV Golf points.
Spain’s Jon Rahm, the biggest star to recently join the Saudisponsored circuit, saw his defence of the title at Augusta Natioal whittle away with a nine-over finish in a tie for 45th.
For some of the sport’s other big stars, it didn’t turn out much better, as a they failed to make the halfway cut.
Among those who missed the weekend were 2015 Masters champion Jordan Spieth, twotime major winner Justin Thomas, reigning Fedex Cup champion Viktor Hovland, 2023 US Open champion Wyndham Clark, 2023 British Open champion Brian Harman, multiple Tour winner Sam Burns, LIV’S two-time major winner Dustin Johnson and reigning PGA Championship winner Brooks Koepka.
Two other LIV players, Joaquin Niemann, who received a special invitation from Augusta National, and threetime Masters champion Phil Mickelson, managed to make the cut and picked a few world ranking points at it.
The Masters Tournament also gave some of the players the chance to renew friendships on and off the course. And this was especially true for Johnson and Homa. And the latter said later he “missed” being around LIV’S two-time major champion.
On the eve of the Masters, Scheffler said he likewise missed regularly playing against all the world’s best players and mentioned Rahm in particular.
Well, the Texas-based star got his wsh and used it well – to win another green jacket – and he can now look forward to the PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky, from May 13 to 19.