Moore searches for more
Former UNLV star hoping to improve on his Masters play
Ryan Moore, a five-time PGA Tour champion, doesn’t know specifically what he needs to do to win his first Masters. But the former UNLV standout has an idea on how to improve on his career-best ninth-place finish of a year ago.
The tournament starts on Thursday at historic Augusta (Georgia) National Golf Club.
“If I had won here already maybe I would know what to tell you about what I need to do to win here,” Moore said in a phone interview on Monday. “I have to do everything well through the bag, including driving the ball well. But I would say the thing that needs to be more elevated for me than I’ve done historically here is my iron play.
“I need to give myself better birdie chances when hitting a 6- or 7-iron into the green on the par 4s, which I have to hit a lot here. Giving myself more opportunities is probably what needs to happen to have a chance to win.”
Moore played at UNLV from 2001-2005 and won the NCAA individual title in 2004. He capped his Rebel career at the 2005 Masters when he finished 13th and was low amateur.
Moore is making his ninth Masters appearance and spent Monday playing a practice round by himself, just ahead of Tiger Woods.
Last year, Moore, 35, shot rounds of 69 on Friday and Saturday and was tied for fourth with Jordan Spieth and fellow Rebel alum Charley Hoffman entering the final round, two shots behind eventual champion Sergio Garcia. Moore and Hoffman played together on Sunday.
The two were also paired together two weeks ago during the first two rounds of the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill in Florida and then played together again on Sunday. Moore finished tied for fifth and Hoffman finished tied for 14th at the Palmer so both players are showing good form.
“It was a great pairing
(in Augusta) last year,” said Moore, who is listed at 100-1 odds to win the Masters by Westgate Superbook. Hoffman and former Rebel Adam Scott are 60-1.
“At Bay Hill, we were joking around saying, ‘Man, we have been playing together a lot,’ ” Moore recalled. “I enjoy playing with him and it was great having a fellow UNLV guy there with me. We were one of the last couple groups and that is where you want to be on Sunday at the Masters.”
Moore shot 74 in last year’s final round while Hoffman shot 78 and faded to a 22nd-place finish. Scott was in the group ahead of Hoffman and Moore on Sunday and shot 73 to finish tied with Moore in ninth.
Moore said he is comfortable with his swing and spent his Monday practice round getting refamiliarized with Augusta’s nuances and fine-tuning the swing thoughts he has worked on with Drew Steckel, his swing coach for the past year. Steckel is relocating from Los Angeles to Las Vegas and will be working out of Southern Highlands Golf Club, where Moore is a member.
Moore is also healthy and has worked extensively with Brian Chandler of Elevate Fitness in Henderson.
He will also have newer clubs in his bag this week. In 2015, Moore was the first player on the PGA Tour to use the PXG line of clubs that were created by GoDaddy.com founder Bob Parsons. Moore put the PXG Gen2 clubs that aren’t available to the public until later this month in play about two months ago.
Freelance writer Brian Hurlburt is a two-time author who has covered golf in Las Vegas for more than two decades. He can be reached at bhurlburt5@ gmail.com or @Lvgolfinsider.