No one face of golf right now — no one age, either
DORAL, Fla. — The takeaway from the World Golf Championships event here is that the Masters cannot start soon enough. Can we press the pause button and freeze the PGA Tour until April 7, the opening round of the Masters?
The first few months of the wraparound season have seen so many players assert themselves, the lead pack is more of a scrum as golf rounds the final curve toward Augusta National. The defending Masters champion, Jordan Spieth; Justin Thomas; and Hideki Matsuyama have claimed victories for millennials, and another, Rickie Fowler, has four top-eight finishes in five PGA Tour starts in 2016 and a win on the European Tour.
The last few weeks of the wraparound season have seen so many former Masters champions assert themselves, it is hard to settle on one pretournament favorite. Three times in the past five years, Bubba Watson has finished second at the World Golf Championships event at Trump National Doral. The first two times, he went on to win the Masters.
Watson, 37, whose runner-up finish Sunday came on the heels of a victory at the Tour stop outside Los Angeles two weeks ago, should be the prohibitive favorite at Augusta National, according to Adam Scott, the winner at Doral.
“It just sets up so good there for him,” said Scott, the 2013 Masters champion.
He added, “I’m not trying to put the pressure on Bubba, but he’s obviously playing fantastic.”
Scott, 35, also is in top form, with two victories and a second in his past three starts.
“I’d love to just bottle up where my game’s been the last couple weeks,” he said.
On Sunday at the Blue Monster course, Scott was paired with Phil Mickelson, who is experiencing a career renaissance at age 45. He has three topfive finishes in six starts in 2016, and in each of his tournament appearances he has posted at least one sub-70 round.
Mickelson has described every round as a “steppingstone” for the Masters, which he has won three times, always in even-numbered years: 2004, 2006 and 2010.
“It’s fun because I know that when I show up, I’m going to play well,” said Mickelson, who switched coaches after last season, leaving his longtime instructor, Butch Harmon, to begin working with the Arizona-based Andrew Getson.
“I know I’m going to hit it well. I know the swing is going to be there,” Mickelson said. “It’s just a very enjoyable experience, and I know I’m going to be in contention and have a chance. The game is starting to feel easy again. The challenge for me is to be patient because I want instant gratification, instant results, and I’ve got to be patient and just kind of let it keep building.”
The tournament opened with Spieth, Jason Day and Rory McIlroy grouped together, placing the spotlight squarely on the roaring 20s generation, and ended with Scott and Mickelson proving that there is still room at or near the top for guile and experience. The bookend groupings encapsulated the sport’s wide world of stars.
In his post-victory news conference, Scott was asked about his shot out of a greenside bunker on the par-4 16th, which he found with his tee shot. He shanked the ball and it nearly found another bunker. He survived to laugh about it, getting up and down from thick grass to salvage par.
“I was so embarrassed to do that playing with Phil Mickelson,” Scott said. “I mean, he would be lipping it out or holing it.”
He added: “It shocked me a bit. I just tried to be too fancy and probably showing off in front of Phil a little bit. I wish I could tell you I had a bad lie or it was a hard shot. It wasn’t any of it. It was just a complete error.”
Before Day, Scott was the young upstart of Australian golf. At 23, he won the Players Championship, considered a notch below a major title. It took him nine more years to win a major. Viewed through the prism of experience, he can better understand why.
“Ten years ago, I didn’t know how to think or to think it’s a hard course, everyone’s going to have their struggles today,” Scott said. “I probably thought, oh, it had to be so perfect and if it wasn’t, you didn’t have a chance and I didn’t manage my mind or my game well.”
The men’s game is an intriguing mix of young stars who expect to overpower every par 5 or make every putt and older stars adept at managing their emotions and their games. Every week provides proof that the oneman show starring Tiger Woods has given way to an ensemble cast.
Twice in his past three starts, McIlroy, 26, has lost after holding at least a share of the lead during the final round. Two weeks ago at Riviera Country Club, he closed with a 75. He carded a 74 on Sunday.
It would be unwise to read too much into McIlroy’s final-round fades. On a hard course like Augusta, McIlroy will manage his focus and his game much better.