Magnolia Lane. Amen corner. Raes Creek. The butler hut. Hello again, old friends, it’s been way too long. It took us 19 months to get back, but the long wait is finally over. It’s the 2020 Masters tournament! A bright ray of sunshine at the end of a long dark year. We deserve it.
Metaphor is all well and good, but indeed Sunshine is not guaranteed. The 84th edition of the Masters will take place for the first time in November. While autumn temperatures are unlikely to be much different from spring, rain is forecast. This means that the course is played even longer than the 7,475 meters on the map – no wonder Bryson and DJ are favorites – although, as former champion Jordan Spieth pointed out, if you can “throw a few arrows” in softer conditions, “Could it be someone who wins”.
We will miss the guests badly. Especially on Sunday, when experienced Masters viewers can unpack every roar and crackle to decipher exactly who did what and where. All those allspice and cheese sandwiches that were never made. No pitchers of iced tea were poured. No one to see Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus take the grand opening drives. Bah.
But let’s take a look at the good side! We will see the course in a whole new light. More autumn leaves, fewer spring azaleas, yes. But the organizers also use lookout points where visitors normally move and show us new angles, views and perspectives. The lack of a gallery can also encourage the bigger minds and more creative thinkers to take advantage of parts of the course that are usually best avoided. Let’s see what DeChambeau does to start with at 13. Oh, and it all means we’ll get two Masters tournaments in five months. Every cloud.
Will the new US Open champion continue to redefine golf by booming and making its way to green jacket fame? Dustin Johnson, Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas, and Rory McIlroy will all have similar plans. Brooks Koepka rediscovered a shape just in time last weekend. Xander Schauffele, Patrick Cantlay, Hideki Matsuyama, Tony Finau and Tyrrell Hatton look good for a maiden major. PGA Champion Collin Morikawa or Tour Rookie of the Year Scottie Scheffler could be the first player since Fuzzy Zoeller to win the debut. Bubba Watson is in good shape and knows exactly how to get the job done here. And then there is something else
Maude
We could go on. Spieth to end a three year drought in a place he loves? Phil the Thrill, to become the oldest big winner of all time? Rickie Fowler, Paul Casey or Lee Westwood to finally get the justification for a big championship? Yes, we could moan forever, but you get the point. Start times – split tees for the first two rounds to ensure daylight doesn’t go out in November – are given below. But just in case your juices aren’t flowing yet …
It’s on!
TEE TIMES
(USA, unless otherwise stated, all local times, -5 hours from GMT, -a- denotes amateurs)
From 1
0700 Lucas Glover, Corey Conners (can), Cheng-Tsung Pan (Tai)
0711 Brandt Snedeker, Charles Howell III, Jazz Janewattananond (Tha)
0722 Larry Mize, Andrew Landry, Lukas Michel (Aus)
0733 Matt Kuchar, Lee Westwood, Kevin Na
0744 Xander Schauffele, Jason Kokrak, Henrik Stenson (Swe)
0755 Charl Schwartzel (Rsa), Jason Day (Aus), -a- Abel Gallegos (Arg)
0806 Vijay Singh (Fiji), Lanto Griffin, Tyler Duncan
0817 Mike Weir (Can), Rafael Cabrera-Bello (Spa), Matt Wallace
1105 Sung Kang (Kor), Erik Van Rooyen (Rsa)
1116 Danny Willett, Rickie Fowler, -a John Augenstein
1127 Phil Mickelson, Abraham Ancer (Mex), Bernd Wiesberger (Aut)
1138 Adam Scott (Aus), Collin Morikawa, Tyrrell Hatton
1149 Justin Thomas, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Brooks Koepka
1200 Dustin Johnson, Patrick Cantlay and Rory McIlroy
1211 Zach Johnson, Justin Rose, Cameron Champ
1222 Victor Perez (Fra), Sungjae Im (Kor), Brendon Todd
Starting at 10 o’clock
0700 Sandy Lyle, Jimmy Walker, Yuxin Lin -a- (Chn)
0711 Webb Simpson, Marc Leishman (Aus), Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn)
0722 Kevin Kisner, Adam Hadwin (Can), Scottie Scheffler
0733 Jon Rahm (Spa), Bryson DeChambeau and Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa)
0744 Patrick Reed, Paul Casey and Tony Finau
0755 Tiger Woods, Shane Lowry, Andy Ogletree
0806 Jordan Spieth, Gary Woodland and Ian Poulter
0817 Graeme McDowell, Nate Lashley and Si Woo Kim (Kor)
1105 Justin Harding (Rsa), Shugo Imahira (Jpn), Nick Taylor (Can)
1116 Chez Reavie, Sebastian Munoz (Colonel), Byeong-Hun An (Kor)
1127 Bubba Watson, Matthew Wolff, Tommy Fleetwood
1138 Francesco Molinari (Ita), Billy Horschel, Cameron Smith (Aus)
1149 Bernhard Langer, JT Poston, Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa)
1200 Fred Couples, Max Homa, Dylan Frittelli (Rsa)
1211 Jose-Maria Olazabal (Spa), Andrew Putnam, -a- James Sugrue
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