It's time for the Masters
The dogwoods, the magnolias, and the azaleas are now in full bloom in South Carolina. That can only mean that it's time for the 88th edition of the Masters golf tournament. The best golfers in the world tee it up in just 11 days to determine who gets to don the green jacket on Sunday evening as well as cement their place in golf's history books. The Masters is the first of the game's major championships of 2024 to be followed next month by the PGA Championship, then the United States Open over Father's Day weekend in June, with the concluding major taking place in July with the playing of the British Open.
Spaniard Jon Rahm returns to defend his title at this year's Masters. When we last saw Rahm over the course of golf's minimal off-season he was wearing a letterman's jacket showing his new direction in golf, mainly as a member of the Saudi Arabian backed LIV Golf Tour. While all things LIV Golf are super secretive, it has been rumored that Rahm got a signing bonus somewhere in the neighborhood of one half billion dollars to leave the DP World (European) Tour as well as the PGA Tour to join the limited field, 54 hole individual and team play circuit. A two time major winner with a U.S. Open trophy on his mantle as well, the 29 year old Rahm is a former number one ranked golfer according to the Official World Golf Rankings. Although Rahm has 11 wins on the PGA Tour to go along with eight wins on the European Tour, he obviously didn't want to pass up the safe money he was guaranteed by LIV Golf. He has also been quoted as saying that he liked the team aspect of his new tour.
Augusta National Golf Club is the only major championship site to host the same major championship each and every year. The other three majors rotate among a collection of outstanding courses of note as well as historic venues. The course was the brainchild of amateur great Bobby Jones and he convinced one of the era's great architects, Alister Mackenzie (Pasatiempo, Cypress Point, Crystal Downs), to design his dream course. The Masters is different from the other three majors in that it is a pure invitational tournament. The Augusta National folks “invite” past Masters champions, grand slam winners of the past five years, recent winners on the PGA Tour, the top 50 golfers as determined by the world rankings, and a handful of amateurs who are recent winners of events such as the U.S. Amateur and the British Amateur.
Augusta National is noted for its diabolically difficult putting surfaces and yet it would be incorrect to say that only great putters can win at the Masters such as Ben Crenshaw or George Archer. After all, there was nothing special about the putting strokes of Vijay Singh or two time Masters' titlist Bernhard Langer, yet they have green jackets in their closets as well. It has oftentimes been stated that power players have a better chance of securing a green jacket as in the case of Sam Snead, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and Tiger Woods. Yet