World’s best at their best for Masters
Field could make 80th tournament special
The 1975 Masters Tournament, with Jack Nicklaus outdueling Johnny Miller and Tom Weiskopf, generally is considered to be the greatest Masters ever played and one of the most riveting major championships of the modern era.
The 1986 Masters, with Nicklaus winning his sixth green jacket at 46, is the sentimental favorite of many. Then there was Tiger Woods’ seminal triumph in ’97, the biggest gamechanger since Arnold Palmer brought golf to the masses.
They were memorable dramas played out at the Augusta National Golf Club, which is to golf what La Scala is to opera and the Louvre to art.
And the 80th Masters this week could top them all.
Seldom have the top 10 or 12 players in the world converged on Augusta, Ga., in peak or near-peak form, which is the case this year.
Australian Jason Day, ranked
Houston — North Carolina’s latest step on the way to a title was shaping up as strictly an inside job.
Out of nowhere, Marcus Paige figured out how to hit from threepoint land and the Tar Heels put an end to any hopes of another Syracuse comeback.
Using layups, floaters and putbacks — then, finally, three very timely threes from Paige — the Tar Heels outmuscled Syracuse, 83-66,
VILLANOVA 95, OKLAHOMA 51
The Wildcats set a record for margin of victory in a Final Four semifinal and held Oklahoma star Buddy Hield to his second-lowest output of the season in a rout over the Sooners. Coverage, 4B
on Saturday to move a win away from the program’s sixth national title.
Paige finished with 13 points and Brice Johnson and Justin Jackson led North Carolina (33-6) with 16 apiece, as the Tar Heels, the lone No. 1 seed in the Final Four, beat Jim Boeheim’s 10th-seeded Orange for the third time this season and advanced to Monday’s title game against Villanova.
Earlier, the Wildcats made 11 of 18 shots from behind the three-point line in a 95-51 win over Oklahoma to debunk the theory that nobody could shoot in Houston’s cavernous stadium.
Then, the Tar Heels, ranked 284th in the country this season from long range, reversed that onegame trend. They bricked up three after three, going 0 for 10 in the first half and barely drawing iron on some of them. Paige opened the second half with North Carolina’s 11th straight miss, and for the next 10 minutes, the Tar Heels basically ignored the three-point line.
Only when Trevor Cooney and Malachi Richardson triggered a 10-0 Syracuse run to trim a 17-point
No. 1, broke through for his first major title in August when he won the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits. He has 10 top-10 finishes in his last 15 starts and won back-to-back tournaments in the Masters lead-up.
“Is this the modern Ben Hogan?” three-time Masters champion Nick Faldo asked. “If you want to score things 1 to 10 and 10 is perfect — and there’s no such thing as perfect in golf — then you’ve got to be giving him high 9s in every department in the game.”
Jordan Spieth, the defending Masters champion and ranked No. 2 in the world, won the Tournament of Champions by eight shots in January and, other than one missed cut, has finished no worse than 21st this year. He is trying to become just the fourth golfer to win the Masters in back-to-back years.
“The idea that he could be the fourth, and to have done it at 22 years of age, is mindboggling,” said Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee.
World No. 3 Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland is flying a bit beneath the radar even though a Masters victory would make him just the sixth golfer to achieve the modern Grand Slam.
“For some reason it’s not getting a lot of discussion, and that is a good thing for Rory’s chances,” said Jim Nantz of CBS Sports. “I think it really helps him that this is not center focus at the moment. In recent weeks Rory has been very close to getting his game back in peak form.”
Bubba Watson, No. 4, won the Masters in 2012 and 2014 and is a winner on tour this year. Augusta National is tailor-made for the lefthander’s power fade and his creative shot-making. Another former Masters champion, sixth-ranked Adam Scott, won in back-to-back weeks earlier this year.
Rickie Fowler, Henrik Stenson, Justin Rose, Dustin Johnson and Patrick Reed, who round out the top 10 in the Official World Golf Ranking, have combined for 14 top-10 finishes since midJanuary.
Then there’s 45-year-old Phil Mickelson, ranked 20th in the world but re-energized and playing well. Lefty gets pumped the moment he drives down Magnolia Lane and should he win, he would join Nicklaus (six), Palmer (four) and Woods (four) as the only men with four or more Masters titles.
Woods hasn’t played in a tournament since undergoing a third back procedure late last year and announced on his website Friday that he is not far
What: 80th Masters Tournament, the first of four annual major championships in golf. When: Thursday through next Sunday. Where: Augusta National Golf Club, Augusta, Ga. Television: Sunday — 8 a.m.-noon, Drive, Chip & Putt National Finals, Golf Channel. Wednesday — 2-4 p.m., Par-3 Contest, ESPN. Thursday and Friday — 2-6:30 p.m., ESPN. Saturday — 2-6:30 p.m., CBS. Next Sunday — 1-6 p.m., CBS.
Internet and social media:
Field: About 90 golfers are expected to tee it up Thursday, which would be the smallest Masters field since 2006. The only Wisconsin golfer is amateur Sammy Schmitz of River Falls, who earned his invitation by winning the 2015 U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship.
Last year: Jordan Spieth, 21, opened with a 64 and went on to tie the Masters 72-hole scoring record of 18-under-par 270. He made a tournament-record 28 birdies and beat runners-up Phil Mickelson and Justin Rose by four shots. Spieth hit 54 of 72 greens in regulation (75%) and needed just 108 putts (27 per round). enough along in his recovery to compete in the Masters.
Even so, this Masters could be one for the ages. Imagine sitting in front of your big-screen HD TV next Sunday afternoon and watching Day, Spieth, McIlroy, Watson and Mickelson going toe-to-toe and shot-forshot on the back nine at Augusta National.
Of course, Charl Schwartzel could win by five shots.
But let’s not spoil the mood.
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