TO ROAR
last 11 Masters have been secured by first-time major winners, and those two are in that category, as are a pair of others in the top 12 — Spain’s Jon Rahm and England’s Tommy Fleetwood.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Spieth was tabbed by oddsmakers as the 10-1 co-favorite with Woods.
Struggling with the usual strong point of his game — putting — Spieth finally found a more relaxed stroke last week in Houston, shot 66 in the final round and tied for third.
A three-time major winner at the age of 24, including the 2015 Masters, Spieth’s record in only four trips to Augusta is impressive: second, first, second, 11th.
“My iron play and off the tee has been fantastic, just like it was last year,” Spieth said. “It’s just been about finding the (putting) setup that I had for a couple of years, that I kind of got a little stiff and away from recently. So settling into the round will be important, but I feel like last week was a tremendous stepping stone in the right direction.”
The next three favorites are Johnson, McIlroy and Thomas. Only McIlroy, 28, has truly come close to a green jacket, blowing the lead on the back nine in 2011.
Johnson, 33, has long been considered a good fit for Augusta because of his length, but only in the last two years has he seemed to navigate the course well, with ties for sixth and fourth place.
Thomas, 24, last year’s FedEx Cup champion and winner of the PGA Championship, has played eight Masters rounds and hasn’t shot in the 60s yet. He has three scores of 76 or worse.
“I love this place so much. It’s a great, great golf course,” Thomas said. “It just requires a very strong mental week. You need to be mentally sharp. You need to not make stupid mistakes out there.”
Somewhat under the radar has been a player who already has two green jackets, Bubba Watson. That, in part, is because he disappeared from contention last season while dealing with an illness that he has not described in detail. He said he considered retiring.
Watson finished last year ranked 89th in the world, but has climbed all the way back to 19th with wins in the Genesis Open at Riviera and the Dell Technologies Match Play two weeks ago.
The last time he seized the Masters, in 2014, he also won at Riviera.
“I’ve been in a good frame of mind when I won,” Watson, 39, said.